Sincerely, Denise

PELICAN AT THE DOCK

Thursday, June 25^th

John’s dream plan was to go from here to the outside Gulf of Alaska waters and transit down the outside of Chichagof Island. If we’d left a few days ago it would have been perfect weather conditions. He’s been watching the forecast slowly deteriorate the past few days, and just now this morning made the call that we aren’t going to the outside. We could get out there today easily as the seas are calm, but by Monday the predictions are quite windy and 9’ seas which is too much for us. Maybe we will get favorable conditions out of Sitka and be able to go down the outside Baranof. Abells had planned to return to Hoonah today to do some more sightseeing and laundry before the next week of travel to Sitka, where we are due to all arrive on July 1^st. Bryans are finishing up a week with guests in Glacier Bay, and will rejoin the fleet as well. We are staying here one more night to see if the weather forecast improves for a potential run but I doubt it. By 9:30am John convinced me to go out fishing with him, which is an hour run in the whaler just to get to the fishing grounds. I bundled up with all my arsenal, turtleneck, wool sweater and socks, full rubber raingear, a packed lunch and we were ready to roll. We cruised down Lisianski Strait which connects Lisianski Inlet to the Gulf of Alaska with glassy water the entire way. As we approached the transition to the outside, the swells began to roll in and the water was a bit more rough. After getting past that and about a mile offshore we were able to get into more settled water. I find it scary out there in the big swells, and these were at my limit – any more than that and I’d be crying to go back. It’s big water in a 16’ boat! After trolling for a couple hours and only catching (and releasing) bottom fish, we decided to return to the harbor. OH, but first a story, when we were pulling in one of the rockfish the hook came loose before we could put him back down at the bottom with our descender. Unfortunately, he was over pressurized and floated on the surface unable to get back down on his own. As mentioned, we were a mile offshore, no islands or rocks anywhere near us. About 4 minutes later out of nowhere comes a giant Eagle who swoops down and retrieves the rockfish and flies back to land! It all happened so fast I didn’t have time to get a good photo but it’s always a thrill to watch close up. Their “Eagle Eyes” are impressive to see that prey opportunity a mile away! Our return to the boat was just in time as it started to sprinkle on the way back, and later that afternoon a downpour moved in for the rest of the evening. Regardless of the rain, we ventured out to support the community by having dinner at the local “Rosie’s Bar and Grill” which was Pizza and Chowder because their grill had just broken that day. Rosie’s was quite the raunchy bar in its heyday, so if you’re not busy then google it and ready about what used to go down at Rosie’s! I would expound here, but it is NSFW, read about it and you’ll see why.