Day 413 At anchor in Cleveland Passage.(rain)

The rains of yesterday have continued into today and are present in every days forecast for as long out as the goes. Oh joy! We have traveled well over 1200 miles to see the glaciers in Tracy Arm in all their splendor just to have the weather be cloudy and full of rain. Perhaps it will be better after we visit Juneau. Only time and Mother Nature know for sure.

We upped anchor at Ruth Island in Thomas Bay about 0820 and headed out. Tracy was at the wheel while I went out and used the windlass to get our CQR anchor up and stowed. At 66 pounds, it does a great job of holding Zephyr in place. We have a second one stowed below just incase. It's 8 miles just to exit Thomas Bay to get to Frederick Sound. With it being quite overcast and still raining, we fired up the AIS as well as the radar to see what was out there. The clouds had just about settled 500 feet above the water line. We saw plenty of small fishing boats and later the Kennecott Ferry making it's way to Petersburg and beyond. Other than that, no traffic in big boats at all(that's just fine with us).

We had the tide behind us and we flew along at between 7 and 8 knots most of the way. We covered the 36.4 miles in 4 hours 50 minutes. Great speed for such a heavy boat. I had to go out and clear the windows of rain from time to time as rain covered windows tends to restrict our view of what is out there. We saw a few whales in the distance but nothing any where near us.

We plan on being in Tracy Arm tomorrow and will make plans then to either go up the passage to the glaciers or continue on to Taku Harbor and then Juneau as it's over 60 miles to Juneau from Tracy Arm. By the time you read this, we will be in Juneau and will know what our decision was. We're surprised how few cruisers boats we have seen since leaving Ketchikan 5 days ago. Hardly a single one other than the two big power boat cruisers South of Wrangell Narrows.

Let's hope for better weather than what is forecast for the future. We've had some gorgeous weather up till now and would love some more, especially when we see the glaciers.