20 plus pound King caught off Noyes Island.

Sunsets, leaping whales, King salmon, Narrow channels, good friends and good food, life is good

6/17/13 Added fuel today in Craig to make sure we have enough to get back to Petersburg. 150 gallons should do it. We visited Klawock just a few miles north of Craig and took a tour through the totem pole park and the pole carving shed. It was very interesting and met some truly nice native americans who generously shared their history and heritage with us. We then pulled anchor after dumping garbage and another round of shopping for a spot closer to the reported fishing grounds on the outside of Noyes Island in Roller Bay. Found a spot in Paloma Passage which is between Lulu Island and Pigeon Island. Very pretty spot. Tomorrow we head for the fishing grounds. 6/18/13 John, Steve and I headed 10 miles out in No Debt to the west side of Noyes Island in the Gulf of Alaska. Getting there was a bit dicey with large waves but once there the wind abated and the waves died down and we fished for 4 hours catching 12 Coho salmon and 2 halibut. It was a great day. Nat and Linda followed us out in Flec but they had no luck and came back empty handed. Bad news, my lucky shrimp pot is gone, put it down in a 300 foot hole last evening and went out to find it tonight and it is gone. Bummer. Salmon dinner tonight for everyone. The day started cold and cloudy but ended with blue sky and warm sun. The girls went out sea otter hunting and whale watching and got up close and personal to both. Whale within 20 feet of the dink and more sea otters than you care the count. The cleaning and cutting of all the fish left dead fish heads and bodies on the bottom and the water is so clear you could see them 20 feet down so we named the anchorage Carcass Cove. We had a regular processing line set up for preparing all the fish. John, Dean and I cleaning, the girls cutting, bagging and sealing into meal sized bags. 6/19/13 We went out first thing this morning back to Roller Bay outside of Noyes Island, this time the waves were minimal ant the trip out was much more comfortable. John has decided that the reason we take so long getting ready to fish and get underway is that we are boaters who are trying to fish vs fishermen who are on boats. He is ready to go first thing in the morning, the rest of us get up, fix coffee, fiddle around getting the gensets going and by the time were ready its 8 am and the morning bite is over. But that's ok, were still catching fish. We caught 4 more Coho and I caught a 21 lb. King, a very nice fish and the biggest thing I have ever caught. I was actually going to the bottom to try to catch a halibut because we had been drawing a blank on salmon. I was coming back up at about 90 feet when I caught the big one and I was sure it was a halibut but John watched the line and the way the fish was fighting and he knew it was a big King. Between the three of us we caught another 4 halibut for our possession limit of 2 each and I am done King salmon fishing because non-residents are limited to 1 annually. The possession limit for Coho is 12, 6 per day, so were almost there as well. But there is no annual limit so once we eat some we can keep fishing. I am holding out for a larger halibut however. We left Carcass Cove about 3 after another round of fish processing, we have it down to a science now. We have lots of fish in the freezers now. We had a slab of my King salmon tonight for the six of us, John and Elise, Steve and Michelle and Chris and I. just amazing dinner with a berry pie that Chris made for dessert 6/20/13 Moved up to the other end of the Gulf of Esquibel to Kaguk Cove last night. The