EIGHT FATHOM BIGHT AT ANCHOR

Sunday, June 21^st

Happy Father’s Day and it’s also Summer Solstice! As my father would say, “after today the days are getting shorter.” Woke up to Miami Beach again! No wind, bountiful sunshine, ah….this is the way it’s supposed to be. I quietly got up and let my skipper sleep in since he had a fairly sleepless night. Eventually Connie was also up and we set out to retrieve our crab traps – Connie had a female in one and a bullhead fish in the other. I scored two keepers, one missing a claw, and a few females but nothing at all what we expected since the commercial crabbers clearly think this is a hot spot. We decided to move them into the back bay closer to our boats where the commercial crabbers also had set some pots in 20’ of water. Today was glorious sunshine all day and no wind, our best weather day yet, and so nice to be on anchor not at a dock. I spent the morning making some white chicken chili for future days I don’t feel like cooking, and with the leftover chicken made some buffalo chicken wing dip for a future happy hour, both headed to the freezer. Also whipped up some pico de gallo for tonight’s dinner of halibut tacos with our fresh hali! Then John and I spent an hour vacuum sealing our haul from yesterday. Next up was a very long kayak trip for Connie and me, gliding through the smooth waters surrounding us, again looking for bears. None. We think maybe it’s because there is no water feature back here, no stream where salmon would return to, but who knows. Chichagof Island is supposed to have the largest population of brown bears in the world, so we had higher expectations! We pulled our pots later in the afternoon, Connie got one keeper and a large starfish, and I caught the bullhead this time, but nothing else. So much for crabbing here. Tonight was the first time it was warm enough to have dinner outside, and we spent the entire evening until close to 10PM, relaxing and visiting with the Abells on the back deck, it was a superb night. Lucky us. 

A BIG ONE

Our two anchor drags

At Anchor in Miami Beach Bay!

Halibut Tacos with Spicy Slaw, Avocado Crema, and Pico de Gallo

This big tree decided to visit late last night

Sunset, 10:15PM, Glass Again

HOONAH TO EIGHT FATHOM BIGHT, PORT FREDERICK INLET

Saturday, June 20^th

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that the sun came out! We had glorious sunshine all day yesterday and today is shaping up to be the same. Was 70 degrees at 9AM this morning as we set out for a walk on the new breakwater trail that circles the harbor. It leads to the little island where the cemetery is located, but is gated off to general public access, which I totally understand. There is a cruise ship terminal a few miles north of town on “Icy Strait Point” where they’ve built a little tourist village for the cruisers. There’s a gondola and zip line, restaurants and shops, but some of the passengers make their way into Hoonah for the shops and services. There’s a carving shed where you can watch the master carvers creating totem poles but it was closed when we were there. There’s a brewery “Icy Strait Brewery” that is only open from 5PM-8PM unless the cruise ship is in town then they are open all day. Today’s cruise was short, only an hour and a half as we made our way deep into Port Frederick Inlet to a place called Eight Fathom Bight. The mountains were gorgeous on either side of us and the wind was coming from behind us making for a smooth and warm cruise. We deployed the anchor, rafted up with UnforgetAbell and prepared for some crabbing! The commercial crabbers have their pots littered in the bay, along the shoreline, so Connie and I are hoping for a good haul. The scenery is stunning and the shoreline looks bear friendly so we are hoping for some bear sightings today as we explore.

