DEEP BAY TO SUKOI INLET

Monday, June 29^th

4:45 he said, that’s when we need to get up, so we can cast off by 5AM. UGH. Early. We have to be at Sergius Narrows at 5:20 for slack. You ever have one of those nights where you know you can’t miss the alarm the next morning because of a flight or some critical obligation? For some reason that’s how I slept. In increments all night, but basically from 3AM on I was awake. Terrible night’s sleep! Anyway, we cast off from the Bryan’s boat trying hard not to disturb them even though 2 giant diesel engines probably don’t qualify for relaxing white noise. We proceeded through Sergius Narrows which was a complete nothing burger, hardly even a swirl. It has the potential to cook at 7 knots and it is very narrow where that occurs, so it is always good to follow “slack” protocol. Our destination of Sukoi Inlet was only a 15 mile run, so we had the anchor down by 7AM. I immediately collapsed on the couch and took a nap for an hour before dragging myself out to set crab pots. I had no idea where to put them so guessed and will wait and see what happens. John left for fishing around 11AM and I did some chores then broke out a book, which of course put me to sleep in no time. 2 hours later, and wonderfully rested after a second nap, I dragged myself out of bed so as to not ruin my chances of sleeping tonight! John had returned from fishing with no luck, today he was fishing for bottom fish because it was a bit windy out and he didn’t want to go out in the big water. Since there was a break in the rain, I decided I’d better see if there were any crab in my pots, and it was a bust. First pot had one undersized Dungeness, and the second pot had a spider crab and those same large shells we’ve been catching. I repositioned them to new locations and decided to leave them overnight. We had a nice cozy evening just the two of us, with some rib steaks, roasted baby reds, and the rest of the corn salad from the night before. Cribbage and good music soon had me yawning and ready to retire. A very nice relaxing evening and restful night.

Again - have no photos from today because it rained most of the day. Here's more favorites from the 2018 trip.

Our son-in-law Spencer, diving off the boat in Glacier Bay. Ah...youth.

Lucky Dog and Esperanca at Margerie Glacier, our first trip to AK

PAVLOF HARBOR TO DEEP BAY

Sunday, June 28th

John is anxious to get to the fishing grounds, which for King Salmon is only on the outside – meaning the Gulf of Alaska, there is no King Salmon retention allowed in the interior. This meant he was chomping at the bit to get going. First though, Connie and I had to go retrieve our pots (at 6:30AM). Luckily no rain! Crabbing was a near bust with everything from a giant starfish, a rock crab, a spider crab, and a bullhead, and lots of seaweed in and on our pots. The last pot pulled had 2 nice keepers in it however! So not totally skunked. Speaking of which, we were completely skunked on prawns. It was really strange because normally we get at least one creature from below, one prawn, or spider crab, something…..but both traps had absolutely zero life inside. It was quite disappointing. Such is life on Huntress. Huntress needs to up her game.

Anyway, back at the boat, we soon left Pavlof Harbor headed to Deep Bay for one night with the Bryans, while the Abells headed for Appleton Cove which was on their bucket list for this trip. Whales again everywhere along the journey, especially on the opposite shore across Chatham Strait, spouts every few minutes in the distance. Chatham Strait is known to be notoriously nasty but today it was a millpond as we traveled down to Peril Strait which is the interior route to Sitka, making it super easy to spot the whale spouts. After a nice 4 hour cruise in beautiful Chatham, we turned the corner into Peril Strait and found ourselves in the wind and chop. You might think Peril Strait is named for the weather conditions or high seas, but it’s not. It is named as such because in 1799 a group of Aleut sea otter hunters (hired by the Russian explorers), perished due to toxic shellfish poisoning, over 150 died. Nearby landmarks in Peril Strait are named Deadman’s Reach, and Poison Cove, also in reference to this event. PSP or paralytic shellfish poisoning is something that we have to watch out for in current times as well – Red Tide is another expression. They say only eat the bivalves (mussels, clams, oysters) in months with R's which obviously doesn’t include May through August, which is when we travel. We do consume shellfish from one trusted spot up in Desolation Sound, and have done so for years, but it’s always a concern. As we approached our destination of Deep Bay through a shallow channel, a very large humpback surfaced right in our path. John cut the engines and coasted until it surfaced again so we could see where it was heading, but each time it surfaced it was headed a different direction and basically criss-crossing our route! So we had to pop the boat in and out of gear as we slowly made our way into Deep Bay where Far Niente threw down and anchor and we tied alongside. We ventured out later in the whaler in the wind (brrr) to explore the bays across the channel named Baby Bear Bay and Bear Bay, thinking maybe we’d see a bear, but no such luck. We did get another humpback show though! This humpback was feeding in water as shallow as 20’ at times! Our Garmin showed thick layers of bait in the water so not surprising. A sea lion was also feeding in the bay. We came together for dinner with our respective meals on Far Niente and had a lively discussion on all the transgressions we had as teenagers. Fun night.

