8/22 & 23/13

Nanaimo

Got the last slot on the breakwater at Nanaimo YC after an uneventful transit of the Straits of Georgia.  That's Georgia, Queen Charlotte, Johnston and Dixon plus Yuklata, Dent, Green Point, Whirlpool rapids, all behind us without any drama or excitement.  All that is left is Dodd Narrows and Juan De Fuca.  Really an amazing run of great weather and near perfect conditions for crossing some really big and potentially scary waters.  The only issues were fog and with AIS, Radar and GPS Fog is not a huge concern. 

We had dinner last night at the Dinghy Dock Pub with Pete and Linda, our last night together.  They are headed home and were hanging out for a couple more days. 

Chris and Linda walked the town yesterday and I worked on some small projects that I had planned on doing sometime during this trip.  It just took me till now to find the time. 

Weather has been very summerish.  Hot during the day with warm evenings. Fortunately there has been a good breeze to keep it comfortable.  

Should have dropped the crab pot off the NYC dock.  This morning they were pulling decent sized crab up after only 30 minutes of soaking.  Will try it next time were there.

If your not familiar with Nanaimo use caution transiting the channel, there is a well known boat eating reef called Oregon Rock in the center of the channel just west of the NYC docks.  Stay in the marked channel between the green markers and the Island.   They have now put red marker buoys next to the island so it is much easier to identify which side of the green markers you should be on.  (Between the red and Green regardless of the direction of travel.)

We were in the channel southbound with the green on our starboard and had a 30-foot sailboat headed right for us on our side of the channel.  There was no traffic around him that would have prevented him from moving right in the channel so we could pass port to port.  I was just five feet off the day marker and he was giving me no room to move away, I finally had to turn hard left in front of him to avoid clipping the day marker with No Debt which tows wide to the left.  I missed destroying No Debt by just inches then swerved back left to avoid the sailboat, which never varied his course an inch.  I passed him port to port with 10 feet to spare.  I yelled at him as he went by, Nicely, telling him next time to try giving me a little more room, and he looked up and said, Oh, OK!  Like he had not a clue that I was even there or that I had restricted room to maneuver.  Clueless Idiot # 3!

We departed this morning at 1100 to catch slack current at Dodd by 1230.  We were there in plenty of time and swept through on a 3 knot current. 

Will probably stop at Montague Harbor tonight.  Then head in to Friday Harbor on the 24^th.

It’s our 39^th Anniversary today.  

8/24/13

Stopped at Montague Harbor yesterday and dropped anchor since all the mooring buoy's were taken.  Spent a quiet evening reading and exploring the harbor.  

8/25 &26/13

Friday Harbor.  Grabbed a spot on the outer breakwater, no power and a bit exposed to harbor wavers, but secure.  We cleared customs without any issues.  Wandered around town, it never changes.  Mom and dad decided to come in for dinner so we met them at the chinese restaurant and had a pleasant meal with them.  they looked pretty good considering what their health issues. 

Went out to the house and visited for a while on the 26th.  Again nothing changes, they have no interest in coming off island so no point in discussing it.

8/27/13
Crossed straits today on flat calm waters before the forecast 25 to 30 knots winds built.  Began to get windy about an hour out of Port Townsend and took the first spray of water on the fly bridge of the entire trip.  We docked at Ft Flagler for the night and the wind quickly increased to 30 + out of the SE.  It created quite a rough ride for a while with the 2 foot waves hitting us broadside at the dock.  I had to move No Debt to the other side of the dock it was so rough.  We did fine but it blew hard enough that one of the mooring buoys broke loose and floated to the dock.   Worst wind storm of the entire trip.

8/28/13
Uneventful run home today.  110 days, 3130 miles, 16 days of rain and one wind storm.  Not bad.  Good to be home.

Port McNeil to Nanaimo

8/12/13

Port McNeil

Buck and Lisa joined us this afternoon after a very long drive from Lake Roosevelt.  They arrived about 3 pm so we stayed at the dock and let them relax and get settled and catching up on news from home.

