MAY 13, 2022 – KLEWNUGGIT to BAKER INLET

Last night before heading to bed we discovered our upstairs diesel heater crapped out. John had both of them serviced before we left as they are a “mission critical” system, given the average morning temperature is about 38 degrees, so it’s quite discouraging to be having this issue. Apparently there is some internal system that if the heating unit experiences 3 errors in operation that it must be reset by a technician – needless to say a technician isn’t conveniently found in the wilderness, but we are only 60 miles from Prince Rupert at this point. The boat is a meat locker this morning. Thankfully we have redundancy of systems with an electric heating system but it does require the generator to be running. Lucky Dog got to hear us fire up at 7:15 this morning, which I am sure wasn’t super relaxing given their master stateroom is in the back of their boat! We may end up having to have a new diesel heater sent up to us in Ketchikan, John will assess today. Shannon and I went to pick up the pots before we left and had great success! One pot had nearly 100 nice prawns and another had less but still a nice haul. Crabbing was less successful, although Shannon caught one enormous 8” big boy, but otherwise lots of females bloated with eggs, so happy to see that, of course we threw them back.

We decided last night to move along this afternoon to Baker Inlet, a couple hours away, shortening our trip to Prince Rupert tomorrow, and seeing someplace new. Bears reported to be there by a fellow boater just a couple days ago so we remain hopeful for a bear sighting. Baker Inlet is accessed through a very narrow (but deep) channel lined with trees hanging over the edge such that you have to have blind faith that it truly lets out into a bay ahead! It almost felt like snaking through the bayou for a few minutes as the outlet was not in sight. Indeed we came into a large bay with steep hills on either side. We motored to the very head of the inlet and anchored near shore with hopes of bears. This setting is absolutely stunning, a giant snow bowl surrounds us that rivals anything I’ve seen in Alaska. The wind was whipping for awhile but we felt very safe. Near dinner hour we were rewarded with a bear sighting! A medium sized black bear was grazing on the shoreline, not close enough for pictures but we were able to observe through the binoculars. First bear sighting of the trip! This area has some of the highest rainfall and it hasn’t disappointed these past few days when it’s been raining all day long. We had a brief respite last night after dinner and took a spin around the bay to see the bear and check out the shoreline. However with these giant snowfields comes VERY chilly temps, so it was a short ride. We definitely recommend this beautiful anchorage to our fellow boaters. UPDATE: Diesel heater fixed! Was a blown fuse.

PS – Shannon has all the pictures of us and our boat on her camera, so we don’t have much to share of us, but maybe soon I can post some, including our shrimp haul!