Since our arrival the wind has steadily picked up making the water slosh between the boats like a steady washing machine. After artfully deploying crabpots amongst the other 50 commercial crab pots in the bay, Connie and I decided to explore the farther reaches of the inlet as it was still a beautiful sunny day, just breezy. We went back to the very head of the inlet over a bar that showed up blue on the garmin, which means shallow.  Shallow it was not, it was 50’ and once back inside we were in pristine calm conditions, no wind and lots of sun, so we immediately dubbed it Miami Beach! We cruised the shoreline looking for bears (none) whilst plotting just how to convince the boys we should pull anchor and relocate into this back bay. On the way back out we once again did recon on the “blue bar” to make sure the depths were reliable and couldn’t find anything more shallow than 39 feet. The negotiation back at the boat was easy because we were quite exposed where we were and boys didn’t want to listen to waves slapping the hull all night either. Once relocated, we had Miami Beach for about an hour when suddenly the wind funneled over the lowest spot in the hills and our bay suddenly got all whipped up! OK, maybe it will subside, we hoped, and went on about our day. Meanwhile, John decided to throw his halibut pole over the side of the tender, which was still tied to the mothership. First catch was some sort of bullhead, dogfish looking thing, no idea what it was but unfortunately he swallowed the entire hook and bait, so his fate was sealed. John reset his bait and hook and back down it went. 30 minutes later….a barn door was on the line, woah, took John about 10 minutes to get it to the surface to see an enormous halibut, probably 45lbs. It took John and Greg to gaff it and drag it onboard where it violently flailed on the deck of the tender. Halibut can be very dangerous as they are super strong and can actually cause a lot of damage like breaking equipment or arms and legs. Eventually it expired and John was able to fillet. Needless to say, we are set on halibut for the season. To add more magic to our day, all of a sudden John saw a whale spout in the distance at the entrance to our bay! It turned out to be a humpback whale, and it came right next to our boats for a couple spouts then disappeared into the farthest back bay, never to be seen again, but Greg snapped some great pictures. By now it was too windy to go fetch crab pots, and we had a lot of work ahead of us to process the halibut, so that consumed our evening. But wait, there’s more. The aforementioned wind was still pummeling us and our anchor was slipping. Ever so slowly over the course of the evening, we were blown backwards towards the mouth of the bay. At around 9PM, John pulled anchor and maneuvered both boats back to our original position, and resigned that he would be up all night on anchor watch, and it blew….gusts up to 40 at times, it was a rocky night and again we slowly slipped anchor until finally in the middle of the night the wind died off. I slept like a baby but John slept intermittently on the pilot house settee, eventually slipping into bed around 3AM when things were again calm. What a crazy transition from calm to gale.

On our morning walk along the breakwater at Hoonah, this guy was surveying the bay, annoyed he had to move as we approached

Beautiful morning for a walk!

One more view of the cemetery, town of Hoonah in background

UnforgetAbell on approach to raft off of us in first location

Just for illustration purposes, see the white speck at the bottom? Those are our boats, this is first location we anchored, lots of exposure

Then Connie and I motored back here and declared it "MIAMI BEACH" because it was so warm and sheltered from the wind

My exploration partner, Connie

Another bay in the back

Our humpback visitor! Nice photo, Greg

This will feed us all winter long! 

48" 

JUNEAU TO HOONAH

Friday, June 19^th

Left the dock at 5AM, we are anxious to get moving along. Of course the weather predictions were wrong again and we awoke to wind that was unexpected. As we rounded the southern end of Douglas Island, we were greeted with increasing wind and building waves. We endured that for about an hour, praying it wouldn’t build even more, when over the course of about 15 minutes it went to light chop then to glass! Lucky us.

