Learn to Cruise the Inside Passage of BC on the David B1
We signed up for the Learn to Cruise trip on the David B over a year ago.
https://northwestnavigation.com/faq/
The southbound cruise starts at Ketchikan, AK, explores down the Inside Passage of British Columbia and ends 12 days later at Bellingham, WA. Only two other guys were on the 65 foot restored 1929 boat along with the instructor captain, his wife, and two crew in training, which meant four crew for four PAX, a very favorable ratio for learning. We hoped to get familiar and comfortable with the unique boating conditions of the PNW such as large vertical tide changes, deep water anchoring, running inlets with rapids at slack tides, navigation challenges, dealing with logs and deadheads etc. that are new to us.
If we decide we want to trailer our C-Dory Tom Cat 255 from our home in Pensacola to repeat this adventure on our own boat, we'll know way better what to expect. Although we have been cruising together for over 40 years in 13 trailer boats and completed half the 6,000 miles of the Great Loop and 200 locks, this area will be new to us.
When trailering, our rig is almost as long as a tractor-trailer.
Therefore we mainly use Truck Plazas for fueling our F-250 diesel 4WD truck and the fast food found there. We also carefully scout our hotels with RV parking on our trailering route. Other C-Dory owners use State Parks, Cracker Barrel RV or Walmart parking with permission.
We wrote an article on the AGLCA website (we are Lifetime members, because it might take us longer than that to complete the damn thing) on Segment Loop Cruising on a Trailer Boat here, pages 14-21.
(That POS boat pictured is not our boat).
Day 1 in Ketchikan we stayed at the historic Gilmore hotel, which has steam radiators, faux rotary dial phones and no elevator.
The historic Gilmore Hotel (1921) overlooks four giant cruise ship berths. We had excellent salmon fish and chips with superb smoked salmon chowder at the nearby Alaska Fish House overlooking the Baronof sportfishing boat fleet.
Ripley's states this tunnel is the only one in the world that can be driven through, around and over (on Upper Front St).
Day two we took a 90-minute tour guided by a Native American who was born in Ketchikan and raised next to the Saxon totem pole Park. He was a hoot. He stopped at Rainbow Falls, which is a spillover from a higher mountain Lake. Our guide told us that much of the power is hydroelectric power from local Alpine Lakes.
At Saxman totem Park, he showed us an original native carved red cedar totem pole that was over 100 years old.
He related that in the natural environment, the red cedar totem poles don't last forever and that most of the totem poles in the park are actually replicas of Originals. They were still carved by local Native Americans in later years. The park was filled with tourist buses since today there are a full load of 4 cruise ships hearing 14,000 tourists today. (The population of Ketchikan is 14,000).
He grew up in a small house adjacent to the park (just to left of the stop sign in the picture below) and related climbing totem poles with his friends and his youth.
He wryly noted that they would hear multiple tour bus narrators related differ ent stories about the same totem pole all day long, and that his grandmother (who was 82) called it the ‘Saxman Totem Pole Bulls..t Park.’ After a totem pole gets weathered out it unfortunately gets cut up and shoved to the side of the parking lot.
We stopped at a wildlife viewing area Creekside where bears are sometimes seen but none today.
We stopped at a gravel shallow area by the Ketchikan River to watch thousands of salmon struggling to swim upstream to spawn. An old fish ladder helps them get around the waterfall.
In places they were so you could almost walk across the river on the backs of salmon.
That afternoon we toured the Tongas Historical Mueseum, which is well worth a visit, and watched a cruise ship dock.
It did as we do in not approaching a dock any faster than you would be willing to hit it. It's interesting how they never use tugboats to help them in, just hydraulic thrusters and lots of attentive crew with radios and a forklift to pull messenger lines attached to the big mooring lines to dockside bollards. Unlike other ports we've been to, the cruise ships never sound their horns (when pulling out, for example). Most don't even stay overnight.
Day three we spent time exploring museums and other sites. A very entrepreneurial lady founded the red light
district on Ketchikan Creek Street, where “men and salmon came upstream to spawn.”
Now there’s a cruise ship in the background.
Day four we boarded the David B, a 1929 restored wooden 65 foot boat with the original
1929 three cylinder 100 HP Washington Iron Works engine.
Capt Jeffrey claims (and I believe him) that he can repair anything that goes
wrong with his three-cylinder, 1929 100 HP continuous-duty rated diesel engine
with hand tools on his boat. The Extended Warranty has expired.
Capt Jeffrey uses a long custom crowbar inserted into slots in the flywheel
to turn the pistons to propper valve positions, then a compressed air blast to
compress the fuel to ignite.
After starting it sounds a lot more like a sewing machine than a diesel engine (potato-potato-potato).
They found the boat in 1998 in bad condition and spent the next seven years
rebuilding it with the first passengers in 2005. Christine wrote a book on
that labor of love.
https://www.amazon.com/More-Faster-Backwards-Rebuilding-David-ebook/dp/B006N9HHJ4
In the 17 years since then, this is trip #405 in the Pacific NW for Capt Jeffrey
and his wife cook, photographer, and naturalist Chistine. Jeffrey has a 500
ton and Christine her 200 ton license.
The crew gave a very thorough safety briefing including how to don the
immersion suits and a rule prohibiting charging devices when not awake
to monitor them (remember the Conception dive boat fire?).
