Day 57 – Deep Bay to Chapin Bay

∞ Whales! Whales! Whales! And Fishing Boats. Today we had intended to go from Deep Bay to Takatz Bay in Chatham Straits, a place we had been before (where John and Anne had caught their fish), approximately a 6 hour run. As we turned the corner coming out of Peril Strait to head south into Chatham Strait, fishing boats by the dozen showed up on the horizon, they were everywhere. Mostly purse seiners that we could see. They were fishing the coast from Kelp Bay all the way down to Takatz. Probably close to 100 of them total and listening to their radio chatter was pretty entertaining. As we neared Takatz Bay, it became evident that they had made that destination (among others) their home base and even if we could have eeked out a spot in the cove, we’d be surrounded by these behemoths and they have to run their generators or engines constantly to keep their water cooling systems going to keep the fish cold. So, even though we were all ready to be done for the day, we decided to pass on Takatz and push on to Chapin Bay, around the corner on Admiralty Island in the Frederick Sound. Now we are poised for the next jump off either to Petersburg then down the Wrangell Narrows again, or John has been contemplating Keku Strait, which is a minefield channel full of hazards and rocks. I’m voting against that decision so we’ll see what happens. Risk/Reward?! Not worth it to me but it is supposed to be a beautiful passage, and would cut time off our journey.

∞ On our journey to Chapin Bay we saw lots of whale spouts and bodies and tails of the humpbacks in the area who are plentiful. As I said, it never gets old to watch the wildlife. We were also fortunate to see a very large Orca near where the fishing boats were located, surely feeding on the salmon run. He or she was solo and very large. Upon arrival in Chapin Cove there was a juvenile brown bear on the shoreline, so adorable! He or she was too large to be a cub but clearly not full grown. We surmised that he was freshly pushed from the nest as the Momma Bears do that when the cubs are about 18 months. So now he is at his most vulnerable stage in life to stay alive. He has to make a den and fill up on enough food to last the winter. Beth and I tried to get some crab, it sure looked like a crab area with sandy beaches, but our pots were absolutely empty. The bay is filled with Giant Reddish Orange Jelly Fish that are pretty but scary at the same time. It was an absolutely beautiful day into the evening with blue skies and sun and no wind. Just the predatory horse flies made it a challenge to be outside. We were the only ones in the cove so it was a very peaceful stop.