Trip Ticket - Return to Misty Moorings Destination: Fleets Bay Parts Dock Route Notes This Scenery is for "Return to Misty Moorings" only. Minimum Altitude: 1200 feet Landing zone is: Water, does not freeze GPS for destination: N54 41.90 W132 1.39 Alt 9 feet Print-Able copy HERE Fleets Bay Parts Dock The Fleet Bay Parts Dock is a supply point for the fishing fleet that is based near Ketchikan. This facility is just West of the Southern tip of Prince of Wales Island in a small, sheltered cove. There are numerous fishing vessels nearby so watch out when attempting to put your seaplane down here. Also keep an eye out for the extra "living" enhancements that took a lot of time to get right. There are several pods of dolphins that are in the area. One pod travels along the main channel away from the parts dock and another small pod are playing near the entrance to the area. There are also flocks of birds that land briefly on a small island next to the channel. They only stay for a short time before all of them take off at once to circle around again. WaveTop VFR Plan FROM: Ketchikan International Airport (PAKT) TO: Fleets Bay Parts Dock Our journey begins at Ketchikan International Airport (PAKT). You will want to orient yourself flying a heading of about 110 down the Tongass Narrows Channel. COURSE: Fly down the starboard side of Pennock Island over the narrows there. You will be turning to starboard when you are near Gravina Point (the last point of land to starboard on Gravina Island). COURSE: At Gravina Point, turn to starboard to a heading of 168. Altitude at 1200 feet is safe. You are now flying into the Nichols Passage, the strait of water between Gravina Island to starboard and Annette Island to Port.The inlet to starboard is "Blank Inlet" and the little islands near its entrance are the Blank Islands. The next inlet to starboard, narrow but long, Bostwick Inlet and is the home base of Misty Moorings ... Misty's Place ... you may see it on the shoreline at the far end of the inlet. On the far shore of Annette Island to port, the peninsula of land protruding into the water will be Driest point. And beyond that point a bay is formed which is Port Chester. On the far shore of the bay is Metlakatla a native Community founded by the Anglican missionary William Duncan. The island is composed mainly of Tsimshian Natives and is a cultural crossroads for Tlingit and Haida Natives as well. The largest settlement on the island is Metlakatla. The entire island is a Native reservation, the only one in Alaska. The island’s population was 1,447 at the 2000 census You will see a tiny island come up about 2 miles to port. This is Warburton Island. Named after Alexander Bannerman Warburton. He was a politician, jurist and author, who served as the seventh Premier of Prince Edward Island, Canada. Notice there is a navigational danger light blinking off of it. You look at this open water and think you are safe ... there suddenly there's a tiny rock in your way! On the Starboard side, we come to the tip of Gravina Island which is called Dahl Head . From there we will be heading out over the open waters of the Clarence Strait. COURSE: Hold a course of 180 for about 25 miles. If it is a clear day, you can see a point of land straight ahead, we are heading for that point. The land mass ahead of us is Prince of Wales Island.The island is 135 miles long, 45 miles wide and has an area of 2,577 sq mi , about 1/10 the size of Ireland and slightly larger than the State of Delaware. Approximately 6,000 people live on the island. Craig is the largest community, founded as a saltery in the early 20th century, it has a population of 1,000. Some 750 people live in Klawock, a long-established village that grew with the fishing industry. Hollis was a boom and bust mining town from 1900 to about 1915, abandoned, it was re-established as a logging camp in the '50s, and now has a population of 100. Hollis is where the ferry terminal is located, one hour drive from Craig and a three-hour trip to Ketchikan. Mountain peaks, all but the tallest of which were buried by Pleistocene glaciation, reach over 3,000 feet . Fjords, steep-sided mountains, and dense forests characterize the island. Extensive tracts of limestone include karst features such as El Capitan Pit, at 598.3 feet the deepest vertical shaft in the United States. POW is the homeland of the Kaigani Haida people. Kaigani is a mispronunciation of the Tlingit word x'aax' aani (crabapple country). The Tlingit name for the island is Taan, meaning sea lion. The island is traditional Tlingit territory with the Haida moving into the area in the late 18th century and the abandoned Haida villages actually being Tlingit name. In 1741, Alexi Chirikov, commanding a ship on Vitus Bering's second voyage of exploration out of Kamchatka, made the first European landfall on the northwest coast of North America - near Prince of Wales Island. It was not until 1775 that a Spanish expedition reached Prince of Wales Island and claimed it for Spain. A British expedition in 1778, under Captain James Cook, accurately mapped much of the coast of Alaska, including Prince of Wales Island. Comte de La Perouse led a French expedition to the area in 1786. Mining of gold, copper, and other metals on the island began in the late 19th century. Gold production came from underground lode mines exploiting: gold-bearing quartz veins in metamorphic rocks (such as the Gold Standard, Sea Level, Dawson, Golden Fleece and Goldstream mines); skarns (at the Jumbo and Kassan Peninsula copper-gold mines); zoned mafic-ultramafic plutons, as at the Salt Chuck silver-gold-copper-PGE mine; and VMS deposits such as Niblack. Uranium was mined at Bokan Mountain in the 1950s and 1970s COURSE: As we approach the southern end of the Prince of Wales island, alter course to stay about 2 miles off shore, heading for Cape Chacon, about 8 miles ahead. The narrow inlet you will see to starboard is the McLean Arm, a popular fishing spot for tourists to the island. The cliff coming up on starboard is Huaji Cliff. COURSE: Continue about 2 miles off shore, this because you are going to pass the upcoming Cape Chacon, travel on for a mile or so, then do a 180 sharp turn to starboard. You will head back toward the cape with it to starboard, look in the inlet to the port side of the cape, that is the Fleets Bay Parts dock tucked back in that tiny inlet. COURSE: Watch for the red and green channel marker buoys ... that is your safe landing zone. Flaps, lower speed ... safe landing. Welcome to the Fleets Bay Parts Dock. Doug Linn Charter Manager Misty Moorings, Inc Triptic@mistymoorings.com