Today’s journey was about 8 hours total and it was Humpback Dodge Ball. Multiple sightings in the distance of humpbacks earlier in the journey but the last hour I was at the helm required a lot of diversion tactics. First one was a HUGE one that surfaced on my starboard side so I diverted course away from him and slowed way down. Humpbacks will surface showing you just their backs and fin, do a blow, go under again and resurface within a minute or less. BUT, if they show you a tail that means a deep dive and you have no idea when or where they will come up. So this first whale finally did a deep dive but he was so close I kept the speed very low. Sure enough out of the corner of my eye a few minutes later it surfaced just off my port side not 40’ away and headed my direction so I quickly cut power and coasted. After 5 minutes or so, and no resurfacing, I powered up and kept going, keeping a watchful eye. About 30 minutes later I spied one in the distance right in my path, as the spout shot in the air. I watched as that one also submerged with a tail shot, but nonetheless I steered 45 degrees to port and slowed way down to give it some room, it was headed away from the boat, or so I thought. A few minutes later it popped up right in my path! Cut the engines again and coasted until I felt it was safe to continue. Big whales, huge tails. Great morning! In the distance off towards the west, the mountains in the distance towards Glacier Bay rose up into the sky, gleaming dramatic white peaks that almost looked backlit like a Thomas Kincaid painting. I don’t think I got any photos of it because I felt it would never do it justice! We docked at Hoonah around 1:30PM, got settled, and wandered uptown to see what we could see. Nearly everything was closed due to the June Nineteenth holiday, but we managed to visit a small gift shop, grocery and hardware store. Oh and the bar was open “The Office” so we had to make a pit stop for a beer as well. 

Hoonah is the largest Tlingit settlement in Alaska. The story of how Hoonah was settled in the 1750s is really interesting. The “Huna” community was originally settled in Glacier Bay National Park and the outer coast. In the mid 1700s there was a mini Ice Age where the glaciers rapidly advanced within Glacier Bay and forced the community to flee as their settlement was iced over. They came to present day Hoonah and resettled there. There was also an oral history among the Tlingit about landslides and subsequent tsunamis in nearby Lituya Bay where the clan was also located, causing that population to relocate to Hoonah as well. 

Dinner tonight was on Far Niente where Bill and Lorraine started us off with scratch Lemon Drops and Old Fashioned's, then treated us to a fabulous Chicken Piccata dinner with Caesar Salad and homemade ice cream.

Looking up north into Lynn Canal then looking east with Mendenhall Glacier at end of video

Lighthouse 

Looking back at UnforgetAbell on this beautiful day, Far Niente left a day before us so they are meeting us in Hoonah

Mendenhall Glacier as seen across Douglas Island

This bar has been in the same family for 50 years

Fishing Boats on our dock getting ready for opening

The Cemetery on the little island. John took the tender over there on our 2022 trip and explored a bit, but now he'd get admonished for that.

Forgot to post the travel video from Taku to JNU so here it is below

And here is today's travel video 

JUNEAU AT THE DOCK

Tuesday, June 16th through 18th

Honestly our time in Juneau was a blur now that I am writing this on June 19^th sitting in Hoonah. I wish I had a lot to report but I really don’t, although I do have some observations to share and some funny stories. Sorry this post is so long.

CROWDS: The crowds here are MASSIVE from the Cruise Ships. There are at all times 5 to 6 cruise ships docked downtown, all the passengers scrambling to get off the boat for their “real” Alaskan experience. The cruise ships have built up an industry of souvenir shops, tshirt shops, fur shops, and more jewelry stores than I have ever seen – absolutely nuts. The cruisers also beeline for the aforementioned Red Dog Saloon for their Duck Fart Shots, or line up to the tune of 40 people in line at Tracys King Crab Shack (I personally witnessed this) to eat King Crab – which sells for $100/lb. That is crazy money for King Crab which isn’t even as good as our PNW Dungeness Crab in my opinion. Anyway, the streets and shops are packed with people. Every single day. We do get some relief in the evenings when they go back to their ships.

CRUISE SHIP NOISE: The ships typically arrive very early morning, and many leave as late as 10PM. We will be lying in bed and hear them arrive or depart because they emit this gravelly noise underwater that reverberates through the hull of our boat. As they get closer to docking, they make even more noise that crescendos and takes over the natural sounds of your boat as they engage their thrusters (3 in front and 3 in back) to maneuver into their berth. Each of us has had a moment where we were on the boat and go “ok, what’s wrong, something’s running, a pump is stuck on, etc” thinking it’s our respective vessels that are suddenly malfunctioning. Then we realize “oh, it’s just a cruise ship arriving or departing.” The noise is quite deafening. Times 6 per day.

