Alaska Trip Summary Thoughts and Figures

Tonight we are at our home in Tatlayoko. We've been (mostly) home since Invictus tied up in Bella Coola at around noon on September 13th. We apologize for the length of this late blog post. We thought readers might be interested in a trip summary.

It's nice to be home but we both agree we could have spent another month cruising. Reality dictates otherwise: after an entire summer away from home there was a long list of pressing items, most important of which was Mom's funeral, held on September 25th on Vancouver Island, and not least of which is getting in our winter supply of firewood and hay. We feel like we have now mostly caught up, to the extent that is possible, on the more pressing items.

Trip Overview and Statistics

In our July 7th blog post we listed a few 'statistics' of our trip to that point. This post follows up on that with a 'final report' of sorts covering some facts and numbers that you may find interesting.

Below you will see numbers such as fuel efficiency and trip costs. But we'll answer other questions too, such as how far did we travel? How long were we gone? What was the weather like? Did we have any close calls with the boat or predatory wildlife? Are Alaskans friendly? Did we forget anything? What about boo-boos? How did we know which way to go and where to anchor each night? Did HRH Oblio enjoy himself? How did we get along in confined quarters without a break for so long? And especially, would we do it again? 

We start by answering the last question first. We would absolutely cruise to southeast Alaska again. We have planned and dreamed of this trip since we bought Invictus in 2010. We are so glad we finally did it. It was memorable in so many ways, too many to cover in a blog post. And we only saw a small fraction of what's there!

A word about the scale of southeast Alaska's landscape and seascape - it is a very big place. Google tells us the entire Alaska coastline is 75,000 km long, and southeast Alaska's share of that is 30,500 km. By comparison, Google says the British Columbia coastline, which is also very grand, is 25,700 km. The mountains are impressive; in places they rise beyond 10,000' with their bases at sea level. The glaciers are huge and their scale is deceptive; you have to get up close to realize how big they really are.

Mt Orville in Johns Hopkins Inlet, Glacier Bay Nat'l Park - 3199 meters or 10,495'

Number units below are Canadian $'s, imperial gallons, degrees Celsius, distance units are as indicated.

Trip Preparation and Duration

• We spent about 4 weeks doing trip prep starting in April and the first week of June. Preparing Invictus included replacing all the windows, painting the hull topsides, replacing the rub rails, repairing minor items, and provisioning.
  
  

  

  Roma painting the first coat of primer.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Preparations complete, we left home on June 8 and returned on September 14, which is 88 days.
• We stayed in 73 different places.
• We stayed in 21 harbours for 33 nights.
• We stayed on the hook (at anchor) in 41 places for 55 nights.
• We took 4,466 photos and videos equalling 447.91 GB. You may want to turn down an invitation to our planned slide show.
  

 Costs and Financials

We tracked trip costs using Quickbooks so it's easy to determine the costs of each expense category. Using the Quickbooks data combined with numbers from our log book we can extrapolate other interesting numbers.

• Fuel and distances:
• Total fuel cost - $5,324
• Distance travelled - 2,685 nautical miles or 3,088 statute miles or 4,970 kilometres
• Hours of cruising - 353.4
• Rate of fuel consumption including generator and diesel heater:
  
• Our average speed was 7.6 nautical miles per hour (8.75 statute miles per hour)
• We ran our generator for 91.1 hours at ~1 litre per hour
•  Average fuel burn was 1.87 gallons per hour
•  This equals 4.06 nautical miles per gallon, which is considered very efficient for a power boat.
  
  
• Moorage and shore power
  
  
• Total moorage and power costs were $1,253 for an average of $38 per night.
• Some public docks were free but they did not provide power or water.  But as a rare example, Elfin Cove, provided free moorage, potable water, and power.
  
• The highest cost for moorage + power was in Prince Rupert at $78.65 (and this was negotiated down from $98). 
• Highest charge for shore power was $35/night. Needless to say we did not plug in at that price.The beauty of plugging into shore power, which usually costs between $14 to $21 per night, is that you can use as much power as you want, up to the 30 amp service limit. This means we can run 120V appliances such as the microwave, water heater, toaster, Starlink and coffee roaster. We are able to use those items while underway or when using the generator, but it can be complicated and a bit too much intel to add here.
  
  
• Maintenance and repairs 
• Total maintenance and repairs: $1,324.
• The biggest expense was a new raw water pump for our generator at approximately $1,094.00. Ouch!
• The rest was things like oil and filter changes, miscellaneous hardware, and a new smoke/CO alarm.

