JUNE 25, 2022 – WRANGELL TO BERG BAY

Oh boy are we in for it, already 60 degrees this morning at 6:30AM and climbing, not a breath of wind. A cool breeze on the docks kept it cool enough this morning but soon the teak on the boat deck was hot to the touch, so no bare feet. A commercial crabber pulled in next to us last night and today they are preparing to go offload their catch to the cold storage in the harbor. John got to talking to them for quite a while and we ended up buying 4 enormous crab from them for $7.50 each! I was going to crab today but thought, hey, why not make it easy! We killed, cleaned and cooked them at the dock then once underway, Lisa and I picked them, yielding about 8 cups of crab. These boys were big. Today we cruised to Berg Bay, on the backside of Wrangell Island, a bay with the most beautiful backdrop. The entire route was crammed with crabpots – everywhere – it was a dodge game at times. Not sure we are going to have to go crabbing anytime soon as the catch we have in the fridge will feed us lunch for a few days. We arrived at Berg Bay to find that the horse flies are insane here, the worst we have had this trip, SO DISAPPOINTING! It’s a drag because that means we sit inside instead of outside. The only relief is being on the tender underway, then they don’t bother you too much. We do have screens for all the doors so that helps keep the breeze moving. We had beautiful crab louis salads for lunch, with crab meat so fresh just being a few hours old. Lisa and I then went to set shrimp pots in the next bay over where I have caught shrimp in the past. The boys have now gone fishing and we will go retrieve the pots soon I hope.

Well shrimping was a complete bust. Caught 8 total in 2 pots, but at least they were giants, the biggest shrimp we have caught. The bay was littered with pots, so maybe overfished? Or perhaps I just didn’t place them exactly right. Oh well, I always have fun regardless. When we got back to the boat the boys were topside with bug zapper racquets having a zapping marathon, the death toll for the biting flies was impressive, but didn’t put a dent in population. We had to remain inside for the rest of the afternoon and evening.