EAGLES: There are so many Eagles here too. Especially by the garbage dump enroute to the airport. They perch on top of the lampposts that line each side of the highway sometimes two to a post but always around the area of the garbage dump. Occasionally they visit us down at the harbor, but nowhere near as many as when we were in Ketchikan.

RAVENS: I love Ravens. They are everywhere here as well. They are smart and crafty and opportunists. They have so many different cackles and calls, the least favorite of which sounds like a screaming woman. We have resident ravens at Blakely as well and have enjoyed their antics. Once when John was packing up construction debris into garbage bags and lining them up inside the garage, they were clearly watching from the trees. He came in for a short coffee break and not 10 minutes later came back outside to find them dragging the bags outside to peck at them and see what was inside. They are problem solvers and can also hold a grudge if you do them wrong. I took this from Dr. Google but it’s interesting and explains their intellect: “Although bird brains lack the folded cortex seen in mammals, Ravens pack an incredibly high number of neurons into a very small space. Research shows their forebrains (the area responsible for higher-level cognitive functions) actually have a greater density of neurons than those of primates.”  And “In the oral traditions of the Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian natives, Raven is credited with creating the earthly world, bringing light (the sun and stars) to the skies, and placing the first humans on earth. The Raven is also known for being cunning, greedy, and impulsive. Often acting out of self-interest, its humorous mischief and boundary-pushing frequently result in unexpected benefits for humanity." We learned some of this on our tour at Kasaan. So there’s my short dissertation and research on Ravens.

YES, I AM NEARLY 65, NOT 40: So, this is my funny story. Lorraine and I were getting much needed grooming at the nail salon. I had an older gentleman (er....my age) doing my pedicure. We talked a bit during the hour about families and life and at one point he looks at me and says “You must have been beautiful in your 40s” – OUCH. He instantly realized his error and backpedaled, but it was too late and too funny. He was so embarrassed. Back handed compliment. Ah yes, we all looked great in our 40s!! But I am now nearly 65 so that’s just what it is.

We visited the Mendenhall Glacier on our last day in town which is always fun. During our stay we wandered the shops some, ran a lot of errands – they have a Costco and Home Depot here, and we ate out a lot. Two nights in a row we escaped the Juneau crowds and drove over to Douglas which is on the other side of the channel to the “Island Pub” which was very good. Just locals over there, no tourists. We visited the Red Dog Saloon a couple more times for some Duck Farts which make a great dessert. We are loaded up with groceries and beverages, fuel, cleaning supplies, and all the little parts and things we needed to get. We are all ready for the next leg of our adventure. 

These two beauties perched on the cruise ship berth structure taking advantage of the view

This is our view out the back before cruise ships berth behind us. Taken at 6:15AM

This big behemoth is going to manuever into a berth right behind us, and I mean right behind. We can nearly talk to the crew from our dock!

Kind of hard to see in this video so watch on a larger screen, but this is a Jet Ski Tour Group that have traveled from Seattle through the inside passage, we see them from time to time. No thanks!

Mendenhall Glacier from Visitor Center, it's retreated quite a bit since we last saw it

While I don't like hunting or taxidermy, I couldn't help but marvel at how enormous this Coastal Brown Bear was at the Red Dog Saloon

Blurry photo unfortunately, but the tiny white specks in between the center two ships are our boats at the dock, photo taken from the Douglas side of the channel

Lastly, for another perspective, a photo take from one of the cruise ships by fellow MBYC members who happened to be on that ship, Brian Schaffer and Patty Sewell! The boys just happened to run into them in town, such a small world. Last time we were here Joy and Sandy Stewart (MBYC) were on a cruise ship in port at the same time. 

Note how close the aft of the Princess ship is to our maneuvering room. Lorraine was quite concerned about being able to get out the next day!