Maintenance: setting the valve lash on the main engine.

• We spent $556 on fishing expenses such as licenses and permits, a new spinning rod and line, tackle and bait.

Coho salmon

Pacific cod

• Did we eat well? Roma loves cooking so we ate like kings!
  

Baking while underway.

• We spent $569 on gifts.
  
• Meals at restaurants, liquor, groceries, and miscellaneous costs were $4,254. A big chunk of that was meals at restaurants. We found restaurant prices to be equivalent or slightly higher dollar for dollar than in BC. But then we have to add nearly 40% exchange making a meal out quite pricey.
  
• We spent $240 on incremental costs for Internet and phone. Most of this was the additional cost for Starlink roaming Internet access.
  

Total trip costs were $14,138. Of this amount $10,128 was incremental, or in other words over and above our normal expenses if we had just stayed home. In our view that's a reasonable cost for a holiday of this quality, especially when considering the length of time we were gone x two people. In comparison, we used to vacation in Mexico and expected that a ten day trip for two would cost around $6000. Of course, this does not include the cost of boat ownership!

Food, fuel, liquor, restaurants, etc, were more expensive than we had anticipated. They were as high or higher, dollar for dollar, than in Canada. The exchange rate was high too, averaging around 40%. As a result, the US$ costs plus the exchange rate pushed our trip costs beyond the original budget.

• The Dog's Adventure - Did HRH Oblio enjoy himself? Yes! Oblio adapted well to life aboard. But despite our best efforts to teach him otherwise, he refuses to use a 'potty patch' for his 'business'. This meant that I rowed him to the beach in our dinghy 133 times. Yes, I kept track. And that does not include numerous trips walking him to shore when we were tied up in a harbour. I had mixed feelings about this chore. It wasn't much fun in the wind, rain, dark and cold. But on the other hand, it was fun in good conditions and it was a great excuse to go to shore, take the camera and see some pretty cool stuff that would otherwise be missed.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Oblio is very fussy about the conditions under which he is willing to do his business, particularly #2. Privacy is paramount, no watching allowed, and it was easy to accommodate him on this point. But, he is also very wary of bears and wolves, whether actual or just their scent. In fact, if there is evidence of a bear or wolf, even rustling leaves will put him off. This became frustrating because every beach either had a bear, or at least bear and wolf tracks. Even if he really really had to go (crowning) he refused if he could smell bear or wolf.
  
  It's amazing how long he can hold it. But of course we all know what goes in must eventually come out. So yes, he always completed his task but sometimes it took several trips and some serious encouragement.
  
  

  

  Watching for bears.
  

  
  

  

  Still watching for bears.
  

  
  
• Are Alaskans friendly? Yes! We met so many Alaskans and they were all super friendly and helpful. We also met lots of Canadians and other nationalities who were all super friendly too.
  
  
•  Cruise ships. Ugh! Not a good situation. The are so many big ships and they have so many guests and crew that they dominate wherever they are. When we arrived in Ketchikan on the way north there were five cruise ships docked with more than 14,000 guests. In addition, each ship can have up to 2,000 crew. Total potential influx of humans - 24,000.
  
  The guests all go ashore at once. You can imagine the impact on a town that has just over 8,000 residents. Air quality is another problem since the ships run their electrical generators full time. The five ships in Ketchikan were tied to the dock end to end, collectively blocking more than 5000' of the ocean view directly in front of the downtown. The cruise ship issue was a topic of conversation with many people that we met, with an equal split between those in support and those opposed. Those who earned their living from the cruise ships were typically strongly in favour of course.
  
  

  

  Ketchikan

  
  
• What was the weather like and did we have any trouble with sea conditions? All of June and half of July was cold, windy, cloudy, and wet. Typical night time temperatures were around 8°to 10°, up to 15° or so during the day. Invictus is warm and dry so we are not saying that we suffered. We didn't. However, it made some of Oblio's shore breaks a bit unpleasant!
  
  From mid-July to mid-September we had very nice weather - warm and sunny, not much wind, some fog in the mornings. Night time temps were around 14° to 16°, day time temps were up to 28°.
  
  It was really nice to experience the long days. We weren't far enough north to have 24 hours of daylight but at the solstice it was light still at 11:30 PM.
  
  For the most part we had smooth cruising conditions, which is to be expected on the Inside Passage. There were several instances when rough seas forced us to stay put for an extra day, sometimes longer. We spent three days in Ketchikan waiting out a very serious storm.
  
