North from Klemtu

June 7

“At 6 am we started north from Klemtu in a heavy fog. At 7 we had our 10 o’clock (EDT) phone call about the electrical sytems for the fiberglass 24’ boats.

There are two channels, thin and wide, on either side of Sarah Island. We chose the thin one as it is the ferry route. Our tide tables said the tide was with us. However all morning, along the 17 miles of thin channel, the tide was against us. We figure that the tide got up the wide channel first and came back at us, a huge back eddy. Very slow. But it was a beautiful sunny day after the fog lifted, and 4 or more dolphins played around the boat at Quarry Point. Alex is adept at finding small back eddies along the shore. We stopped fighting the tide for 3 hours in Swanson Bay in the overcast. The place was an industrial center in the early 1900s. The brick chimney for the lumber and pulp mills still stands in the trees, and pilings from the old docks line the shore. We went 10 more miles in the rain to Khutze Inlet for the night.”

Leaving Klemtu early morning

David offers the following description of solar cruising:

“Looking around we see snow-capped mountains, rocky shoulders and cliffs, evergreen forested slopes with waterfalls, some all the way from the melting snow right down to the water. Typical overcast day, typical overcast week.

So here is a hypothetical description of a typical day: The propulsion motor is quite constant based on where we set the throttle. The wind and currents change speed and direction moment to moment, as does the sun level. For the “typical” day, the sun is 1/3 of a sunny day and delivers 400 watts from the solar panels to the boat. A 10 hour day delivers 4000 watt-hours which could run our 4000 Watt motor for only one hour. That obviously won’t get us far. So we run on current sunshine at 400 Watts. 400 Watts moves the boat at 3 knots in calm water with no wind! 3 knots for 10 hours gets us 30 miles closer to Alaska! Then there is the tide: 1 knot against us means 6 hours to go 12 miles. If the current is with us it only takes 3 hours to go 12 miles.

Waypoints of the journey through June 6