I never tire of a good tail shot, a bit blurry as the water was choppy, but still...

Sea Lion feeding near us

This guy feeding so close to shore, it's only 20' where he is at

Showing off his pecs

Chatham Strait, so smooth!

Our journey today

PAVLOF HARBOR ON ANCHOR

Saturday, June 27^th

Rain, rain, rain. It has been a wetter than normal trip in our opinion. The past two times we were in Alaska we didn’t get near this amount of rain. I am totally ok with some overnight or early morning showers, but I’d really like it to stay clear for longer stretches of time! It was lightly raining when I got up at 6:30 this morning, then turned into a monsoon, except no wind. Just POURING. I really wanted to deploy crab and prawn traps this morning but no such luck yet. The radar shows a break between 11AM-1PM so am hoping it’s right. UnforgetAbell and Far Niente are due to join us this afternoon, coming in from Hoonah. The other boat left this morning so now we have the bay to ourselves. The flotilla arrived early afternoon and still no break in the rain, which is getting to me. Watched a movie and had a pity party. Then, a miracle occurred – around 5PM the skies cleared up so I rushed out to set pots with my accomplice Connie! We both set 2 crab pots and then deployed the 2 prawn traps. The water was so calm in Freshwater Bay where we put them down, and the temperature was actually quite warm for an overcast day. I have high hopes for this location, we will see tomorrow morning. Dinner tonight was appetizers for dinner on our boat, and a recap from Bill and Lorraine about their week in Glacier Bay, which was fabulous! I made PF Chang "inspired" lettuce wraps, a new recipe for me, and they were fantastic! Meatballs from Abells, Crab Dip from Bryans, and potstickers rounded out our protein rich happy hour.

I have absolutely no photos from today, so revisiting 2018 trip with a favorite shot from Glacier Bay. 

PELICAN TO PAVLOF HARBOR

Friday, June 26^th

Well….the weather report this morning isn’t great going forward, so time to bail on the idea of going outside down to Sitka. Predictions are for seas to build to 7-10’ with little spacing, and even near us in Icy Strait due to get ugly by this afternoon. After filling up the whaler when the gas dock opened at 8AM we cast off for our next destination. We’ve been on docks for several days now so really want to get somewhere to anchor out, either Swanson Harbor which is 66 miles, or Pavlof Harbor which is 90 miles, both long haul days. We decide to set out that direction and make a choice when necessary to choose a heading. The fog was to the deck this morning when I got up this morning at 5:30, but it cleared up by the time we left at 9AM. Well not completely but at least the first half hour was clear then we entered another fog bank that lasted about three hours. About an hour before we passed Hoonah the fog was gone and we had a lovely cruise with sun streaming in the windows, heating up the pilothouse to the point we had to open some windows. And Humpbacks! Everywhere, including one breaching all the way out of the water. I couldn’t get my camera dialed in soon enough so the memory will just have to live on in my head! So exciting.

