Resupplied in Craig 10/072025

 Another cruise day. 

One of these things is not like the others.

I added the arrow to point out the “aid to navigation”, it warns of the shoal, and rock.

This is what actually exists, just a bare pole, with nothing attached. It’s always good to have situational awareness, and keep your eyes on the surroundings, as well as the chart.

We finalized our Amazon subscriptions for a general delivery to Craig, and anchored in a couple of bays to wait for the mail to arrive, typically as least a week or two. 

Shelikof Inlet had glass smooth water.

On the way to Port Refugio, previously a cannery, now a commercial fishing resort. There were several homes, and plenty of small rental cabins. If they let us look around, it would be fun to stop in sometime.

The moon is so bright, it almost looks like day.

Gus is studying the chart and the bay for the optimal place to anchor.

Bill received the email that the Amazon order had shipped, and for an unknown reason, it was sent UPS. It ended up in Ketchikan, and then a small charter/tour floatplane company, Taquan Air took it to Craig. We hadn’t planned on going to Craig right away, but now we needed to go to pickup our order. We definitely hadn’t expected it to arrive so fast. 

Craig is at the end of the rainbow, will we find a pot of gold? Or at least a spot at the transient dock, hopefully with a power connection, and water for laundry. (Craig, is the largest community on Prince of Wales Island, pop 1050.)

Turns out, there was plenty of room at the transient dock, and full access to power and water. Bill took the dinghy to the floatplane dock, where Taquan Air had their offices, and loaded up our Amazon order. 

 

We had actually ordered more, but another shipment was sent back due to damage enroute, we suspect it was the glass jars of RAO’s spaghetti sauce that broke and covered everything in that box. We’ll make do with Newman’s, acquired at the grocery store.

After stowing all of that, we had a delicious pizza from the local eatery, it was over $40.00, but we got three meals from the extra large, and we really enjoyed it. Yum, Greek pizza, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, chicken, fresh tomato, good sauce, and crispy crust, what a treat! 

The next day, since we had unlimited water, time for multiple loads of laundry, I think I did six loads, then a trip to the grocery store. It’s in walking distance, so Bill loaded up the blue tubs, and the wheeled cart, so he could carry our purchases back. As it turned out, the store gave us a ride back to the harbor, so no loaded trek until we got to the dock. 

Three tubs full, and a few cases of shelf stable milk, and canned veggies, much easier to transport down to the boat with a dock cart. Of course, the transient dock is at the farthest end.

Fabulous sunsets from our viewpoint at the end of the dock.

I took a lot of photos. 

With the laundry finished, grocery stop, mail stop, and post office errands all finished, it was time to cruise on. The next day on the way out, we made a stop at the fuel dock, where we took on diesel for Big Red, (the engine), the generator, the pilothouse drip heater, and the Espar heater, gas for the outboard, and refilled a propane tank for the BBQ. Full tanks, water/fuels, full larder, even fresh green stuff in the outdoor cooler, I think we’ve contributed enough $$$ to the economy of the town. 😃

Gus REALLY enjoyed our stay in Craig. He has a small heating pad underneath his bed, and with the connection to shore power, we kept it plugged in. We think his aging bones, and muscles enjoy the heat, and help his mobility. (If he ever got out of his bed when the heater is on 😁.)

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.

Another Storm 09/30-2025

 Storms in the ocean of life. 

Where we were located, on the chart.

We’re surrounded on all sides with a tree line but one, and with binoculars, through that one area between the small islands, we could see what the channel ahead of us looked like. Sometimes we could  see whitecaps and crashing surf, but they never made it into our little bay.  With the low hills, and trees, we could be relatively safe from williwas forming in our area. 

(A williwaw is a sudden blast of wind descending from a mountainous coast to the sea. Williwaw is considered a type of katabatic wind.)

Ketchikan Fire Department gives their updates with a large dose of humor, fun to read, as you look at the NOAA chart. Hopefully you have a chuckle, not a panic attack. 

We prepared for what was coming, always looking out for worst case scenario.

Strapped the table on the back deck down.

Hung a heavy chain on the stack of tub, as well as taped on the lid.

Taped down tub lid, and added a bungey to the BBQ cover.

Put all the dock lines inside an empty cooler.