  We poked our nose out into the Gulf of Alaska once to see if we could cruise on the outside of Baranof Island. We found swells of 10-12' with some chop on top, which changed our minds and we quickly retreated to calmer waters. We need a bigger boat?
  
  
• What about the tides? Southeast Alaska experiences significant tidal ranges, up to 30'. By comparison, a really big tide at Bella Coola is about half of that, around 15'. The big tides require boaters to plan carefully for strong currents when transiting narrow passages. When we anchored each night it was important to check the tide chart to make sure we weren't sitting high and dry at the next low tide. Here are a few photos demonstrating the tidal range:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  That's Roma at the top.
  

  
  
  Tides mean pulling the dinghy far enough up the beach and securing it before going for a hike. This requires special care when dealing with big tides. I miscalculated at Kalinin Cove. When we got back from our hike Tuglet was floating, but fortunately was still secured to a rock that was now underwater. Lucky it was tied, otherwise it would have been a long cold swim back to Invictus.
  
  

  

  Tuglet floating but tied below the water. You can see Invictus way in the background.
  

  
  

  

  Retrieval was cold (and a learning experience) but better than a long swim.
  

  
  
• What about bugs? There were some bugs but not as bad as we expected. Here's a picture of Peter installing a new anchor swivel on one of the buggy days.
  
  
  
  
  
• How did we get along in confined quarters without a break for so long? In other words, why are we still married? Several friends have asked us this question and I'm sure others are thinking it. Well, we love each other, happen to have a shared love of the ocean and of adventure, and we need each other! Peter needs Roma to keep him from hurting himself, from starving, and to do boat yoga in the tiny places where he does not fit. And Roma needs Peter for everything else. And there is always the escape pod (Tuglet).
  
  
• What about boo-boos? What went wrong? What would we do differently next time? Not a whole lot really.
  
  
• Peter forgot to open the water inlet and ruined the impeller on the generator water pump. Peter does not want to discuss how many times this has happened.
  
  
  
  
  
• We usually fill our freshwater tanks when leaving a marina but forgot to do that twice. This can be a big deal cuz you gotta have water. In both cases strict conservation measures allowed us to get away with it without having to reroute or cut short our plans.
• Speaking of filling the water tanks, we had just started to fill at a place called Tenakee Springs when a local fishing guide warned us that the water was not potable. A quick taste test confirmed - it was foul! Fortunately we had only put in a few gallons so got away without having to pump the tanks out and find an alternate source. From that point forward we always taste the water before topping up if we aren't certain it is potable.
  
• We should have made better arrangements for our cell phone before we left (our cell phone did not work as soon as we left Canada). We would also take a WiFi phone to use with our Starlink system.
  
• We snagged our anchor chain on a monstrous sunken root wad and spent a couple hours trying to get it free without going into the water. For years we've been wondering when this would happen because it seems inevitable if you anchor enough times.
  
• And finally, we forgot to pull in the dinghy painter (tow line) before backing up to set our anchor. This required donning the wet suit to free the line from our propeller and rudder.

• Did we have any close calls with the boat? Of course we did. We had several instances of almost, but not quite, running aground. The electronic charts that we rely on are less than perfect. The guide books will often have warnings about uncharted hazards but still there are a few that you may discover the hard way. We also noticed that some hazards only appear at a certain zoom level on the chart plotter. Zoom out too much or zoom in too much and the hazard does not show!
  
  As graphic evidence of climate change, near the face of tidewater glaciers we found that the charts, which were made two decades ago, do not show that the glaciers have receded. In some cases the error is up to two kilometres.
  
  

  

  This shows Invictus about 1/2 kilometre inland.
  

  
  

  

  This split screen shows that Invictus is 'hard aground' but the depth is 255'.
  
  

  The GPS receivers are good but not perfect either. We have two independent chart plotters at the helm, the second is backup in case the first quits or acts up. Occasionally at certain locations there are magnetic anomalies that will skew the GPS signal, which can be a problem in narrow passages. When this happened we would judge which plotter seemed to be most accurate. If both were screwy then we relied on visual clues just like in the olden days. The depth sounder was also very helpful.
  
  
• Any close calls with predatory wildlife? Although we saw lots of bears we did not have any problems with them. We saw several wolves and did have a young adult wolf that showed a keen interest in Oblio when we were on the beach at Campania Island, BC. We think the wolf was looking for a late breakfast. Oblio survived and we got some great photos.
  
  

  

  He has his eye on Oblio, who was totally oblivious to the threat.
  