TAKU HARBOR TO JUNEAU

Monday, June 15^th

I may have mentioned I have a giant wicker basket that holds miscellaneous snacks, crackers, chips, nuts, the stuff we graze on during the day. My cupboard space is limited in the galley so this is my solution. I keep it in the oven so it’s not sitting on the counter taking up space. Anyway, I went to put it away yesterday afternoon and discovered that I had forgotten about the two baked potatoes that had exploded in there two nights ago, potato particles stuck to the walls of the oven – nice!! I am not sure what happened because I had indeed pierced them all with a fork prior to baking, my only thought being that I did it too early and they closed back up. Needless to say I had a little cleanup to do.

When we docked last night, we had 17’ of water under the boat.  This morning we awoke to one of the lowest tides of the year – a minus 4.2  tide and only 7’ under the boat, with even shallower depths in our path to get off the dock. This delayed our departure by a couple of hours, but it rose quickly, in fact we had a 4’ gain in just two hours. The tide today is an overall 20’ swing from low to high. Crazy tides up here this time of year! UnforgetAbell and Far Niente went ahead and left at 8am because they needed to get to Juneau and on the inside of the dock before 1:00pm or they’d be blocked by the Cruise Ships. Our moorage is a smaller float nestled between two cruise ship berths; it’s right in the middle of the action. We will be on the outside of the dock, so our timing isn’t as critical.

We pulled into Juneau around 12:30, got settled and immediately found our favorite pub, The Hangar at the Wharf, and went for lunch. Met Abells and Careys up there as well, who had already beelined for the Red Dog Saloon for the inaugural “Duck Fart” shot – the Red Dog’s claim to fame. It is a layered shot of 1/3 shot of Kahlua on the bottom, then 1/3 shot of Bailey’s Irish Crème, topped with 1/3 shot of Crown Royal. You do not sip it – you toss it back all in one gulp, that way the three liquors meld on your tongue and the finish is the Kahlua. Anyway, it sounds disgusting even to me (not a brown lover) but it is very good. The Red Dog is so popular with the cruisers that they have a walk up shot bar where you don’t even have to go inside the bar, just get your DF. However, the bar is super cool inside, great décor.

The afternoon was consumed with getting the JNU Airport to pick up our rental car, a quick stop at the store for some necessities, and back to the boat. Dinner out was at In Boca Al Lupo, a fabulous Italian restaurant we love. 

All the photos from today are just about the Red Dog Saloon visit

FORD’S TERROR TO TAKU HARBOR

Sunday, June 14th

Last night around 6pm, John and I decided to go pull the shrimp pots because we weren’t sure what the weather would be today, as it’s predicted to pour. There’s nothing less fun that pulling up shrimp pots in the rain and wind. It was a calm and beautiful evening so why not! John bought these cool line reels at the boat show this year that work like a hose reel, you just turn the crank and your line neatly wraps up. For years we’ve been hand coiling which is a lot of work and bulk. Anyway, the pots didn’t yield much, I think we got a total of 35 prawns and not large ones by any means. As we pulled the first pot out of the water and set it on the back of the whaler, these little tiny creatures the size of a maggot were dropping all over the bottom of the boat. They had made their way into the bait box feeding on the pellets and got caught in the fine mesh. At first I though it was sea lice but on closer inspection they were teeny prawn larvae, so clearly we had dropped into the maternity ward! We tried to return as many as possible to the water so they can grow up and be BIG prawns!

Today we lounged around most of the day because we had to wait for slack water at the narrows. As mentioned in previous posts, it’s a tricky entry into and out of Ford’s Terror because all the water to and from the upper reaches of the fjord has to flow in and out of a narrow and shallow entrance. If you don’t catch it at slack the currents can get up to 12 knots which is a lot, and being narrow you wouldn’t have any control over where the currents would push you which would be basically onto the rocks on either side. It is prudent to be respectful of nature’s power and wait for slack! Anyway, slack occurred around 2:30pm and we all slipped through the narrows effortlessly, after which we made our way north nearly 5 hours in the pouring rain to a place called Taku Harbor, about 25 miles south of Juneau. This will set us up for a shorter cruising day tomorrow to get to Juneau. Upon arrival at Taku around 7:30pm we all grabbed a spot on the public dock and hunkered down for the night as it continued to pour.