The rain is back, of course just in time for Buck and Lisa.  First rain in 6 weeks.  Go figure. It is badly needed up here and the locals are happy. 

Buck and I went out fishing for a couple hours to a spot the locals said was hot hot hot.  They said you could not keep the Coho off the hooks.  They could not find ours apparently. 

8/13/13

Sullivan Bay

We left for Sullivan Bay with Jim and Pete.  Today was very nice with broken clouds and quite warm.  We crossed Queen Charlotte Sound in calm weather, not a ripple to be seen.  Sullivan Bay is cool.  A floating city with street names like Hootchi Lane and Halibut Avenue.  It was not very crowded so we did not really need the reservations that Jim made for us.  New owners have done well with the place and are very friendly.  At 5 we had happy hour and appetizers on the docks with the other boaters and live music from a local musician.  You get to hit five golf balls at a floating tee each evening and if you get a hole in one you get your moorage paid for that night.  No one came close. 

They are catching halibut right off the docks there, on guy caught about a 20 lb. one while we were there.  We tried but no luck.

8/14/13

Claydon Bay

We ran a few miles to Claydon Bay and dropped anchor.  Pete tried and tried to get his anchor set but he just furrowed the bottom for a couple hundred feet and never got it to grab. He tried multiple times so I gave it a try and got a solid set on the first try.  He came over and side tied to us. 

We had dropped shrimp and crab pots out of Sullivan bay so we headed out to check them.  No crab but we got several dozen shrimp.  Pete’s shrimp pot had no shrimp but several small scallops.  We reset the crab pot in Claydon Bay and setback the shrimp pot since is seemed to be in a good spot. 

Rain is back as well as some wind.  It blew pretty well for a couple hours in the afternoon as forecast  

Buck and I tried fishing for a couple hours without luck.  He did catch a dang dogfish, the first of the trip.   We thought for sure it was a halibut but not to be.  We explored up to Turnbull Cove and looked into Roaring Rapids but decided not to give it a go, which was a good thing because on the way back we spun the hub on the prop.  No Debt had been getting slower and slower as time goes on and I just thought it was growth on the bottom slowing us down.  When we started we could do 29 mph and plane with four people on board.  Now we can’t get on plane with 4 people and were down to 16 mph with 2 people on board.  I tried cleaning the bottom at Fury Cove by beaching it but I could not get to the bottom. 

I replaced the prop and we are back up to 20 mph top speed so it’s better than it was.

8/15/13

We checked the shrimp pots and “holy cow batman”, the pot is full.  We counted almost 200 in this one pull.  Only one crab this morning but he was a bigun. 

We explored Drury Inlet by dinghy.  Very cool place.  Stopped at Jennis Bay and walked around the docks.  The owners were great to talk to.  Not much there, no power and no restaurant but nice docks and they have a nightly potluck get together on the party dock.  Definitely need to return and spend some time exploring the area.

We moved on today to Cullen Harbor which is just outside of Booker Lagoon.  We put the shrimp pots inside and tried fishing outside and Buck got one nice sized Rock Fish.  It’s been raining off and on fairly hard this afternoon, no wind however.

8/16/13

I got up early and headed for Port McNeil to drop off Buck and Lisa for their long drive home.  Calm crossing, we spotted a large pod of dolphin just off Alert Bay and watched them for a while.  Picked up fuel and water for the rest of the trip home. 
Pete called; he pulled the pots this morning, 350 plus shrimp in this one pull.  Ye ha!  Magic Pot is still doing its thing.

It’s blowing about 30 right now on our nose as we leave Port McNeil to meet up with Pete and Linda in Goat Cove near Mamalilaculla, an old abandoned First Nations village. 

The wind was blowing right into the cove we planned on using so I moved 2 miles to the same cove we used on the way up.  It is next to New Vancouver, a first nations reservation village. 

