Day 12 ~ Prince Rupert, B.C to Ketchikan, Alaska

I woke up ahead of the crowing rooster, looked up at the hatch in my berth and realized that it had rained. Like a little kid on Christmas morning I ran to the bucket to see if we had captured any water, sadly there was none. Questioning our design, I ran my hand over the rest of my handy work and it too was dry, Dad said it just hadn’t rained hard enough. Content with his answer I went back and prepared for the big crossing, which included putting on lots of layers and my Becca Bottoms because I was convinced it was going to be a bit chillier than it had been so far.

Dad turned the radio on for one more weather check while I checked the weather buoys. Just as we expected everything indicated that we were going to get the desired break in the weather. I was a bit anxious and I could tell that Dad was as well. Then I looked out the back window and saw the sun glistening in the water, I felt it was a sign telling me that it was time to get moving. Dad must have seen the same sign because moments later he was ready to depart.

We casted off right behind the boat that was moored on the dock ahead and shortly realized they were headed in the same direction that we were. They were about our size and moved with confidence so we decided that they had done this before and we would just follow them through the obstacle course called Venn Passage. I was talking to Wendy on the phone and her suggestion was if the lead boat began to lurch side to side it would be a good indication that they had run aground and we should retreat!

Once through the passage we waved goodbye to our guides and headed up Chatham Sound. The water was beautifully calm so I decided to tidy up the place a bit and fix breakfast. Our initial estimations were that it was going to be a 9 hour travel day so we targeted several chores to get knocked off.

When we rounded Mary Island we could see the USA/Canadian border on the chart and I got pretty emotional. Dad was too but didn’t want to admit it. We sat on the bridge and shared the moment staring off into the distance at Southeast Alaska. There aren’t any border patrols out there but we did have to call from Prince Rupert and tell US customs that we were in transit towards Ketchikan. When we got to Hog Rocks we were ahead of schedule, nearing Ketchikan and out of the open waters so we decided to join a group of fishermen and see if we could catch dinner; we struck out again. However much to Dad’s delight, his phone started beeping indicating that he was back in action. Within moments, he jumped on the phone and started making calls to this client and that one. Most of them were farmers on the East Coast. It was fun listening to him try to explain to everyone where we were.

We arrived in Ketchikan and the marina that we wanted was full, so they put us in a marina near the cruise ships and promised that they would move us the next day. I had no idea that the cruise industry was so busy in Alaska. There were four ships in the harbor when we arrived, including the Disney Wonder. We were both so exhausted, that after we cleared customs we had a simple dinner, a quiet evening and an early night to bed.