WRANGELL
TO PETERSBURG
Tuesday,
June 9th
And off we go to
Petersburg at 5:30am! It’s a clear and gorgeous day, overnight the temperatures
were so moderate that I had to throw covers off in the middle of the night. Had
both portholes open and there was no airflow! Dead calm. I have a very first
world problem and that is I have a big bowl of crabmeat that I need to do
something with. So enroute I made some crab stuffed mushrooms for appetizers
tonight, followed by crab cake mixture – I will fry them up tomorrow. It’s my
night to host dinner so I have a lot to get done today. Our mutual friends Brad
and Leslie are flying up today and staying with Connie and Greg for a week – we
are all excited to have them along on our adventures! The trip up to Petersburg
was calm and beautiful as we motored over to connect with Wrangell Narrows or
Christmas Tree Lane. It’s always so picturesque and so vibrant with life. The
fishing boats, big and small, are buzzing up and down the channel next to us,
tiny homes dot the shoreline where people live on and off the grid, fishing
lodges, and beautiful homes. But our big excitement was a huge tug and barge
that pulled in to transit right behind us. We saw him maneuvering outside the
entrance to the channel and it was pretty impressive. He was following our path
west towards the entrance but just before he turned the corner to go up the
channel he took this big ole’ barge on a supercharged 360 to get it lined up
correctly to up the channel. I guess you can’t just turn 90 degrees without
some sort of drift. Anyway, pretty impressive to watch. Then he hailed us on
the radio and said he thought he would be overtaking us so we needed to find a
suitable place for him to do that. John assured him we were traveling at the
same speed or faster and that we’d be fine, but that we would stand by if
things changed. Of course we would yield to a tug and barge if necessary, he
can’t stop that barge on a dime after all! We did just fine and stayed ahead of
him the entire way. Petersburg is one of the most beautiful little towns in my
opinion. I love the harbor activity with all the freshly painted fishing boats
getting ready to go out, crews working on the nets and preparing their
equipment. The stunning mountain range that frames Petersburg is really
magnificent. Leslie and Brad finally arrived around 3:30 injecting a heightened
fun factor into our group. We had a lively dinner on our boat and just to take
it to the next level, all of a sudden the eagles were swarming in front of our
boat, diving into the water for scraps! I guess the fish processing plant has a
hose into the channel where they dump the fish guts and pieces. It was quite a
fun show with juvenile and mature eagles diving and grabbing bits from the
water, interspersed with seagulls all competing for the food fest. So
incredible! Another great day in Alaska.
No comments