8/17/13

Woke up to a very nice day.  We decided to go exploring and started with a stop at New Vancouver.  Nice docks and the village is very new looking.  They are building a new long house with some spectacular totems out front.  We were met by a wolf, yes a real wolf named, Get this Wolf.  One of the villagers met us and told us that we could not visit the long house, as it was not finished yet.  Tours were available for a price but we were not offered one.  He said moorage was available at 1.00/ft. and there is power on the docks.  The walking tour was $15.00 and the tour of the long house was $20.00, but again he did not offer us that deal. 

We then motored over to see if we could find the Monks wall on the other side of the peninsula but we had the directions wrong and were unable to find them.  I should have followed my instinct and we would have found it.  When I went back and read the directions I now know where it is. 

We then went over to the abandoned village of Mamalamacula, which is not it’s correct name but that is what the charts show.  Again there is a sign on the beach offering tours for 10.00 from the watchman at New Vancouver but there is nothing to see.  The trails through the thick berry bushes go nowhere and what is visible is in very poor condition. 

We saw a black bear swimming from the village to a small island and got a picture of him crawling out on the shore.  Later we saw him again as he swam from a small unnamed island to Pearl Island.  We got some good photos and video of him as he swam and crawled out on shore.  Very rare sight.

We pulled anchor and headed for Lagoon Cove where we anchored for the night and put down a shrimp pot as well as crab pots.  Picked up gas for No Debt and the dinghy that should last till we get home.  Tried fishing without any catching.  Probably a good thing because the Canadian rules on processing fish are nearly impossible to understand much less comply with.  

Woke up to a miserable morning, wet and foggy.  I went out and pulled the shrimp pot while Pete got the Crab Pots.  One measly crab and about 100 shrimp. 

We were underway by 730 to catch the flood tide up Johnston strait.  As it turned out there was not much flood.  The ebb overpowered it and we never did see much in the way of a push until right at Whirlpool rapids.  We got up to 13.5 knots going through at peak flood, which was supposed to be about 7 knots.  There was no real issue, a bit of turbulence on the down side of the rapids, a lot of boils and small whirlpools but no big deal for us.  Watched a sailboat enter right after us however and he got tossed around a whole lot.  Turned him sideways and watched his mast sway back and forth about 40 degrees.  Had to be a wild ride for him.

Once through however we went back to about 8 knots all the way to Green Point Rapids and again it was no big deal to run it at peak flood of 7 knots. 

We anchored in Cordero Islands at the far west end and stern tied to a small island.  All was calm when we left to go visit Blind Channel Resort for ice cream and to catch up on email.  When we returned however the current was racing around the island and it appeared that this was a poor choice for an anchorage and decided to up anchor and move.  I went to the east end of the cove and stern tied to another island and it was a far more pleasant spot with no effect from the currents and well protected from most winds. 

Johnstone Strait was once again no big deal with no wind and virtually no waves. We were escorted for about 10 minutes by a huge pod of porpoise, which diverted from their course to intercept us and play in our waves. It is just spectacular to watch. 

The rains stopped about mid-day and it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We sat on the back deck at 7pm with Pete and Linda for drinks and appetizers.  Up early for a 12-mile run to Dent Rapids by 0900 hours. 

8/19/13

Woke up to another wet foggy rainy morning just like yesterday.  We pulled anchor at 0800 and headed for Dent Rapids 12 miles away.  We hit the rapids right on time for an uneventful run through Dent and Yuklata rapids.   The entire run to the rapids was through layers of fog and heavy rain.  As we exited the last rapids we could see blue sky and sun to the SE and by the time we reached Gorge Harbor it was sunny and warm again.

We have now put the biggest crossings and the tidal rapids behind us on our way home and have only to get across the Straits of Georgia and Juan De Fuca and all the difficult parts of this trip will be behind us.  We have travelled almost 3000 miles in four months, seen 24 bears, 9 of them grizzlies, some with cubs, (that does not count the dozen we saw at Anan or the half dozen at Kake), to many eagles and whales to count and huge pods of porpoise.  We have caught our limit of salmon, 12 coho and pinks and 1 King and 4 halibut, done well shrimping and have seen and experienced places that few get to see in a lifetime.  Glaciers, icebergs, waterfalls and amazing sunsets were an every day event. We shared it with family and good friends and have stories to tell and places to return to.   This has been a great trip and one for the record books.  Can’t wait to get back and explore places that we only cruised by and spend more time exploring the Broughtons and areas north to Prince Rupert. A whole new area to spend time in closer to home.  

