MAY 26, 2022 – ELL COVE TO DEEP BAY

Pulled the anchor at 7:30 this morning heading for Deep Bay which is just east of the Sergius Narrows, which have to be transited at slack water tomorrow. Deep Bay is about 25 miles from Sitka, and we’ve decided to head in a day early, Shan and David need connectivity to get some work done since it’s a 3 day weekend ahead. The weather is still amazing, we’ve had no rain since the drizzle through Keku Strait, otherwise it’s sunny and calm each day – we feel so lucky! Our transit to Deep Bay was very uneventful and in fact not as scenic as the past few days. The first part of Peril Strait is very wide kind of like the Johnstones, and while beautiful, just not as interesting terrain. I know it’s like we repeat the same words, but the cruise was smooth, the sun shone high, with a few clouds today but still gorgeous. Shannon told me the reason it’s called Peril Strait is because a group of early explorers ate the shellfish and many died of paralytic shellfish poisoning! I can’t fact check her but I’m sure she is right, she has all these great reference books on the area. I had always thought it was because the straits can get all whipped up and unpleasant. We arrived in Deep Bay around 1PM and anchored right behind the little island just inside the entrance on the left side of the bay. Historically ( well ok, the two times we’ve been here before ) we have had great luck crabbing here and so we’ve been anticipating finally getting some crab. Shan and I have been so discouraged by the dire results of our recent hunting and gathering efforts. We need a win, but it also begs the question, where are all the creatures? John couldn’t even pull up a rock fish yesterday, just doing catch and release. I wonder if this part of Alaska is just getting fished out, or whether we just aren’t here at the right time? There are no sea otters here so can’t blame them this time. We did notice a dozen commercial pots in the bay upon arrival but I thought crab season hadn’t opened yet for commercial fishing. Normally the bay is riddled with pots, hundreds, so we are gleeful at the prospect of having first crack at the crab (pun intended). Anyway, getting pots down asap was the first order of business, followed by a book, which resulted in a nap for me. OH, but on the way back from dropping the pots we saw a bear on the beach near our boat, but he was scared away by the sound of our engines. We think it was a black bear, they are more skittish - he never reappeared during our stay. The pots were only down for about 2-1/2 hours but we wanted to check them anyway to see what was happening, which was…..a lot of females in our pots, no keepers. We had one male but he was small and soft shell so had to pitch him back. We repositioned the pots and laid them to rest overnight hoping for at least a couple keepers to reward us for all the time we’ve spent trying! Time will tell. The sun here in Deep Bay (deep meaning distance, not depth) sets over the evening exactly down the length of the bay, so we had sun until 9PM tonight, which was glorious! Our boats act as greenhouses when it’s sunny and get very warm, which we welcome while we have it. The weather can turn on us at any time!