  
  

  

  We thought this wolf was habituated to humans because he was not in a hurry to go away.
  

  
  
• Planning and navigation. In other words, how did we know which route to take, and where to stay each night? We determined our route and our anchorages by various means: guide books, word of mouth from harbour masters and locals, magazine articles, Facebook groups, boating forums, and other experienced cruisers.
  
  We bought several guide books for cruising the west coast. They cover in great detail every nook and cranny of the BC and southeast Alaska coastline.
  
  We tapped my sister Kathy's and husband Jerry's knowledge from the two trips they took to Alaska aboard their sailboat. We talked to lots of people at each marina about their recommendations, where to go and where to avoid. We also joined several Facebook groups that provided lots of advice about places to see and places to avoid. And we relied on our own 15 years experience cruising the central coast of BC.
  
  
• What did we forget to bring? Nothing, in fact, we seriously over-achieved with the provisioning! Too much clothing, too much food, too much stuff. Invictus has a white boot stripe that delineates the maximum water line, part of which was not visible when we cast off! And that's after we unloaded a bunch of stuff and left it in the cab of the truck in Bella Coola.
  
  
• What we loved. Being on the ocean, the wilderness, the dramatic scenery and sunsets, abundant wildlife and fish, the challenge of navigating, and the sense of accomplishment were all notable.

We hope everyone has enjoyed 'tagging along' via this blog. It's been fun sharing the experiences and sights. We are looking ahead to our next adventure, maybe Haida Gwaii.

Here's a Google Earth image of our track start to finish. The image is turned a bit sideways to fit the frame but you can see the North arrow at bottom right. Click on it to see it bigger.

Punchbowl Lake in Misty Fjords National Monument, Alaska

Tonight, we are anchored in Donkey Cove adjacent to Shearwater. We are within a stone’s throw of home port but not yet ready to come in.

Tonight’s post is about Punchbowl Cove in Misty Fjords National Monument. The cove gets its name from the 3000’ granite cliffs that dominate the eastern shore. The cliffs continue past the southern end of the cove and form the eastern shore of Punchbowl Lake, 600 feet above.

This is the view as we entered Punchbowl Cove.

On the southern shore there is a lower but still imposing precipice. The trail to Punchbowl Lake, which is the source of most of the photos in this post, climbs that precipice. The trail is steep, rocky, rooty (new word), and muddy. It is theoretically maintained by the US Forest Service but it looks like this trail is a very low priority for them. Most of the improvements (boardwalks, ladders, bridges) are rotten and dangerous. 

The precipice. The trail to the lake is just left of center.

But it was so worth it! We will remember this hike and this place for a long time and we recommend it to anyone that happens to be in the vicinity (long shot).

 
The trail climbs through a dense, lush, verdant forest. The richness of vegetation is astounding. From massive hemlock and cedar to minuscule flowers, mushrooms and mosses, the trail was a visual feast and we both now have callouses on our shutter release finger.

It’s amazing to see so many plant species growing on and in each other. And they are all perched on a slope steep enough to require ladders and attached by their roots to jumbled rocks and huge boulders which have fallen from above. There are several places where you can hear water running underneath your feet, but you can’t see it. It’s cool to see that these really big trees resist wind, water and gravity to remain upright as long as they can. It’s cool to see the feeding frenzy on their carcasses when they finally do fall.

This tree grew over a boulder and eventually lifted it up off the ground.

 

Floating boulder

Heart shaped lichen

This beautiful carpet of moss and flowers was covering the upturned root wad of a fallen giant.

Here the trail follows a narrow ledge.

Every exposed surface is covered with something green.

There was no apparent bottom to the hole under this bridge.

We both loved the yellow racing stripe on this toad.

Liverworts.

A fungus eating a fungus.

Lichens everywhere.

That white dot is Invictus at anchor. The trail goes up through the slight gap left of center.

Drone view looking straight down at the base of the trail.

A drone view of the lake and its cliffs.

 

 

Oblio found the canoe a bit tippy.

Heading back down the trail.

Oblio spent a lot of time waiting for the elders to catch up.

Ta da!

In this rainforest setting, just by good fortune we had a beautiful day: sunny and warm, no bugs, and no other tourists. We had the cove and the trail all to ourselves. The tour boats from Ketchikan make this cove a regular stop. One of them was leaving just as we arrived at the cove.

Here is a video clip of the cliffs, lake and waterfall that you might enjoy. Watch it full screen for the best effect.