8/20/13

Gorge Harbor was great.  The afternoon was spectacular, warm and sunny..  We anchored in 60 feet of water and Pete Side tied to us. We explored the harbor, Shark Spit and Whaletown by dinghy.  Whaletown is not worth a stop.  Nothing there whatsoever.  A dock and the closed up store.  Nothing else of interest.  

Pete and Linda took us to dinner at the Gorge Resort Resstaurant and we had a fabulous meal on the deck.  

The wind came up that evening and blew fairly hard out of the SW and was a good test of the anchor.  Once again it held quite nicely and was a bear to pull up in the morning.   We got an early start and headed down to Sandy Island Marine Park and anchored.  Once again just a beautiful sunny day.  Spent the afternoon on the beach and relaxing on the back deck.

8/21/13

Left Sandy Island for Nanaimo about 8 am and had a smooth run most of the way.  Wind picked up a few miles out of Nanaimo but it was a following sea and was not an issue.  We got a spot on the outer dock at the Nanaimo YC but there was no room for Pete so he has a spot down in town.

Laundry again and a bit of shopping.  Tomorrow were going to take a train excursion to the other side of the Island, Port Alberni.  Should be interesting.  

Ketchikan to Home

8/3/13

We left Wrangle and headed south for Frosty Bay where we would stage for the Anan Bear Reserve tour.  Frosty Bay is ok, not very scenic but secure.  We did get crab here so that was a bonus.  Tried some fishing without any luck but Nichole got a halibut and the next day Nat’s Grandson caught a nice 30 lb. halibut. 

8/4/13

Took the dinghy’s the 9 miles to Anan and anchored them in the outlet of the lagoon.  Hiked the half-mile boardwalk to the observatory after getting the obligatory forest service safety briefing on bears.  There is no guide; you hike the trail on your own, they recommend staying in large groups and making lots of noise, as there are plenty of bear around.  They did give us a can of bear spray.  There were 6 of us, Glen, Liz, Pete, Linda, Chris and I.  We were one permit short but the resident ranger gave us an extra one so I could tag along.  We did not see any bear on the hike in, lots of sign however.  The actual observatory is a wooden deck overlooking a bend in the river and a 20-foot waterfall where the fish queue up for a run at getting over the falls and the bear congregate to eat them.  The platform has a 3-foot high wood picket fence to keep the people in and the bears out.  Not a lot between them and us.  Two rangers are there to keep us from being eaten. 

There were 4 or 5 black bears in the river feeding and a couple of young browns running up the river when we got there.  The bears would catch a fish and then amble up the hill to the platform and flop down under it to eat their catch or wander by just a couple feet outside of the enclosure till they found a spot to sit and munch in peace.  We stayed for several hours watching and taking photos and it was all very cool to be that close without feeling to intimidated.  An encounter that close anywhere else would end in violence. 

We hiked back out and had one black bear cross the trail right in front of us and sit in the woods above the trail watching as we passed by.  A brown bear was just 20 yards off the trail eating a fish when we went by and watched us closely as we scurried past a safe distance to take photos. 

Just a great experience. 

From Anan we raced back to the boats, pulled anchor and headed for Meyer’s Chuck.  I had to replace a fuel filter in the genset and on the starboard motor before we left as both showing signs of being plugged.  Imagine that after 2500 miles and 300 hours on the engines. 

Got to Meyer’s Chuck at about 7pm and it was full up at the dock so we dropped anchor for the evening.

