Petersburg to Wrangell

Following our cardinal Petersburg rule—arrive, depart, and fuel at slack—we pulled up to the fuel dock 45 minutes before slack, topped off the diesel, and pointed OceanFlyer southbound through Wrangell Narrows under clear blue skies and zero wind. A rare treat this season!

the mountains east of petersberg you never see on a cloudy day

The only real excitement came in the form of Ocean Titan, a tug hauling a massive tow—naturally, right in one of the Narrows’ tightest doglegs. We ducked into a small cove off the channel and let them pass. A grateful “thank you” came back over the radio from the tug captain.

Happy to step aside and let this big boy pass

We were looking forward to Wrangell—more restaurants than Petersburg, and a couple spots we missed back in May. On the way, Karen chatted over VHF with the crew of Time to Play, who were halibut jigging nearby. We also overheard a cringe-worthy moment: a gillnetter warning a pleasure craft about his gear—warnings that went unheeded, and the net paid the price. Ouch.

passing liesnoi island wragell is spread out along the shore of wrangell island

Heritage Harbor had plenty of room on the transient dock. As we were tying up, Joe—a local Grand Banks owner—strolled by and casually mentioned a boil water advisory issued earlier that morning. First we’d heard of it. No signage on the docks, and no mention from the harbormaster. Big thanks to Joe for the heads-up.

At 5 p.m., we launched the dinghy, craving pizza from The Hungry Beaver. What we hadn’t realized was that the water advisory had shuttered most of town’s restaurants. We arrived to a locked door, then started calling around—nobody answering, or serving only drinks. Strikeout.

Dinner turned into frozen pizza and beer back aboard OceanFlyer. Not exactly what we had in mind.

Oh, and did we mention it was 76°F when we docked? After months of fleece and flannel, the sun felt downright shocking. For us, today marked the official start of summer.