Day 21


Today was the border and Dixon entrance crossing day, and dad and I set out from the secure picturesque anchorage at Humpback bay at 4:00am. As usual the reason for the early departure was in part due to currents, but this time we were also worried about the forecast, which warned of 25 knot northwest winds by late afternoon, so we wanted to be tucked in somewhere well before that.
When we set out and sailed past the massive superstructure and industry of Prince Rupert’s commercial docks, there was almost no wind, but in order to same a little bit of fuel, we raised the main, and for the first time in weeks, the genoa, which we poled out with the boathook. Mostly they just flopped around, but what little wind that there was was from astern, so even just the added windage helped take some strain off the engine, even if they were not actually adding any speed.
We crossed the US Canada border into Alaska at 12:02 pm Canada time, after which I pulled down the red and white Canadian flag from the starboard side spreaders where it had been faithfully flapping away through gales and calms, and had seen me through 500 happy miles. After I folded the flag, I wound all the clocks back one hour to AK time and settled back into the cockpit.
We are home. Well, not quite, actually we are just over halfway, but we are now at least back in the right state. After the border and as we neared Cape Fox, our original tentative destination, the wind started to pick up, and we really began to sail, although we kept the engine on in order to buck the current, which runs pretty strong through Revillagigedo Channel considering how big it is.  Thus, we drove past Cape Fox on a beam reach, making six knots through the water, and by then it was only 12:00pm Alaska Time.
That’s pretty much how the rest of the day played out; we would plan for the next anchorage on the way, plot a course, but then as we approached, aided by the extra hour from crossing the border and the 15 knot re aching wind, we would decide to press on and plot for the next place. By doing this constantly we ended up making this the longest day of the trip so far. (I know, there have been like half a dozen ‘longest days’ but I think this one will hold the record until the gulf.)
In total, we sailed for a little over 16 hours before we arrived in Nadzaheen Cove 80 nautical miles from Humpback Bay and only 12 from Ketchikan. That puts today at three hours and 20 nautical miles over the previous record. That’s pretty damn good Darwind.
At Nadzaheen cove, after anchoring u and eating some well-deserved dinner, we dutifully called customs and immigration, but only got a voicemail. (In truth we anchored up and ate dinner before calling for exactly that reason) Then we settled in for the last night in a quite anchorage before heading over to noisy, crowded (by Alaska standards) and cruise ship-infested Ketchikan.

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