Last night with Dodges.  They are headed to Naha and then to Ketchikan to park the boat for a week to return for a ski patrol conference then they will return about the 12^th for the trip home.  They are going to take our fish home with them.  The Cedar Lodge in Ketchikan sold us two insulated shipping boxes that we packaged all our fish in; one held the halibut and one the salmon.  The lodge stored the fish until Glen gets in and he will take them with him as extra baggage when they fly home on the 7^th.

Were headed south at breakneck speed to see if we can meet up with Mierkes in the Broughtons in week.

8/5/13

Left Meyer’s chuck at 0900 and reached Ketchikan without issue.  Found a place that will hold all of our frozen fish for a couple days until Glen can pick it up and take it home with him as extra baggage.  We boxed up all the halibut and most of the salmon into two large 40 plus lb. boxes and left it with the Cedar’s Lodge till Glen can get it. 

I went out fishing for a couple hours and got one more pink to start filling up the freezer again.  The charter boats were coming into the Cedars Lodge and dropping of their catches and it was quite impressive.  Lots of silver and good sized 20/30 lb. halibut on the scales.  It is quite a busy little place.  I figured if they could catch I might as well go out and see what I could do.  Lots of pinks everywhere but I guess you need to know where the good stuff was.  Caught a couple small rockfish as well but threw them back.

We went out to Anna Belles restaurant for dinner with the group and the same waitress that waited on us two months prior was our server and she remembered us and even what we ordered.  Quite amazing and very nice.  We ordered ice cream for dessert, it says a scoop of ice cream with topping, and she brought us bowls with 4 or 5 scoops in each.  More than we could all eat.  She got a good tip.

8/6/13

Left Ketchikan with Pete and Linda and Jim and Cheryl headed across Dixon Entrance with a forecast that is near perfect.  No wind virtually no seas.  The forecast was spot on except for the lack of mention of pea soup fog.  We ran into a fog bank about a third of the way across and it did not clear off till we reached Dundas Island.  Jim nearly ran into a gill net in the fog, he had warned us just before he entered the fog; he was a couple miles ahead of us, that there were a lot of gill net fishing boats ahead.  Just after entering the fog he had a close encounter with a net and scared him the fish and the fishermen.  We have lost AIS for some reason so we only had radar on this transit.  It worked fine and we were able to avoid all the nets and finally came out into beautiful blue skies and calm seas for the final push to Prince Rupert.

At Prince Rupert there was no room at the inn.  All the moorage was taken so we anchored up in Salt Lake Cove across from town, same place we stayed on the way up.  Nice anchorage but it does get waves from passing boats.

8/7/13 

We got in late so the next morning we went over to town in the dinghy in really thick fog.  I overslept because I did not make the time change from Alaska Time to Canadian time, which is one hour earlier.  Instead of getting up at 7 for our 730 departures I was up at 8 wondering why everyone was still asleep.  They were already gone.  Chris and I made the crossing slowly with me holding the air horn in hand and listening closely for the sounds of engines.  You could only see about 200 feet and when the large anchored freighter loomed in front of us it was a bit eerie.  We made it but our sleeping in meant a late start.  We had fog until we reached the north end of Grenville Channel.  From there is was clear and we kept right on going all the way to Coughlin anchorage at the south end of Grenville Channel.  Jim said he knew of a good fishing spot where we were assured of catching silvers.  It was a chore getting anchored up, the wind was blowing fairly stiff in the anchorage and our attempt at anchoring and getting a stern line to shore put us sideways to the wind so we decided to each drop anchors and swing separately in the bay.  No big deal but by the time we were set it was quite late in the evening.

8/8/13

It was raining pretty hard when we woke up but Jim still wanted to go fishing and Pete was not feeling up to it so I went with Jim in his Grady White.  Before going I pulled anchor and tied next to Pete so when Chris got up she would have someone to socialize with when she woke up while I was out with Jim. 

Jim and I went out and caught 3 salmon, pinks of course.  Since we needed to keep moving south at a steady rate to meet up with guests we upped anchor about 1100 and headed south for Khutze.  Hopefully we can find a spot we can get anchored.  It appears the great southern migration has begun with several other boats headed in the same general direction.  It’s getting crowded up here.

