Scoping out our haul out town and making plans for our way home
Cassie was at the helm this morning and navigated a fun obstacle course from Thom’s Place towards Wrangell called the Zimovia Strait. Channel markers guide boaters through and there were even a few sharp turns which we made with ease. Arrived in Wrangell and the harbormaster assigned us a slip in the ‘new’ harbor which is a mile or two from town. We all walked to the main street and finalized our arrangements to keep Sway here all winter in the water. Grabbed lunch at the Stikine Inn (locals call it the Stik) and marveled at the changed color of waters now, impacted by glacier silt the color is something akin to a milky green.
Wrangell has an old West frontier look to the main street but it is a sophisticated port for mariners with many services here. After walking over five miles today we will use the dingy to go to town for our laundry, showers and groceries the rest of our stay. Amazing sunshine for two of our four days here. Feels like actual summer.
Booked our one-way flight home for September 13th and made numerous contacts with vets, airlines, cargo specialists and local sporting goods stores to get Coco the right crate and paperwork needed to take her first airplane ride when we fly to Seattle.
Muscled through another boat engine oil change here and we attempted to change transmission fluid, but the engine compartment girl (see earlier posts for details) can’t budge the nut. We also have a diesel heater fuel issue that needs to be fixed as that is our holy grail of providing not only needed heat, but it is also how we dry out the wet humans, dog and gear. We fueled up the boat in a challenging tetris of us and other boats shuffling in turn at the fuel dock and left in heavy fog to go fishing off the islands near the mouth of the famous Stikine River.
Suddenly through the fog, a small skiff came towards us at a fast speed. Fish and Wildlife inspector? Nope. Lost fisherman, looking for help with directions. He had no navigational aids at all, not even a compass. Or a phone or radio. Yikes, we sure hope he made it to Wrangell. Tucked ourselves into a notch at Deception Point and watched a sea plane fly in to meet a luxury yacht to pick up a passenger in the middle of the channel. Wow, that’s another way to travel. Wet, wet day.