RED
BLUFF BAY TO HAMILTON BAY (Near KAKE)
Friday,
July 10th
Today
is my father’s birthday, he would have been 115 years old which is impossible
of course, we lost him at 83 years old amidst his battle with stomach cancer. I
was his last child and he was 50 when I was born. Happy Heavenly Birthday dear Dad, we love and miss you always.
This
morning is simply spectacular, blue skies, glassy water, the glaciers and high
peaks around us are out in full glory finally unveiled from the cloud and mist
that has been choking them every day. We are sorry to leave on such a beautiful
day but we need to continue on our journey south. It is a calm day, as
predicted, as we crossed Chatham Strait, which had 4’ waves and wind yesterday,
yet today just some lazy swells of minor significance – and fog. We are headed
to Hamilton Bay at the top of Keiku Strait and Rocky Pass which we will transit
tomorrow with precision, as it is a very technical route through many “rocks”
hence the name. I believe John said there are 30-40 turns. We arrived at Hamilton
Bay near Kake, a Tlingit town on the tip of Kupreanof Island, having enjoyed a
smooth ride up Frederick Sound – and a whale show again! A group of maybe half
a dozen whales were super active nearby diving down frequently (which means
tail shots) rather than coasting along the surface with the occasional dive.
They were far enough away to not be able to get any great photos, but still fun
to watch which sometimes is better than trying to catch on camera. We anchored
and rafted up then Lorraine spotted a brown bear on shore – bonus! Greg and
John set out to go fishing, the rain returned, and my eyes soon closed leading
me to a blissful nap. When I woke up at 4:30 the boys had returned and had success!
John caught a smaller halibut (chicken halibut) probably only 20 pounds, and
Greg landed a beautiful king salmon – probably close to 15lbs! John said he
hooked up a really large halibut but let it go – we don’t typically like the
really big ones. Greg caught and released a smaller Chinook as well, all of
this a good sign that maybe the kings have finally arrived. Dinner on our own was almost a
repeat of last night except with a rockfish John had caught a couple days
before, piccata style. It was good but fishier tasting than Halibut. We
finished bingeing on I WILL FIND YOU and put that one to bed. A good thriller!
Today was such an incredibly photogenic day I couldn't weed down what to post, they are all so beautiful!
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| The head of Red Bluff Bay looking southwest |
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UnforgetAbell and Far Niente as we exit Red Bluff Bay
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| The RED BLUFFS at the entrance to Red Bluff Bay |
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| I love days like this where you can't tell where the real shoreline ends and the reflection begins |
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| Exiting the head of Red Bluff Bay |
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| The blurry Bear shot as we left this morning, but it was quite far away |
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Just another glimpse of the bay as we depart, the colors are incredible this morning!
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| Looking east it was a different story! Big fog bank in our path over to Hamilton Bay |
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| Looking back at UnforgetAbell with Baranof Island peaks as the backdrop |
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| We always seem to be in the lead so no pictures of Huntress but here are the other two boats |
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| Baranof disappearing into the fog the farther away we got |
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| I was taking pictures on the other side of the boat, turned around to see a whale and attempted to catch a whale tail! A bit blurry |
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| Another whale tail with Kake in the background |
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| Just one more Baranof shot.... |
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| Greg and his big catch! |
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| John and his chicken 'but |
One more panorama of Baranof Beauty
Our route today
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