Magic Shrimp Pot is back. Michelle spotted it with the naked eye over 2 miles from where I dropped it. No one else could see it till they were right on top of it to recover it. Amazing that she saw it as it was well to the left of their course. Never would have thought it could go that far. I think a whale snagged it on its tail and drug it up there, certainly not enough current to drag it that far. That's my story and I’m sticking to it. No crab and did not put down the shrimp pot. Dave managed to drive over his crab pot chopping the line and tangling the rope around his prop. We looked with my camera and it is not around his shaft so he is going to run with it like that. 6/21/13 Stayed in Cyprus Cove on Orr Island last night. Weather is warmer with fog this morning but no wind. John, Steve and Dean took No Debt out fishing again and came back with a several Black Bass and two Ling Cod. No Salmon. They went several miles out to Whale Head and were fishing in the fog and beneath some big vertical cliffs. Nat and Linda went out and Linda caught a 25 lb. King beating my catch by a few pounds. Two really nice King’s in two days, not bad for Boaters who are trying to fish. The rest of us took a dinghy ride around Marble Island and stopped to explore the abandoned Marble Quarry. It is just an amazing place where large Marble blocks were cut and stacked and left when the quarry shut down sometime around 1930. The trees and moss have grown up around them and the quarry pits are full of water. Very interesting place and quite amazing to think of how much work went into getting these things cut and stacked in those days and the number of blocks that are just sitting waiting to be shipped. Apparently some of this marble went to building the state capitol in Juneau. Would be nice to find out a bit more about the history of the place. I suspect very few boaters stop to explore but it’s worth doing. The trip back down the narrow and very shallow channel between Marble and Orr Islands was a bit exciting as I tried to navigate using my 2 inch by 3 inch hand held Garmin GPS. The map is quite detailed but when you zoom in to see the detail there is no way to see what comes in the next 50 feet so you have to zoom back out to see what comes next and then there is no detail. We lost Glen who was leading in one narrow channel, narrow being twice the width of my dinghy, and got stopped by a sand berm with Glen on the other side in a channel I had driven by because I never saw it. All in all it was another fun adventure. We left Cyprus Cove and headed for Hole in the Wall, which is about a 40 mile run today back thru El Capitan Passage. Gotta get back to Petersburg by Saturday the 23rd to pick up Jason and get Chris off on the 24th. Trying to figure out if we want to send home some frozen fish with her to free up freezer space. Hole in the wall is a very narrow entrance, about 40 feet maximum with an 8-foot depth at the lowest tide. Pretty inside with a large grassy flats at the head of the bay. Arrived with the rain. 6/22/13 Left at 1000 for Petersburg, long run today. Still foggy and wet with a light drizzle but the heavy rain was last night. Water is flat calm outside. The exit was non eventful, had to wait an hour to put a bit more water in the exit channel since 6 feet is just a bit tight with Pete drawing 5.5 feet. Minimum depth was 12 feet for me. No crab and no shrimp. Made it to Petersburg by 5 this afternoon. Were in town doing laundry after refueling and putting on water. We were completely out of water this morning. Pete and Linda and Steve and Michelle are with us in town while the others stopeed for the evening in Dodge Cove.