When the time came we decided to go all the way to Pavlof so we could stay two nights and not have to move again tomorrow. Seas were favorable although the wind later whipped up to 20mph, but it was following seas and wind so a fairly smooth ride for us. We knew nothing about Pavlof Harbor except for a blog we follow called “Slowboat” which is a group of boats led by the Slowboat folks on tours of Alaska. They’d been to Pavlof in prior years and spoke of good crabbing and lots of bears. There’s apparently an active salmon stream in the bay where salmon return each year and during that run the bears line the shore leading up to the small waterfall and fish ladder. As mentioned, the salmon are not running right now, so doubtful we will see bears. We pulled into the harbor around 6:30 to find just one other boat in here and easily anchored with plenty of distance between us. They bay is not charted very well on Garmin so once again Garmin shows a swath of blue area with no depths charted so we really don’t know how deep it is in here. There are also a couple of rocks on the chart, only one of which we can see. We played it safe and stayed in the 90’ section of the bay and have a nice anchorage, out of the path of any swells coming in from Chatham. We are however fully exposed to any wind coming from the Northeast, but predictions are for settled conditions the next few days so we are good with this location. Made a delish dinner of teriyaki chicken rice bowls with sauteed veggies, played some cards, and watched a video on the Bore Tide out of Turnagain Arm, near Anchorage. Apparently, people flock to this place to surf the incoming tide which arrives as a wall of water that sweeps up the channel through mud flats. Supposedly a big attraction for experienced surfers. I had never heard of this phenomenon before so wanted to learn about it. They get tide swings of up to 30’~~crazy!  

This is what we woke up to after a beautiful day yesterday

This might just be the coolest photo I have ever captured. A fog rainbow. The reflection or refraction on the bottom, not sure which it is, makes this looks like an eyeball or as Jenn said, a portal to a different realm.

Approaching the next fog bank going up Lisianski Inlet towards Icy Strait

Lisianski Strait

Driving by the entrance to Glacier Bay, it's too bad it is cloudy because the mountains in GB are towering spires of snow, so stunning

More mountain shots looking back towards Glacier Bay

PELICAN AT THE DOCK

Thursday, June 25^th

John’s dream plan was to go from here to the outside Gulf of Alaska waters and transit down the outside of Chichagof Island. If we’d left a few days ago it would have been perfect weather conditions. He’s been watching the forecast slowly deteriorate the past few days, and just now this morning made the call that we aren’t going to the outside. We could get out there today easily as the seas are calm, but by Monday the predictions are quite windy and 9’ seas which is too much for us. Maybe we will get favorable conditions out of Sitka and be able to go down the outside Baranof. Abells had planned to return to Hoonah today to do some more sightseeing and laundry before the next week of travel to Sitka, where we are due to all arrive on July 1^st.  Bryans are finishing up a week with guests in Glacier Bay, and will rejoin the fleet as well. We are staying here one more night to see if the weather forecast improves for a potential run but I doubt it. By 9:30am John convinced me to go out fishing with him, which is an hour run in the whaler just to get to the fishing grounds. I bundled up with all my arsenal, turtleneck, wool sweater and socks, full rubber raingear, a packed lunch and we were ready to roll. We cruised down Lisianski Strait which connects Lisianski Inlet to the Gulf of Alaska with glassy water the entire way. As we approached the transition to the outside, the swells began to roll in and the water was a bit more rough. After getting past that and about a mile offshore we were able to get into more settled water. I find it scary out there in the big swells, and these were at my limit – any more than that and I’d be crying to go back. It’s big water in a 16’ boat! After trolling for a couple hours and only catching (and releasing) bottom fish, we decided to return to the harbor. OH, but first a story, when we were pulling in one of the rockfish the hook came loose before we could put him back down at the bottom with our descender. Unfortunately, he was over pressurized and floated on the surface unable to get back down on his own. As mentioned, we were a mile offshore, no islands or rocks anywhere near us. About 4 minutes later out of nowhere comes a giant Eagle who swoops down and retrieves the rockfish and flies back to land! It all happened so fast I didn’t have time to get a good photo but it’s always a thrill to watch close up. Their “Eagle Eyes” are impressive to see that prey opportunity a mile away! Our return to the boat was just in time as it started to sprinkle on the way back, and later that afternoon a downpour moved in for the rest of the evening. Regardless of the rain, we ventured out to support the community by having dinner at the local “Rosie’s Bar and Grill” which was Pizza and Chowder because their grill had just broken that day. Rosie’s was quite the raunchy bar in its heyday, so if you’re not busy then google it and ready about what used to go down at Rosie’s!  I would expound here, but it is NSFW, read about it and you’ll see why.

