Day 47 – Takatz Bay to Deep Bay

Beautiful, calm seas this morning in Chatham Strait as we now head north to enter the Peril Straits (not a good name) for the narrow passage to Sitka from the backside. This is a less exposed route than going up and over Baranof Island to Sitka. After a “quick” 6 hour run, lots of humpback sightings, and passing lots of fishing boats, we arrived at our destination for the day, Deep Cove. We found a great little spot just inside the cove tucked behind a little islet and set the anchor down. The bay is riddled with commercial crab pots so Anne and I dispatched in the whaler and set down the pots among the commercial ones, we counted 52 in the immediate area. Deep Bay was a wildlife cathedral. There was a resident eagle family right on shore next to the boat that kept us entertained as we watched them fish all afternoon and teach their youngster how to hunt. Lots of seals were on the rocks right outside the harbor and frequently swam around the little islet next to us feeding on bait balls. We saw what appeared to be an albino seal, he was pure cream color and so beautiful! We pulled the pots and came up with 3 keepers one of which was a giant 8”-er – so we decided to put the pots down again closer to the boat and see what we could get but clearly we were in the wrong place because all we caught were small spider crab and sea urchins. OH well. 3 is enough to feed us. Dinner tonight was the fresh salmon that Anne caught along with sautéed pea pods, onion & mushrooms, and an Asian slaw.