We anchored in the same spot that Glen and I anchored in 2008, under the waterfall.  Jim and Pete were dubious but I assured them it was possible.  I dropped in 100 feet on the steep slope of the shelf and backed into 50 feet and stern tied to a large tree.  Bomber even though the scope was only 2 to 1 with 200 feet of chain out.  Anchor was pulling up slope with the chain lying on the steep face of the slope so it was like dragging it flat across the ground.  But both Pete and Jim put down anchors as well and we were going nowhere.  Nice spot. 

8/9/13

Khutze to Shearwater

A slow start this morning.  My crab pot went missing.  Put it in the mouth of the river and the current must have drug it into deep water.  Fog was pea soup thick this morning so I could not do much of a search.  Figured it sank anyway once it hit over a hundred feet.   Pete’s was there, right next to where I put mine and he had three keepers.  No shrimp in mine either but Pete had a dozen in his.  Found the shrimp pots in the fog fairly quickly.  

For some reason the genset stopped charging the batteries.  Without the gen set I had nothing, no 110 power at all.  Hmmm?  While I am troubleshooting that with Pete Cheryl sticks her head in and says there may be a delay, their chart is all screwed up and won’t show on the screen correctly. 

Took me about 15 minutes to figure out the large fuse was the problem, looked good but no continuity from side to side.  Took it out and replaced it after cleaning all the connections and bingo, it works.  Start with the simple. 

Went over and Jim’s screen was a hodgepodge of color and Pete said it looked like a weather overlay.  I asked Jim to pull up his options for information layers and had him turn off the weather overlay.  Sure enough all the strange markings went away and all was good.  2 minute fix. 

Had to use the boat engines to break the anchor free this morning, it was set well and the windlass would not pull it free.  As we left the end of the bay I saw my yellow float off to the side, I was dubious it was mine since it was in 450 feet of water which meant it had to be floating the pot.  It was, we got the crab pot back but of course no crabs.  It must have floated fairly quickly in the current.  Lucky break again. 

Used more fuel than I expected, we have been running at 2200 rpm’s instead of 2000 and it used it up much faster leaving me a bit short for the run to shearwater.  I was well below ¼ on each tank but by my calculations I should have plenty of fuel to make it to Shearwater.  We stopped 5 miles north of Shearwater in a cove named Discovery by Douglas and called Annivesray by Jim and Cheryl.  It is a beautiful spot worth returning to.  Caught crab and shrimp here.  Big Crab in Pete’s pot and lots of shrimp in mine. 

8/10/13

Still having trouble with Inverter  Not charging and not inverting and have to run Genset.  Gen set stopped running from lack of fuel part way to Shearwater.  The Genset intake port is shorter so it stops before the engines do.  We made it and I took on 400 gallons, 200 per side so I still had a few hours of run time but did not like being that low.

We continued on after eating a burger for lunch.  Made it to Fury cove about 6 and side tied to Jim and Cheryl. 

8/11/13

Fury Cove to Pt. McNeil

Another long day crossing Queen Charlotte Strait in fog.  But it was smooth as glass and a very pleasant ride.  Got a spot on the public pier and were doing laundry and trying to trouble shoot the inverter.  Looks like a loose connection.  Crossing my fingers. 

Sitka to Wrangle

Sitka to Ketchikan

  7/26/13 We left Sitka and cruised up thru Olga and Neva straits to our current anchorage in Schulze Cove just outside the west end of Peril Strait. I decided that I was not going to run Surgius Narrows at its peak flood. The book advises against it as the currents can run quite fast and violently through there. I could see from a distance that the red entrance buoy was laying fully on its side in the current with white water lapping over it. I promised Chris we would not do any exciting stuff that was avoidable. We stern tied about 2/3 of the way into the bay and Pete and Dave joined us a bit later. Glen was delayed, having to return for more internet connectivity and he powered on through the rapids on to Little Bear Cove where we were planning on being and we did not make radio contact with him till after he went through so he stayed the night in Little Bear. The fish were jumping all around us but both Pete and I tried an assortment of enticements and could not get any interest from the fish. Were convinced that every time they jump they are flipping us off. They are just pinks or chums anyway but they would be fun to catch and release on the lightweight casting gear. Passed Steve and Kim Oberto in Maximo at the entrance to Peril Strait. They were headed for Sitka and said the Coho were fighting to get their bait in Gut Bay south of Baranoff Hot Springs. Sure, were not going there.