LIttle rockfish on the line, till it jumped off and sealed its fate, see Eagle below

Can't tell from the picture but this Eagle has the fish in its talons

No idea what this little guy was but loved the pretty green fins

Pelican was named for the boat "Pelican" not the bird, as there are no Pelicans here

Lastly, a little video map of where we went fishing today

ELFIN COVE TO PELICAN

Wednesday, June 24^th

Happy Birthday to my birthday twin and stepdaughter Ashley! She’s 33 and today I am now 65. My brother Don sent me the funniest birthday message which said “from now on you get to check that box on all forms you fill out that says [  ] 65 and over” yes, it’s true. Medicare here we come. Thank you to everyone that sent me birthday wishes, it truly warms my heart that you remembered.

Today we had a short cruise, just 25 miles, from Elfin Cove to the next cute town of Pelican, also built on stilts and boardwalks but on a larger scale. The infrastructure here is quite nice with water and power on the docks, and even a place to dump garbage which we sorely needed. After processing all the halibut a few days ago, I had reams of paper towels that I had used in between all the fillets to absorb the moisture before vacuum sealing. One does not dispose of those in the general trash compactor we have on board, we bundle them up in an airtight bag and store in the engine room until we can dispose of them. Let’s just say our engine room has smelled pretty rank for the past couple of days! It was a relief to get them off the boat. Anyway, once securely docked, and once the latest downpour had subsided, we set out to explore Pelican with the Abells. Whereas Elfin Cove’s boardwalk is circular and circumnavigates the tiny island upon which it's situated, Pelican is a one-mile-long straight boardwalk. We first met the purveyor of the Lisianski Café, only open for breakfast and lunch, and he gave us a quick rundown of where everything was in town. He was just closing but offered to fire up his grill again if we were hungry, so nice…but we’d had lunch. We moved on to the General Store where we talked at length with the owners who moved here with their family (13 children, 6 of which were still at home) and took on the ownership of the store just 4 years prior. They were absolutely delightful and he is now the mayor of Pelican! Pelican is the second smallest incorporated city in the State of Alaska with just 90 full time residents. It is a mix between commercial fishermen and eco-tourism or fishing lodges. Pelican was the home of a cannery and cold storage that was the lifeblood of the community since it began operations in 1942. It has since been decommissioned but remains on the waterfront and is utilized by a private company for cold storage. Once again it is a village of hardy individuals looking for the remote existence, and also transient folks who just come up in the summers for the fishing. After walking the extent of the boardwalk, the weather had continued to improve to the point where we had sun breaks so we took off in the whaler on an exploration cruise. Directly across the channel are gorgeous waterfalls so we first checked those out. The water was smooth so next we zipped down the inlet to some buildings we spotted in the distance and found another small settlement down there with some homes on stilts and also one very nicely built compound. We rounded the corner to witness a Sea Lion aggressively chasing bait, launching his full body out of the water and then diving down, like a competition breast stroke swimmer. Wait, what do I spy in the distance? A brown mass on shore and yes…it’s moving! Brown Bear! First one we’ve seen in a while. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get very close to shore due to the extended tidelands, and we violated the first rule of exploration which is to “always bring a camera and binoculars” so all we could do is squint and enjoy from a distance. We moved on and motored into a little tiny bay where we saw Eagles circling and diving to find huge amounts of bait in the water, which is probably due to the Sea Lion herding it all back there. The Eagles retreated to the trees and just watched us, unwilling to fish with our presence, so we soon left them in peace to feed. The weather turned a little chilly from there and the chop picked up so we decided to high tail back to the harbor. Birthday dinner tonight was some tenderloin steaks, grilled prawns, roasted brussels, and wedge salad. Connie surprised me with an angel food cake and ice cream for my birthday which was delish! Played 5 Crowns, Connie whipped us all, and called it a night around 11PM, late for this birthday girl! Pelican might just be my new favorite town in Alaska.

