PELICAN
TO PAVLOF HARBOR
Friday,
June 26th
Well….the
weather report this morning isn’t great going forward, so time to bail on the
idea of going outside down to Sitka. Predictions are for seas to build to 7-10’
with little spacing, and even near us in Icy Strait due to get ugly by this
afternoon. After filling up the whaler when the gas dock opened at 8AM we cast
off for our next destination. We’ve been on docks for several days now so
really want to get somewhere to anchor out, either Swanson Harbor which is 66
miles, or Pavlof Harbor which is 90 miles, both long haul days. We decide to
set out that direction and make a choice when necessary to choose a heading.
The fog was to the deck this morning when I got up this morning at 5:30, but it
cleared up by the time we left at 9AM. Well not completely but at least the
first half hour was clear then we entered another fog bank that lasted about
three hours. About an hour before we passed Hoonah the fog was gone and we had
a lovely cruise with sun streaming in the windows, heating up the pilothouse to
the point we had to open some windows. And Humpbacks! Everywhere, including one
breaching all the way out of the water. I couldn’t get my camera dialed in soon
enough so the memory will just have to live on in my head! So exciting.
When
the time came we decided to go all the way to Pavlof so we could stay two
nights and not have to move again tomorrow. Seas were favorable although the
wind later whipped up to 20mph, but it was following seas and wind so a fairly smooth
ride for us. We knew nothing about Pavlof Harbor except for a blog we follow
called “Slowboat” which is a group of boats led by the Slowboat folks on tours
of Alaska. They’d been to Pavlof in prior years and spoke of good crabbing and
lots of bears. There’s apparently an active salmon stream in the bay where
salmon return each year and during that run the bears line the shore leading up
to the small waterfall and fish ladder. As mentioned, the salmon are not
running right now, so doubtful we will see bears. We pulled into the harbor
around 6:30 to find just one other boat in here and easily anchored with plenty
of distance between us. They bay is not charted very well on Garmin so once
again Garmin shows a swath of blue area with no depths charted so we really
don’t know how deep it is in here. There are also a couple of rocks on the
chart, only one of which we can see. We played it safe and stayed in the 90’
section of the bay and have a nice anchorage, out of the path of any swells
coming in from Chatham. We are however fully exposed to any wind coming from
the Northeast, but predictions are for settled conditions the next few days so
we are good with this location. Made a delish dinner of teriyaki chicken rice
bowls with sauteed veggies, played some cards, and watched a video on the Bore
Tide out of Turnagain Arm, near Anchorage. Apparently, people flock to this
place to surf the incoming tide which arrives as a wall of water that sweeps up
the channel through mud flats. Supposedly a big attraction for experienced
surfers. I had never heard of this phenomenon before so wanted to learn about
it. They get tide swings of up to 30’~~crazy!
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