Lower portion of Wrangell Narrows chart
Wrangell Narrows is the primary north-south route through the eastern side of the Alaskan panhandle. Stretching from just north and west of Wrangell up to Petersburg, this channel is reported to have the world’s highest density of navigation buoys and beacons.
Shallow and intricate, and in some places only a couple hundred yards across, this would be an exciting place to meet large, fast moving oncoming traffic. The 400 foot long Alaska State Ferry boats use Wrangell Narrows as part of their regularly scheduled routes, and we were happy that we didn’t see any during our transit. In fact, the only other boats we saw at all were a few small fishing skiffs.
Day mark with resting eagle
The red and green buoys and day marks are the primary aids in the channel. The buoy system in the US is unofficially known as “red right returning” – that means that red buoys are kept on the starboard side when headed inland, and green buoys are kept to port.
The other navigation aids are range markers. These are a set of two orange signs with a vertical white stripe down the center. The two signs are placed on land on a line marking the center of the channel. To stay in the channel, the boat pilot just has to keep the two white stripes lined up with one another. If the front white line is to the left, that means that the boat is heading out of the channel on the port side and the pilot needs to correct to head back to the center of the channel.
Range markers – need to turn to port to bring the two markers in line with one another
We had an uneventful transit of Wrangell Narrows, which is the very best kind!
Buoy “WN” marking entry to Wrangell Narrows, and also providing a rest stop for sea lions. Note the sea lion in the penthouse – we’re not sure how he got there…
