June 19-22

June 21, 2004
We pulled out of Oliver Inlet just before High tide after doing a recon with the dinghys to find the deepest spot and any hazardous rocks that might damage the boats. We found the rocks but no deep channel so with high tide we had 8 feet of water under us if we avoided the rocks we found which we did. Not sure if I would do the entry again, it was a little nerve racking.

We got outside and almost immediately had phone service and I got a call from Michelle. It was the call we have been anticipating about chris's mother. She has definitely taken a turn for the worse and the Family felt it would be wise to fly Chris home. So I pushed the throttles forward and we made it into Auke Bay in Juneau in less than 2 hours. She was in a cab and made the 830 pm flight to Seattle. I will stay and make arrangements to moor the boat and fly home later once we know what the outcome will be and when any services may be scheduled. As of this morning the 13rd there was no change, she was still hanging on which is good, Chris needed to see her one more time before her mom passes.

Becky and Mikey are leaving tomorrow evening so were going to do the tourist thing in Juneau and then see them off.

June 20, 2008

We left Taku Harbor late in the afternoon and cruised a short distance up to Oliver Inlet where we spent the night. It says it can only be entered at high slack so we timed our arrival appropriately and went in. The book said 8 feet minimum at a 13 foot tide. We had a 13 foot tide we were entering on and got down to about 6 feet. Were definitely in until the next high tide gives us enough water to exit. The inlet is fantastic. A range of snow capped mountains look down on the inlet from the west and were surrounded by low lying green forest and the entire shoreline looks like someone mowed the lawn. The day was a bluebird day, warm and sunny after a cloudy and rainy morning.
We caught 8 good sized 7 to 8 inch crab in here, there are no commercial traps inside because the entrance is so shallow they can’t get in to service the traps except at high tide and then they could not get out until the next high tide.so they crab are big.
We enjoyed a lazy sunny afternoon, temperatures got up to almost 80 in the sun but there was a cool breeze.
This morning we woke up to grey sky and light rain. We went down to the end of the bay where there is a one mile boardwalk and boat portage between this inlet the one to the south. We met a park ranger there and he was getting more equipment for a work oarty and he was carryihng a 12 gauge shot gun. Chris asked him if there were bears about and he informed us that the population was about one bear for every square mile on this island. Maybe I should have brought my shotgun as well.

June 19
Tonight were in Taku Harbor. We were headed for Juneau and a date with a fishing guide but when Glen called to verify the reservations the guide suggested we might want to cancel because for the last two days no one had been catching anything and he thought we might want to save the money. So we stopped short of Juneau and will find something else to do for the next couple of days.

While in Taku Harbor Becky landed a nice sized Pacific Cod while fishing from the dinghy. Poor Mikey, all he has caught so far is a large bullhead, a couple of small flounder and a bunch of bottom plants.

Glen, Liz and Nichole took off this morning in the dinghy and headed for Fords Terror and Endicott arm. They were gone for nearly four hours and did the grand tour making it all the way to the Glacier and went into Fords terror drifting in with the incoming tide.
While they were gone Becky and Mike took the dinghy out fishing. The fish won this round taking three lures while they landed non. We should have gone with Glen and Liz on the dinghy tour, about 40 miles round trip because the day was glorious for cruising down to the Dawes Glacier.

We tried our hand at salmon fishing while waiting for Glen to return and like everyone else in Alaska had no bites. We then spent about two hours floating around watching three humpback whales that kept swimming in circles around the boat. Again, try as I might, not one of my pictures turned out. I did get some decent video footage of the three whales when they surfaced about 50 feet from the boat.

We gave up on salmon fishing and tried some halibut fishing and Becky hooked a 20 to 30 lb halibut almost immediately. She is a happy camper now and will be taking some nice sized Halibut filets home with her.