Wednesday, July 13 Prince Rupert to Foggy Bay, Alaska 5 hours 58 miles

FUEL:  1400 liters = 370 gallons            ouch!

We were a little worried about getting onto the fuel dock since Prince Rupert is mainly a fishing town.  Those fishing boats are cut throat about getting fueled and getting out.  We got up at 6 am hoping to be on fuel dock before it opened at 7 am.  Well, there were three fishing boats on the dock by 6:30 am.  We had a slip at the marina that looks right out at the fuel dock.  We were off the dock and in line for fuel at 7:30am.  Fred did a great job of getting out of our slip, around the breakwater and onto the dock perfectly!  This place is very industrial.  Pleasure boats are by far the minority here.  The hoses are down on the dock but the controls for the pump are up on the dock on shore.  There is no one to assist with hoses or lines.  Fred filled the two tanks (each holds 300 gallons) and then had to go up to the main dock to pay.  It is a very low tide and the ramp he has to use is practically vertical.   We finally are on our way at 8:20 am.  There is a narrow winding channel heading north from the bay (Venn Passage).  We have taken it many times but Fred does not want to take our larger boat through at low tide.  We added about an hour to our trip out to Chatham Sound.  Fred called US Customs in Ketchikan at 9:20 am.  They wished us a good trip and said we didn’t have to check in again until we were one hour out of Ketchikan.  We had about one foot chop until we passed Dundas Island and headed out into Dixon Entrance.  This piece of water is open all the way to Japan.  We encountered three to five foot swells.  They can be very uncomfortable.  When Fred increased our RPM to 2200 we were almost up on a plane and had a much smoother ride.  Poor Merlin was a basket case.  He needed to be cuddled and when the boat jerked he shook all over.   We followed two sailboats into Foggy Bay.  It has a narrow entrance off of Revillagigedo Channel.  The anchorage is lovely and protected.  We anchored behind an island that gave us a view of the channel outside.