Craig Alaska

Quick update. No crab, no fish no shrimp for the past three days, Were going to starve But sun is out and its warm Poor internet do this is it till Petersburg. Lots of whales. They are very active Several came all the way out of the water right in front of us yesterday. We had ringside seats for the show. Photos later.

Shrimp catch Anita Bay last night Run to Wrangle this morning

6/5/13 Left Ketchikan after two days of sightseeing and shopping. Filled the tanks, fuel and water and did laundry. Rainy most of the second day in Ketchikan. We cruised up to Meyers Chuck on the 5th and spent a pleasant evening there even though it rained off and on all day. We ordered sticky buns from a local resident and had fresh hot cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Well worth the 3.00 a roll she charges. Meyer’s Chuck is a quirky place, got a photo of the downtown area showing the fire rescue station, the phone company, post office and newspaper facility to post. It's a full service town. 6/6/13 The winds were forecast to come up strong in Clarence Strait so we went around the corner and anchored in Santa Ana Inlet. Very nice and protected, not very pretty but it was OK. We hiked to the small lake about a half-mile from the anchorage. It was a cross-country brush whacking trek as any sign of a trail is long gone. There are wood boxes lying on the ground every few hundred feet that once were nailed to the trees to mark the route. Strange way to mark a trail. The route is thick with moss and rotting fallen trees and some devils club so it’s not an easy hike. I found a hole hidden by moss and went in up to my knee where the girth of my knee and thigh finally stopped my downward momentum. Luckily I have strong bones and nothing broke but it is sore. Hike is not really worth the effort, the lake is not much to see and there is no nice sandy beach like at Codville Lagoon and no real vistas or views to be had. Sophie found the lake, walked out onto a log and went swimming much to her surprise. She thought floating bark pieces were hard ground and when she stepped off the log she was in over her head. Came back to an empty crab pot and a very full shrimp pot. Probably the best pull of the trip so far. Big ones from 250 feet right at the head of the bay. I discovered that I had dropped the shrimp pot in a closed area a few days ago, oops, my bad, better be more careful about reading the reg’s before shrimping, crabbing or fishing. Not sure why the area was closed but it was. This area was open so were legal again. 6/7/13 Anchored in Thoms Place. Nice anchorage, no crab and few shrimp. Several trollers were fishing at Thoms point so Dean and I went out fishing. Nothing. Drug my coho killer around for a couple hours with no bites. 6/8/13 Moved on to Anita bay. Still raining. A dozen gill netters were fishing the bay so we had to carefully weave our way through the maze of nets lining both sides of the bay and found anchorage at the very end of the bay. Still raining. 6/9/13 Woke up to sun and blue sky and a beautiful green grassy shoreline white fluffy clouds in the hills, a small heard of deer wandering the beach and a couple eagles flying overhead looking for breakfast. Four crab in my pot, two keepers, the others within a ¼ inch of legal. Everyone else pulled blanks. Figured there had to be fish with all the gill netters working the bay so we tried trolling with the downrigger, mooching and jigging without luck. Caught a couple small halibut, a couple baby salmon and something unknown and unidentifiable, threw em all back after taking photos for proof. On to Wrangle for some golf today with Steve and Michelle who flew in last night and meet up with Colliers who should be flying in this afternoon. Weather looks like it has changed for the better. No wind this morning, water is flat calm running up Zimovia strait south of Wrangle. Clouds hanging in the hills and a bit of fog to the south but its warm and the sky and water is mostly blue. Well, we made it to Wrangle and met up with Steve and Michelle. Nat and Linda showed up a bit later. After wandering around the 4 blocks that make up downtown Wrangle and buying out the hardware store we bought lunch from two of the three Wrangle fishing Derby Queen candidates food booths. Yep, every year the town picks a teenaged queen for the derby and each year the candidates serve up fair style food to raise money. Did out part to support the community. We hiked the mile up the hill to the municipal 9-hole golf course and Glen, Dave, Chris, Steve, Michelle and I played 9 holes of golf on a very quirky little course. Narrow fairways surrounded by muskeg. Very wet course and if you go out of bounds, well just forget finding your ball. A few mosquitoes flying around your face and inside your glasses made teeing off a bit interesting. Had a great time. Came back and had appetizers of fresh cooked crab and margaritas on the dock. Then we went up to the local pub for pizza and beer. We got there at 830 and they close at 9. Got our order in just after a bunch of phone in orders. Our five pizzas came after about 90 minutes of waiting. The beer selection was pretty limited, guess the fishing derby has cleaned out the beer stock. We had a grand time wile waiting for the food and it was worth waiting for. The Pizza was really very good.

6/5/13 Rain. What else, were in Ketchikan. It has rained for the last two days and is raining hard this morning but there is blue sky to the north where were headed. Liz fly's out today for her conference so Dean has moved in with him on board Magic Moment leaving Pete and Linda. They have finished with the work they could do and now are at the mercy of the boat yard workers Pete has hired. They have the prop and shaft ready to install and are still working on the rudders. The fiberglass will take the longest so they are here at least another week. We did the tourist thing yesterday and the day before, got laundry and shopping done by running No Debt up to the other end of town so we did not have to walk so far in the rain. Water full, fuel full so were ready to cruise towards Wrangle where we will next have connectivity.