Beautiful evening from the dock in Pelican

One of the homes in Pelican, no roads everyone has to arrive to their homes via boat

Another blurry brown bear picture

More homes in the outskirts of Pelican

Beautiful views up the Lisianski Inlet

Out for a cruise!

Town of Pelican from the water

My XTRARUF guy

Flowers and abandoned boats

Salt Marsh Flats looking west from boardwalk

Zoom in on the sign on chicken coop, Fluffy Butt Hut

Plover (I think) surfing for bits

Juvenile Eagle

Pelican City Hall

View of the Harbor and landscape from the Boardwalk, Huntress in the background

Waterfall across the channel from Pelican

More Pelican shoreline....

Coming down Lisianski Inlet on our way to Pelican. Although it's raining and gloomy one can see how gorgeous the surrounding peaks are, and only imagine what it would be on a clear day!

Our route today from Elfin to Pelican

ELFIN COVE AT THE DOCK

Tuesday, June 23^rd

The boys got up early this morning and ran out to the fishing grounds which is about an hour down the coast to where the guide boats go. It is still flat calm in the Gulf of Alaska so they were able to easily get out there. Connie and I spent the morning on our respective vessels having a leisurely morning which I spent cooking up a storm in the galley and I think she spent it doing financial stuff for all the many things she manages. I decided to make a new recipe for Zuppa Toscana which is sausage, kale, potato (or gnocchi) soup. I couldn’t find gnocchi so looked up on the internet to see what I could substitute and Google recommended tortellini so that’s what I used. The soup was great for a few hours, but by the next day the tortellini had completely taken over all the liquids and absorbed everything, and I am left with a pile of mushy pasta that is headed overboard later today (June 25). I made a giant bowl of green salad that we can feed off for a few days, and some crab louis dressing from scratch so we can have crab louis salads for lunch today, consuming the last of my crab catch. Also mixed up a giant bowl of slurry for my prawn bait. Smelly stuff. The boys came back with a sad report of no fish to speak of, except for lots of pinks (humpies), which are not great eating fish unless consumed within a few hours. They could be used for smoking and canning but we skip keeping them and will wait for the Kings and Silvers.

The weather cleared up somewhat so Connie and I decided to take the kayaks out for a nice long paddle in the afternoon and it was just so beautiful. We paddled out in front of the docks and around a little islet, completely exposed to the opening of the Gulf which was still flat calm. Eagles were perched on rocks and in trees and there was even a Sea Lion diving about near us. We made sure he knew we were there, wouldn’t want to take a tumble from him surfacing near us and then I’d probably jump out of my skin and tip over! We paddled back into the inner harbor of Elfin Cove which is lined with homes and fishing lodges, some homes dilapidated and abandoned, others spiffy and new. Just as we were turning to head back to the boats, we got some light rain to urge us to paddle faster. I was hoping for some hot chocolate when we got back, as I was chilled to the bone, but settled for herbal tea as it seems I failed to stock hot chocolate. As the rain got more serious, we played some afternoon cards (“Whiskey Poker”) with the Abells and then decided we should go support the local economy and had dinner up at the Coho Bar and Grill, burgers and beers. I was able to strike up a conversation with a couple of locals sitting up at the bar and picked their brains about life in Elfin Cove and why they chose this remote existence which was fascinating. The answer I most get when I talk to locals living in small villages is that they like the scenery, the peace and quiet, the fishing, and the fact there are very few people. It has to be a rough existence over the winters.

Brady Glacier- view from the boat looking north

Loved this photo of Brady Glacier in the distance, the boys returning from fishing and a seaplane taking off

And we have loft!

Boys returning from fishing, they got soaked this morning

Miss Connie on our paddle adventure

This guy/gal didn't seem to be bothered by us

The landscape is so rugged

The compound of one of the oldest (longest term) residents in Hoonah

The fishing boat shack in Elfin Cove

This is a map of where the boys went fishing today