 7/27/13 Buck and Lisa are going to try to meet us on the north end of Vancouver Island mid August. If we do Anan on the 4th and head for Ketchikan that afternoon and leave Ketchikan on August 5th that will give us 8 days to go 390 miles. We can do it if there are no weather delays. Will suggest Aug 15th to them as a good target. Not sure how long they want to stay. Were headed for Appleton Cove for tonight. Not sure if we can stern tie there, as I recall there were lots of mud flats all around the anchorage so we shall see what works. Hopefully we will be back in the crab there.

 7/28/13 Stayed in Appleton Cove last night. Pete and I went out fishing and after catching lots of strange looking bottom creatures we went really deep, 250 plus and immediately caught two nice sized Red Snapper, Also known as Yellow Eye Rock fish and then a third one. All keepers. We cooked up two of our Pinks, did that before we knew we had snapper, and fried up one piece of snapper for everyone. It was a great meal. We checked the crab pots and low and behold, we got crab. Lots of crab. The pots were crawling with them and between the four of us we had at least a dozen keepers. No sea otters thus we have crab. No shrimp however and the salmon are not biting what were feeding them. The last week has been cooler with clouds and rain at night. But today we woke up to beautiful blue skies and warm sun. High pressure has built up so were in for some good weather for the next week. Amazing Anchor! My Ultra held all four boats, that's 120 feet of boat on one anchor in a 15 mph side wind. We were side tied in Appleton Cove when the wind shifted to the west and was pushing against the side of our boats. My anchor was taking the full weight as well as my stern tie. We tried to put some strain on Pete’s anchor but it pulled all the way in without ever grabbing. That means mine was all that was holding us. We reset Pete’s for the night but I am very happy that mine was able to hold all that weight. We are in a small cove behind Cabin Point just south of Angoon in Hood Bay. Very secure and pretty. Took a long dinghy ride up to Angoon and into Kootznahoo Inlet. It is a very isolated and intricate lagoon that you enter through reversing rapids. Dave and Mary balked at the rapids but got sucked in anyway so Glen had to go back and lead them to our location since it is so intricate and confusing back there. Quite an amazing and special place, very quiet and mystical.. On our way to Baranoff we stopped several times to watch whales feeding along the shoreline. We had just started up again and were at full speed when we had a close encounter of a Whale kind. A large humpback rose up out of the water without blowing just two boat lengths in front of us on a crossing path. I dumped it to idle speed and then out of gear and coasted to a stop. We were so close that I had to stand up to see him over the bow of the boat. He rose up a second time right next to the bow, his tail under the boat and then a third time about 30 feet off the bow. He never acted as if we were intruding or that he was the least bit concerned that we were there. He finally flipped his tail up and dove under allowing us to continue on. We got a couple good photos of his back but my camera decided to act up at that point and I did not get the close up of his tail fluke as he dove away. We found space on the docks and hiked up the boardwalk to the hot springs for a bath. It is a very warm pool, about 115 degrees and only a couple of us were able to fully immerse ourselves in the water. The hike is mostly up a nice boardwalk but the last 300 yards is up and over a muddy root covered trail and the hot pools are just feet from the roaring river that falls out of the lake above into the bay at the head of the docks. I went out fishing at the head of the bay and picked up three more pinks in about an hour. No more pinks, need silvers and halibut. My wife who used to complain that I couldn’t catch fish is now complaining when I do. A guy can’t win. We had crab fettuccini on the dock with the whole armada, another fabulous meal. It is finally getting dark enough to see stars at night. Last night was glorious. By this morning the docks were full and the bay had a 9 boats anchored in the bay including a good-sized expedition yacht and multiple large seiners. The walk to the hot springs was busy in the morning with everyone headed up for a morning soak.

