[password] STUART32

[position] 59 45.013N 149 35.262w

[date] 2019-07-15

[status] Having spent the day checking out the Northwestern Glacier we didn't leave ourselves much time to get to our next anchorage which we thought may be either the SE corner Paradise Cove or the SE corner of Coleman Bay Inlet; these are the only two recommended anchorages named in the Pilot Book which says there are no other safe anchorages in the general Alalik Bay area due to the depths. Well the weather went to pot, winds picked up, rain set in as well as some fog so we had no visibility again. As the Pilot Book said the closer anchorage, namely Paradise Cover, was the best of the two recommended anchorages and it was the closest this is where we headed. When we arrived however we were somewhat alarmed to discover there was no area with suitable anchoring depths. The best we could achieve was in 30m on rock with poor holding and with a scope of only 2:1 with the shore a mere boat length off our transom. Why only 2:1 you may ask, particularly given its poor holding on hard rock with a strong wind warning. Well four reasons sprang to mind:-, 1) we know from our experience anchoring in 22m in Fiji in Manta Pass that even 25kts of wind could not straighten our chain; we had 66m out back then to give us 3:1 but there was at least 20m just sitting on the bottom. So with the deeper anchoring here we knew there was no way the chain would lift to the shank. 2) The further we anchored off shore the deeper it got, a steady decrease down to 50m; so we wanted at least some shelf for the anchor to sit on. 3) We didn't want to overload the windlass, once you get to a scope of 1:1 you still have 30m of 10mm chain attached to a 100lb Bruce anchor which makes for a huge load to lift. 4) We had chosen the best protected corner of the bay for the forecast winds, which turned out to be the case. We did think about taking a line to shore and med mooring to a tree, but didn't want the added complication that creates if the wind unexpectedly changed direction. We just put our anchor alarm on with a very tight range. Turns out that all worked fine. But we would not anchor in Paradise Cove again, nor would we recommend this anchorage to anyone. Today we are moving to another anchorage as the winds are forecast to continue increasing tonight. Hopefully will find a better anchorage tonight.

[weather] 10-20kts wind from the east, no swell, cloudy skies, rain and fog.
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