We lost a tub lid in the blow in Hydaburg, and the fabric cover on the BBQ tried to depart, so now we’re being proactive. We also added extra sail ties to the main sail cover, as it had also started to flap. I see that I have a few winter reinforcement sewing projects.

Bill put an extra backup bridle on the main anchor rode, and then deployed the second anchor as a Hammerlock Moor.

Yaw: In sailing, yaw is the rotation of the boat around its vertical axis, causing the bow to swing side to side, like the boat is turning left and right from a straight course. This motion can be influenced by strong winds, currents, and waves.

We emptied the cockpit of all things, cushions, towels, non-skid pieces, and left the covers off of all of the navigational electronics, in case we had to make a swift exit, or start up the engine.

Bill left  the MFD in the pilothouse, on standby mode, so that with a single touch it would immediately be on.

MFD: Multifunction Displays are the control hub of your boat. They serve as the interface for marine electronics and other digitally-enabled equipment and bring all of that together in an easily accessed way.

Cat bed next to pilot station removed of course.

I had one follower on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page ask, “Why are you there this time of year?” A legitimate question. My answer: September can be a wonderful time of year, the fall color, sun,(Indian summer), few tourists, and we like year round cruising. This year those lows from the Gulf of Alaska  have been early, and strong, and we are slowly working our way back to our slip in Wrangell. 

I actually asked Bill the same question, his answer: “It’s all part of the cruising lifestyle.” 😑

We ended up with the usual 10-20kts, with gusts 30-35kts. The hammerlock mooring worked great, we didn’t yaw back and forth, and we didn’t have any of the big wind that others did. Our discussion before the storm had us contemplating returning to Hydaburg, to tie securely to the dock, but then Bill thought he had made a good choice of the anchorage, and we’d be better off where we were. Good thinking, as Hydaburg recorded 50kts, and Craig recorded 47kts.

The morning we decided to move on to the next anchorage, it took us quite a while to get the main anchor onboard.

We’re definitely pulling something large out of the water.

Kelp, and the entire root ball, including everything attached to it, starfish, mud, barnacles, and garbage. It was wrapped around the anchor, and the chain, and Bill had to use the boat hook to yank it off one piece at a time. 

We left a large trail of mud.

This looked like it had been a plastic inflatable globe, it was in the center of the root ball.

Gus is in the cockpit supervising the preparations for the storm. He’s quite the task master.

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.

Hydaburg 09/21-2025

Headed for Hydaburg to tie to the dock. We’d never visited before, and didn’t know if they had water or power accessible.

It’s a treat to see the cranes overhead heading south. 

The weather became increasingly nasty, and Bill tied the boat in from all angles. Denali Rose has two forward lines, two aft lines, and two spring lines, with multiple fenders between the boat and the dock. The wind direction is predicted to blow us off the dock rather than into it, however, best to always be over prepared.

We got ready, and snuggled in for the evening, as an aside, they had turned off the water to docks for the winter, and no power out at the transient end. We would have liked to do laundry, and topped up the water tanks, but we really don’t have to. It just means we have to run the water maker, and the washing machine will run off of the batteries, so in the long run, we have to use diesel to run the generator to put back the power.  

That night we had wind 10-20kts, gusting 30-40kts, and a few 50-60kts gusts thrown in, we rocked at the dock a bit, but we’re tied in securely, and no issues, or worries.

The next day was beautiful as the clouds retreated, we decided to taking a walking tour of Hydaburg, and see what their grocery store had in stock.

The AC company is a long time supplier of goods in Alaska.

The totem park next to the school buildings.

Better days behind.

The seals were hanging out at the outpouring of a salmon creek, we saw about eight of them.

The creek.

The town was clean, the houses were painted in bright colors, and the grocery store had a good selection of products. There were even some items that were less expensive than Wrangell. We made our purchases, and then a local was kind enough to drive us back to the harbor. Small town kindness wins out again.

The sunset that evening looked like the sky was on fire, very spectacular!

Cute house, except for the tree in the roof.

We were tied up behind this vessel, the size makes our 50ft vessel look very tiny.

Playing “where’s the rocks?”

This is right off of the end of the dock, we were careful coming into the dock.

Gus is reminded to “stay on your own boat”, that’s his command to stay put, and not roam around on the dock. He knows when he hears that, to high tail it back to his home, sometimes reluctantly. 

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.

PS, the bigger storm will be in the next chapter.