We’ll Stay Up Late and Howl!

Well, until 9PM anyway.

This is a tale of 2 tricky waterways. Between Wrangell and Petersburg is the Wrangell Narrows. Since it’s closer to Petersburg than Wrangell this seems a little unfair, but who am I to say? The Russians got here before the Brits or Americans and named it Proliv Vrangelya after an Admiral. I guess the Tlingit name didn’t matter (Dakxhatgwak Séet) but I can’t get my tongue around that one anyhow. And the big cruise ships don’t go to Petersburg because of this passage. It is too narrow and shallow. But AMHS does.

This passage is 22mi (35km) long, and is lined with 60 buoys and lights. In order to safely navigate this narrows you have to make some 40ish course corrections. And someone needs to stand at the bow of the boat looking for the markers and lights and dead mammals. At night, the lights are green and red and white and so it is colloquially named Christmas Tree Lane. The captain has to line up the white lights at certain points, to stay in the channel.

We left Wrangell at dinner time and so were fortunate to go through in the dark, and boy howdy, it was amazing. You can see the crew person in the pics. Distortion because of rain. But they make cool photos.

There are other videos online:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDMi4e7hgKs

We slept through Petersburg and the ferry’s passage over to Sitka. There is another channel over here between Baranof and Chichagof Islands called the Sergius Narrows. Part of the Peril Strait (evocative!), this waterway is also not an option for the big cruise ships. It’s 24 feet deep in parts and 450ft wide. It is notoriously hazardous, turbulent, and can only be traversed at slack tide to avoid the dangerous currents which run as fast as 10 knots. And yes, a crew member also at the bow for this one. Looking for peril. Standing in the rain. It’s one of the special perks of taking the ferry. Even though it’s raining buckets (as Karen likes to say) it’s a stunning route.

Karen tells me that brown bears (a unique subspecies, Darwin would approve) are on the ABC islands (Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof), so maybe we will be lucky today.