I manage our local City League basketball program, and we play on Tuesday & Thursday evenings, and Sunday afternoons. That means that during the season the only nights I can get out for overnight trips are Friday & Saturday. So, during the season I am always looking for a good weather window on those days.
As it turned out, the weather looked pretty good for a Fri/Sat overnight trip this past weekend. I really wanted to go north, to Port Stewart in western Behm Canal, but the weather conditions looked much better in the other direction. So, in the end I chose to make my destination Shelter Cove in Carroll Inlet.
I am still stinging from the costs of the repairs (see previous post) and so I decided not to leave the slip until it got daylight.
I pulled out of my slip at about 7:40 AM on Friday morning 11/22/2024, which also happened to be my 74th birthday. I brought along some cupcakes so that I could celebrate the occasion.
Here's a map snippet showing my track for this trip.
The weather was clear and cold, with a slight NW breeze blowing.
As I headed out of town I was going almost directly due east, which meant I was running directly into the rising sun. The sun and the glare off the water were blinding and it was equivalent to running in the dark because I couldn't see the water in front of the boat.
I figured out that if I "tacked," a little like a sailboat, and zig zagged back and forth, I could block the sun and the glare by the stanchion that is in between the front windowpanes on the boat.
Here's a shot of the NOAA ship "Fairweather" at its relatively new home port here in town. This dock and the building on land were just recently built. It's quite a large vessel, perhaps 200' long or more. It is out on missions most of the time, so I rarely see it sitting in port. I wish they would offer tours. I would really like to see the inside and especially the engine room.
When I entered Carroll Inlet "proper" conditions were flat calm, with glassy water. Just beautiful.
That was about to change.
I was pretty jazzed to try out my new woopty-doo shrimp pot, and my new woopty-doo shrimp bait. I had it baited and ready to go and I dropped it in about 400' of water on a spot given to me by a boating buddy. It's right on the way to Shelter Cove.
By the time I got to the Shelter Cove dock the weather conditions had changed dramatically. There was a very brisk North wind blowing. The cove is not protected from the North side so the waves were really rolling in there.
At first, I tried to tie up to the right side of the dock, but with the wind and the current I couldn't make that happen. Next, I tried the left side of the dock with the same results. I don't like being on the front of the dock, but that's where I ended up. The seas were rolling in on my starboard side, pushing me hard against the dock.
I had a very hard time getting the lines and bumpers placed as I wanted them because the boat was pushing so hard against the dock. My diesel furnace exhaust is quite hot, and I wanted to make sure it was not hitting any of my bumpers (it will melt them) or the old tires that are placed along the front of the dock. I brought extra bumpers that normally lay on my starboard side over to the port side to help protect the boat from the pounding.
Here are a couple of short videos that illustrate the conditions out there at that time. Make sure your volume is turned up as the sound of the wind adds to the experience. Pay particular attention to my raingear which is hanging from the top of the flybridge enclosure. You can see it swinging quite wildly back and forth.
These weather conditions did not show up on the PredictWind app that I use when doing my trip planning which is pretty disappointing. In fact, I checked the current conditions that PredictWind was showing right at that time, and it showed winds of 3 - 4 knots. I estimated the winds were actually at about 18 - 22 knots.
The bumpers really "grind" when the boat is moving that much.
After getting the boat as secure as I could I took my usual walk up the logging road and around to the landing where they used to sort the logs. You get a different view of the dock from over on that side.
I continued my walk up the logging road for a while hoping to see some deer or possibly a wolf but saw nothing of interest except a lot of road.
I have read in the papers that there is now a road from Ketchikan out to Shelter Cove. Apparently, the road itself is finished but it is gated off on the town side most of the time. One of my buddies told me it is a combination lock, and many people know the combination. This vehicle was up at the top of the ramp, possibly for hunters I assume.
Now that I have Starlink WiFi on board I can work on my laptop and my iPad, so I spent the rest of the day doing that. I've also recently learned how to connect my Apple Music app on my phone via Bluetooth to the speaker system on the boat, so I have some good tunes to listen to while I work. Having the ability to listen to my playlists while underway and at the dock really makes the trip a lot more enjoyable.
