The Best And The Worst

Well, I'm sitting at McDonalds and using their free wifi but still am only able to get one photo uploaded.  The picture is a few days ago as we traveled down the west coast of Prince of Wales Island.  The anchorage is called Hole In The Wall, appropriately named as it was best to venture in and out at half or full tide.  One of those hold your breath entries.  You may be asking, why would we venture into such a place and the answer is that the next anchorage is a ways away and we figured, it's mentioned in the guide books so others have done it.  Once having made it through the entrance we entered a nice sized bay.  Anyway, all was fine except I laid awake during a windy night worrying about a tree blowing down over the entrance and us not having our chain saw.   I'm trying to learn that each day creates enough stuff to think about without inventing other problems. 

Through day 39 of this journey we have had good weather which for me does not mean sunshine or warmth, it means no winds.  Then day 40 started to change things and our trip around the southern tip of Prince of Wales a few days ago tested our boat and our nerves.  I have heard of people having trouble with tide rips but I have never seen them so big.  As things crashed around inside the boat, BJ hung on to the wheel and I just hung on.   We eventually made it to a safe anchorage but the next day presented similar challenges and we decided enough is enough and we headed to Ketchikan to wait out the gale.   Yesterday, the 4th of July, tested every boat's mooring lines with incredible winds and it was a huge comfort to not be out there somewhere anchored.  I think there are supposed to be fireworks tonight as they were canceled for last night.  The forecast is improving and we hope to be leaving Ketchikan tomorrow, take a slight detour to see some fjords and if we have sufficiently light winds we will try to head south this weekend.  I wish I could be able to blog more often as we have had some amazing times here and have been blessed thus far with a good performing boat.