Capt Jeffrey’s wife Christine is a great cook and baker, using a
WOOD FIRED STOVE/OVEN ON THE 1929 BOAT.
Comfort items include three hot meals daily by fab cook Christine
with lots of homemade sourdough bread, scones, cookies, salads and fruits.
LP gas powers a salon heater and Insta-Hot hot water for the communal tub + shower.
A large custom aluminum Alaskan skiff holds all ten crew and PAX for
shore expeditions so the wildlife/bears are there for everyone to see rather
than them disappearing on a second trip. Kayaks are loaded from the ultra
stable super skiff. The upper deck has teak chairs and recliners.
Each berth has a head with bidet and sink plus more room in the communal bath.
There are plenty of outlets powered by inverters at night and
a quiet generator underway. Cell signals are present every three
days north of vancouver island and pretty much full time in its’ shadow.
Usually this trip has three couples interested in ‘learning to cruise’
this area, but on our trip it was just us and two guys (the wives stayed home)
who had no plans; so we had lots of individual attention regarding
all aspects of safely navigating the area, calculating slack water for
riding the rapids, anchoring techniques, secret coves for a TomCat, etc.
There is much more upclose wildlife viewing than you’ll ever
see on the National Geographic (100 PAX) ship.
Day one he decided to run all night all the way from Ketchikan
to Prince Rupert through Dixon Entrance (with a direct exposure
to the Pacific Ocean) due to a nasty front approaching.
We waited out the front the next day while exploring Prince Rupert.
It’s a massive port and RR terminal because it’s the closest
N American port to Shanghai China. That isn’t obvious on a
flat map, but on a globe map it makes sense. There are two
five mile long switchyards with three sets of tracks going all
the way to Chicago, and then intermodal trucks take the goods
all over the interior of the US.
Day three we cruised south to a beautiful pristine anchorage in Lowe
inlet in front of an impressive short but massive volume waterfall
Day four from there to Bishop Bay. There is a freshwater hot
spring there for a nice soak (visible in the background on stilts).
Day five found us cruising down Princess Royal Channel with lots
of humpback whales to the incredibly narrow jackson Narrows
and lovely Rescue Bay anchorage at the east end.
Day six we were again exposed to the Pacific Ocean at Cape Caution,
then south for a stop at Shearwater, a First Nations village
before proceeding from Fitzhugh Sound to Goldstream
Harbour just north of Hecate Island, BC.
Day seven we cruised down Queen Charlotte strait to Blunden Harbour
(east of Port Harvey, BC) and explored the uncharted reaches of
Bradley Lagoon in the Super Skiff. On a 20 foot tide we rode
over a reversing rapids which at low tide is a ten foot tall dry rock rubble pile.
Day eight we went down the sometimes-rough Johnstone Strait
to anchor in Port Neville and took another skiff exploring jaunt.
You can access the historic grounds via a public dock.
Out back we found an ancient rusted log mounted ‘skidder’
winch made by the same Washington Iron Works that made the1929 David B engine (no
thrusters).
We saw lots of Humpback whales breaching, but it’s
hard to capture a photo by the time you aim and shoot.
Unfortunately, wildfires in WA and CA led to a log of smoke
and haze on this cruise. The scenery is amazing, the inside
passages unbelievably calm (for the most part) and the
motion of the six knot boat is very comfortable.
Here’s the Wildlife Seen List:
We had a great time and learned a lot.
We were so glad to find that cold condensation in the boat
was not a problem, at least south of our Ketchikan, AK starting point.
We could run the Honda for dry electric heat, or install the
used Wallas heater we have with an outside exhaust.
Capt Jeffreis described the the major exposures to the
Pacific for a TC255 as Dixon Entrance, Cape Caution,
and Queen Charlotte Strait. A TC255 can negotiate
each on a fair to good weather day.
The further north you go above the north tip of Vancouver
Island, the more remote, lonely and pristine wilderness
you will find. I suppose we could fill six weeks wandering
just the San Juans, Broughtons, and the inlets that are
protected by Vancouver Island without going much above
that protection from the Pacific Ocean.
Our biggest disappointment is that there is mostly no
walking along the shore or trails (due to mostly vertical
rock walls and huge tides) esp in the northern reaches.
I suppose we could cross train to rowing the Saturn
Ka Boat around the inlets and coves instead.
Capt Jeffries confirmed that our greatest risk in the
TC255 is striking a log (or worse yet, a ‘deadhead’
which is defined as a vertically floating log that may
have only a few inches visible above the water, yet
weigh six to 12 tons and is able to hole a boat like
ours with a minor strike). The David B is built like a
wooden tank with a full keel and prop protection
that at max speed of 6K will deflect off just about
anything visible and a lot that’s not.
Calculating arrival times at rapids and knowing
the times for slack water (verify each with another source)
is important. Capt Jeffrey advises that the big boats
and cruise ships use Seymour Narrows; avoid that in
favor of Dent, Devil’s Hole and Yuculta rapids in smaller vessels.
There are some other very tricky rapids.
Oddly, Jackson Narrows doesn’t develop rapids despite
being incredibly narrow. I was allowed to manually steer
the David B through the wider portion of Jackson Narrows and it was a blast!
Hope this is helpful in developing your own cruising
plans on your own boat, or on the David B!
John
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