July 9, 10, 11. We left Portage Bay about 1 pm, after lunch. Bad timing tide wise. The entrance to the bay is very narrow and the bay behind; large. The tide was definitely against us; slowing progress from our usual cruising speed of about 5kts down to just under 2. It took us about 20 minutes just to exit the bay. Once out; we motored for about 3.5 hours on calm waters and then put the sails up for an hour before the wind died again. We got into an easy slip at the Petersburg North Civic Marina just as it began to rain. Pi out for a quick wet walk. Gotta love the smell of “wet dog” in small living quarters. By the time we got everything settled; everything in town was closed so we just hunkered down in the boat and had leftovers for dinner. We just happened to be assigned a slip right next to Polar Sun. Joking: I said to the apparent skipper that he shouldn’t worry. We were not stalking him. A chat ensued and I was right; Polar Sun was vaguely familiar to me. It was recently on the cover of National Geographic and I had read the article about it’s North West Passage adventure, with keen interest. Small world. Not really; on our voyage, I am constantly amazed at just how big and vast is the B.C. and south east Alaska coastlines. Easing along at about 5 miles an hour really accentuates that feeling. The Petersburg marina is an active one, with lots of commercial and recreational boats habitating. It was also between 2 active fish processing plants. The smell was decidedly fishy but at least fresh fishy. The salmon season was just starting and halibut has been going on for a while. Petersburg was built on fishing and that is still the major industry in this town of about 4,000. And signs of “sons” everywhere. There is a long and present Norwegian history here. Everything ( well almost) is within easy walking distance from the marina. An IGA, liquor store, laundromat, well stocked hardware and marine store as well as a few restaurants. The restaurants all had closing times of around 7 pm. Hey…..we’ve just finished lunch by then. It would have been nice to go out for dinner to a nice restaurant as a change from our boating venue. The one bakery/deli had really good pasteries but oddly; did not sell bread? We eventually settled on ordering a Pizza for take out at 7 pm and eating it on board at closer to our regular dinner time, with cold beer as the pizza place was unlicensed (odd we thought). It was a good 12 inch pizza. Custom made on great dough. The $38 USD was a bit exorbitant though. Even at those prices the place was packed. A captive audience, I guess. We did a good “stock up” and topped up our fuel and water before leaving at about 4 pm on July 12. The route south was through a narrow 20 mile long passage. We had to plan our departure time so that we had the tide going with us for the first half and at midpoint it would change directions and take us out the rest of the way. Otherwise it’s 3 mph or less against the current.
