Sincerely, Denise

ELFIN COVE TO PELICAN

Wednesday, June 24^th

Happy Birthday to my birthday twin and stepdaughter Ashley! She’s 33 and today I am now 65. My brother Don sent me the funniest birthday message which said “from now on you get to check that box on all forms you fill out that says [  ] 65 and over” yes, it’s true. Medicare here we come. Thank you to everyone that sent me birthday wishes, it truly warms my heart that you remembered.

Today we had a short cruise, just 25 miles, from Elfin Cove to the next cute town of Pelican, also built on stilts and boardwalks but on a larger scale. The infrastructure here is quite nice with water and power on the docks, and even a place to dump garbage which we sorely needed. After processing all the halibut a few days ago, I had reams of paper towels that I had used in between all the fillets to absorb the moisture before vacuum sealing. One does not dispose of those in the general trash compactor we have on board, we bundle them up in an airtight bag and store in the engine room until we can dispose of them. Let’s just say our engine room has smelled pretty rank for the past couple of days! It was a relief to get them off the boat. Anyway, once securely docked, and once the latest downpour had subsided, we set out to explore Pelican with the Abells. Whereas Elfin Cove’s boardwalk is circular and circumnavigates the tiny island upon which it's situated, Pelican is a one-mile-long straight boardwalk. We first met the purveyor of the Lisianski Café, only open for breakfast and lunch, and he gave us a quick rundown of where everything was in town. He was just closing but offered to fire up his grill again if we were hungry, so nice…but we’d had lunch. We moved on to the General Store where we talked at length with the owners who moved here with their family (13 children, 6 of which were still at home) and took on the ownership of the store just 4 years prior. They were absolutely delightful and he is now the mayor of Pelican! Pelican is the second smallest incorporated city in the State of Alaska with just 90 full time residents. It is a mix between commercial fishermen and eco-tourism or fishing lodges. Pelican was the home of a cannery and cold storage that was the lifeblood of the community since it began operations in 1942. It has since been decommissioned but remains on the waterfront and is utilized by a private company for cold storage. Once again it is a village of hardy individuals looking for the remote existence, and also transient folks who just come up in the summers for the fishing. After walking the extent of the boardwalk, the weather had continued to improve to the point where we had sun breaks so we took off in the whaler on an exploration cruise. Directly across the channel are gorgeous waterfalls so we first checked those out. The water was smooth so next we zipped down the inlet to some buildings we spotted in the distance and found another small settlement down there with some homes on stilts and also one very nicely built compound. We rounded the corner to witness a Sea Lion aggressively chasing bait, launching his full body out of the water and then diving down, like a competition breast stroke swimmer. Wait, what do I spy in the distance? A brown mass on shore and yes…it’s moving! Brown Bear! First one we’ve seen in a while. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get very close to shore due to the extended tidelands, and we violated the first rule of exploration which is to “always bring a camera and binoculars” so all we could do is squint and enjoy from a distance. We moved on and motored into a little tiny bay where we saw Eagles circling and diving to find huge amounts of bait in the water, which is probably due to the Sea Lion herding it all back there. The Eagles retreated to the trees and just watched us, unwilling to fish with our presence, so we soon left them in peace to feed. The weather turned a little chilly from there and the chop picked up so we decided to high tail back to the harbor. Birthday dinner tonight was some tenderloin steaks, grilled prawns, roasted brussels, and wedge salad. Connie surprised me with an angel food cake and ice cream for my birthday which was delish! Played 5 Crowns, Connie whipped us all, and called it a night around 11PM, late for this birthday girl! Pelican might just be my new favorite town in Alaska.

Beautiful evening from the dock in Pelican

One of the homes in Pelican, no roads everyone has to arrive to their homes via boat

Another blurry brown bear picture

More homes in the outskirts of Pelican

Beautiful views up the Lisianski Inlet

Out for a cruise!

Town of Pelican from the water

My XTRARUF guy

Flowers and abandoned boats

Salt Marsh Flats looking west from boardwalk

Zoom in on the sign on chicken coop, Fluffy Butt Hut

Plover (I think) surfing for bits

Juvenile Eagle

Pelican City Hall

View of the Harbor and landscape from the Boardwalk, Huntress in the background

Waterfall across the channel from Pelican

More Pelican shoreline....

Coming down Lisianski Inlet on our way to Pelican. Although it's raining and gloomy one can see how gorgeous the surrounding peaks are, and only imagine what it would be on a clear day!

Our route today from Elfin to Pelican