5/31/13 Oh boy, there are two kinds of boaters, those who have run aground and those who will. I am not longer in the later category. We are in Kitkun Bay, sneaky little narrow entrance to a fairly pretty bay, unfortunately its been logged and not quite fully reforested but very secluded on the east side of Prince of Wales Island. We made it through the sneaky little narrows at low slack and decided to anchor behind the big island just to the east after entering the inner bay. The island has a nice large cove with 30-foot bottom. However, entry was barred by a 4 foot shallows on one side and a 3 foot shallows on the other according to the chart. I checked the south entry out with No Debt to see if it would go and least depth with No debt was 14 feet. So we gave it a try. Unfortunately I wandered too far to the left and found the 4-foot mark with my bow. Nothing damaged but pride and some scrapped bottom paint and 10 years off my wife’s life. She not a happy girl. Was able to back off and find the deeper water and got in. Stupid, if I had checked the other side of the island it was 30 plus feet, the chart showed only 3 so I did not go over there. Great anchorage, but take the north side of the island and stay between the island and the charted rock mid-channel. Crab pot down, looks promising. Steve and Michelle and Nat and Linda are going north to Wrangle for flights home, be back next week and will meet them there. Pete and Linda are coming out with Liz and Glen for the weekend. Nothing happening on the boat over the weekend so might as well come out and play. 6/1/13 No sign of Dodges last night? Bet they went to Kassan Bay, that’s where Glen was thinking of going but I did double check that we would meet in Kitkun Bay before we lost radio contact as they were headed to Ketchikan to pick up Pete, Linda and Dean. No crab but a pot full of large prawns. Put it back down for another pull later today. Were going to just sit tight for a layover day. We moved to the far end of Kitkun, which is far prettier than behind the islands and no shoaling or hidden dangers that are not already marked. No sign of logging down here, very secluded and peaceful. Listening to birds in the trees, small creeks entering the anchorage and watching an eagle fly back and forth across the head of the bay diving for fish. Clouds are hanging in the trees, snowfields just above the tree line, grassy shoreline perfect for wildlife viewing. If you ever want to check this bay out by all means go all the way to the end and anchor in 30 feet of good holding mud. Nobeltec does not have this well charted but INAVX has it well charted. Well protected from all directions, only a NW wind could find its way into the bay. Of course that is what we got. A few rain squalls off and on are making it less than perfect but in between the squalls the sun comes out and warms things up. Fell asleep on the bow for a while between rain squalls. 6/2/13 Moved south to Moria Sound and Aiken Cove on the SE side of Prince of Wales Island. Very pretty spot. Spectacular views of snow capped mountains at the head of the cove, very secluded and narrow entrance opens to a large landlocked cove at the end with large grassy flats under high snow capped peaks. We watched two black bears in the distance eating fresh grass. Sunny and warm today after a morning of rain squalls and gray mist. We returned later in the evening with high tide and counted 3 black bear in the grass. A bit skittish and could not get real close, might have had something to do with Linda’s camera flash which startled them when she tried to take their picture. She could not figure out how to turn it off. Oh well. On the way out of Kitkun we stopped for over an hour and watched half a dozen gray whales that were very active and within a couple hundred feet of the boats. Way Khul as Pete would say. This is a great spot, well worth returning to some day especially with the grand kids for bear watching. Could be gray and gloomy in rain but with blue sky and sun its grand. No one else is out here, very private. We saw a couple other fishing boats and found one other trawler anchored at the entrance to the cove, He missed the best spot, but other than that we got the place to ourselves and its fairly close to Ketchikan. 6/3/13 Headed back towards Ketchikan to drop Pete and his crew off to work on the boat. Got up early for a 7 am departure. It was a beautiful crossing this morning across the south end of Clarence Strait. Flat calm, no wind, whales in the distance, blue sky and sun ahead and clouds forming behind us and out in Dixon entrance.