Many photos of our favorite waterfall, the pitcher. It's raining today so the photos are gray and dark

Fleet departing Ford's Terror, raining so it's a dark pic

Lastly, a cute photo from Wrangell where they have several bear sculptures decorated with murals

FORD'S TERROR

Sunday, June 14th, Afternoon Edition!

As we await afternoon slack to transit back out of the narrows of Ford's Terror, John's been playing with his new drone and created some amazing images - Enjoy!

FORD’S TERROR AT ANCHOR

Saturday, June 13^th

Lucky me, I woke up to the sound of waterfalls, incredibly peaceful. Last night after I did all the remaining dishes by hand, and John headed for bed, I felt like I couldn’t let go of this place just yet. I went to the back deck and sat there for another half hour just soaking in all the beauty and expressing my gratitude again. I knew that today would not be the same with the rain expected to move in. Luckily the visibility is not clouded over this morning but it is beginning to sprinkle. By tomorrow we are supposed to be in heavier rain which is unfortunate but what a gift we had yesterday. Might get the shrimp pots out today and see what we can get.

So the name Ford’s Terror invites caution by its very name. The story behind the name goes back to 1889, when H.L. Ford, a US Navy crewman who was the Master-at-Arms on a surveying party, rowed a small boat through the narrow entrance of the inlet. The tide changed while he was inside, and he was trapped in the roaring, turbulent tidal currents for six "terrifying" hours before he could safely escape!

When the rain subsided, we set some shrimp pots as I had read that shrimping is good in here. Leslie, Connie, and I set out around noon to go put down the pots and do some exploring as well. After successful deployment of the pots we made our way into the other arm of Ford’s Terror, where they don’t recommend bringing large boats because of an uncharted rocky bar that stretches across the channel at one point. It was indeed shallow being high tide and only 14’ of water when we passed over. Back in the other inlet there were snowfields and ice sheets that came all the way down to the water with waterfalls flowing in tunnels underneath, very cool. We ventured to the very head of the inlet and saw another bear! It was too shallow for us to get very close to shore, but Greg and Bill (who were in another boat) were able to venture closer to shore and get some pictures. Soon the bear got anxious and bounded away into the trees, the show was over, so we made our way back along the shoreline admiring the waterfalls and ice sheets along the way. At one point I dialed up the engine and we were zipping across the bay where we kept hearing hard slaps that sounded like a sharp wave hitting the boat but more than that. We slowed down and looked closely at the water to find little tiny ice cube size ice chunks, barely noticeable to the naked eye, so yes we were surfing among the ice bits – I am sure the bottom paint will suffer a bit from that. The rain set in eventually which cut our exploration short, the last 10 minutes back to the boat being pelted by steady rain. Seemed like a good afternoon for a movie so I invited the ladies over for a chick flick, Office Romance, with Jennifer Lopez. It was mildly entertaining, but we ate up 2 hours of down time and had a cozy afternoon. We all had a “night off” from socializing which was much needed, John and I had leftovers for dinner and watched a couple episodes of Marshalls.

Girls Trip! Adventuring

Blurry Bear pictures again, couldn't get close enough but we watched through binoculars

Because I can't get enough of this landscape, the colors, the textures, the beauty

High up on this ledge the rocks were such a pretty color in reds and golds, different from everything around it, need a geologist to explain

Selfies are so not flattering to the person taking the photo (me), who wants an ultra closeup of your face?

More waterfall pics

Ice Sheets at water level

Ice tunnels

One more blurry bear pic