I had intended to launch the raft and set my 2 crab pots right out in front of the dock, but it was much too rough for that, so no crabbing on this trip.
This time of the year it gets dark by about 4 PM so there is a lot of what I call "cabin time" on these winter trips. I come prepared with many diversions, so I am never bored.
When dinner time came, I fired up the generator and baked some chicken in the air fryer. Faraway does not have an oven so when I discovered the air fryer, I was right on it. It is basically a tabletop oven. The only thing is that on a small boat whenever you buy something you have to also figure out where you're going to put it when it is not in use. Storage space is extremely limited on a boat as compared to a house.
It was difficult and very uncomfortable moving around the boat as it pitched and rolled with the wind and waves. I thought about trying to hand line it around to one of the side spaces, so that my bow would be facing the weather. But in the end, I decided it would be difficult for me by myself to control the boat with ropes as I moved it. My conditions were uncomfortable but not dangerous, and I could live with that.
After dinner I fired up a movie. One of my boat projects that is still in progress is to replace the TV that is mounted on the wall with a newer one that is more easily connected to my WiFi. I have the TV but getting it mounted on the wall is a separate challenge. So, for the time being I just set the TV on the freezer and watch it that way and then stow it away when I'm finished the movie.
When bedtime came, I was very apprehensive about getting any sleep. The boat was pitching and rolling so much, and the bumpers were grinding a lot and making a lot of noise. But there was nothing else to do but to give it a try. I have to say it was one of the most miserable nights I've spent on board over the more than 17 years that I've had the boat. I may have dozed a little, but I got no real sleep at all.
In the morning, I made the decision to move about 5 miles south to the Shoal Cove dock. It was empty when I went by it on my outbound trip. I didn't know if it would be any better, but I figured that it couldn't be any worse.
I waited for daylight and then moved over to the Shoal Cove dock arriving there at about 8:45 AM. This time I got my bow pointed out to the seas, but the seas had calmed down quite a bit by then.
There were 2 other boats there, one of which was just loading up a 4-wheeler and getting ready to depart. I've seen guys do this before, but it sure looks dangerous to me. The boat looks so top-heavy. I chatted with the guy, and he said sometimes he also puts his smaller 4-wheeler on at the same time. Looks dicey to me.
He said they were hunting but that they had not gotten anything.
This is our little flotilla at the Shoal Cove dock. The guys on the small boat on the left were also hunting, but they weren't around when I was getting tied up. I saw them later and chatted with the guy. He was there with his young son, and they stayed the night as well. The boat with the 4-wheeler on it left shortly after I got there.
After getting the boat secure, I took a little walk up the logging road to stretch my legs and see what I could see. Not much to see except a lot of road.
A lot of people hunt this road system and so there are 4-wheelers and vehicles stashed here and there, some in better condition than others.
I had quite a pleasant night there at the Shoal Cove dock. I wouldn't normally stay out on a Saturday night when I have to be at the gym by 12:30 PM on Sunday for City League games. But the weather was predicted to be much calmer on Sunday morning, so I made the decision to stay the night and leave at first light on Sunday morning.
Sometime during the night my diesel furnace quit. It has done this before and after a "rest" it seems to recover, but not this time. Despite my best efforts it seems there is always something that's not working on the boat. The cabin was about 40 degrees when I got up. I was quite warm in my sleeping bag, but a bit chilly once I was up and moving around. I ended up running the generator a little more than I normally would just so that I could run some electric space heaters.
On Sunday morning I left right at daylight and went with great anticipation to pull my new shrimp pot. I was quite disappointed to get only 2 shrimp in the pot! I'm not doing very well with shrimping lately but I'm not going to give up.
The run back to town was uneventful. The scenery in Carroll Inlet was beautiful and it was a very nice weather day.
I made it into the slip at a little after 10 AM giving me plenty of time to get the boat secured, the gear stowed away and get home with time for a shower before having to run to the gym.
I logged about 53 miles on this trip.
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