7/30/13 We left the hot springs headed for Lords Pocket, a small cove surrounded by a couple islands near Kake. The crossing of Chatham Strait for the 3rd time was a bit lumpy until we got across and into Frederick Sound where it smoothed out to flat glass. A couple whales put on a show for us off in the distance, it was sunny and warm. Glen surprised us all by telling us he was going to drop a line for some halibut on some 100 foot deep spots just outside of the nights stop. I picked another high spot nearby and dropped the halibut gear and fished for over an hour drifting back and forth across the top of the mound with no luck, not even a nibble. A couple of whales were feeding nearby so I stopped fishing and moved closer for Chris to get some photos when all of a sudden they breeched 200 feet in front of us, coming clear out of the water. No pictures of course because we were not expecting that action. Then they resumed swimming in our direction passing right under the boat. We cruised back up to where Glen was fishing, he had caught two smaller 12 lb halibut so I dropped a line and almost instantly got hit by something big. For the next 30 minutes I reeled him in, let him run, reeled him in let him run. He was big and did not want to come up. I knew we were in trouble however because I was not in any way ready to land a big fish. We were fishing from the big boat with No Debt bow tied alongside. All the fishing equipment including Pete’s harpoon was on board No Debt so with Chris’s help, (she did not think she could hold the rod because of how hard I was working to hold it and real it in) I got into the bow of No Debt and was able to get one of the gaffs then Chris got into the bow of No Debt but it was quickly obvious that she was not going to be able to Gaff this thing. So Glen motored over in his big boat and he transferred from his bow to the Bow of Miner’s Debt and got into No Debt to assist. First we had to get Chris out of No Debt back onto Miner Debt to get her out of the way because three people in the bow of No Debt was not going to work. Once Chris was back on the big boat I reeled in the big Halibut and Glen put the Harpoon through it. Now we had it and just had to figure out how to land it. I got a loop on its tail so no we had it two ways and no way was it getting loose. Glen tried killing it with a knife but it did not take kindly to being stabbed so it began thrashing in the water and soaked both Glen and I. I finally was able to cut its gills and it was over. It took both of us to get it out of the water and secured to the big boat. Beautiful fish weighed in at 76 lbs and was almost 5 feet long, the largest thing I have ever caught. I have no earthly idea how anyone by themselves would have landed this fish or for that matter how you land anything bigger. There are pictures of 300 lb halibut everywhere and for the lfie of me I can’t figure out how you would manage something that big and strong. We spent the night cleaning and fileting the fish. Glen and I took them to shore and set up a table to do the cleaning and then brought them back for vacuum sealing on our back deck. The halibut steaks and roasts filled up our freezer and Pete and Lindas. Great night. We did not have halibut for dinner since we already had pulled out a bunch of pork chops so Chris said we had to eat those first since they had been out of the freezer for a couple days. Halibut tonight.

We went over to Kake after anchoring in Lords Pocket to explore. The tallest totem in the country is its name to fame. That is really all that they have. The village is really run down and there is nothing there for visitors, no stores no shops. We ran into the local police officer and he said the bears were feeding on the salmon run down by the creek so he gave the ladies a ride down in the back of his patrol vehicle. Glen and I walked. Sure enough, the black bears were feasting on the spawning chum salmon. There were four total that we could see and one mother with a cup just across the river from the hatchery viewing area. Pretty cool to be that close. Pete spun his prop on the way back so i ran everyone back in no debt then returned to tow pete back to the boats.

 7/31/13 We cruised on down to the north end of Rocky Pass and found a nice spot to anchor and to wait for the rising tide in the morning to pass thru the intricate and narrow channel. Glen, Nat and I ran Glens dinghy through to check it out and on the return trip his gears finally gave out and we had to motor back at near idle speed. He had hit rocks twice before on the trip bending his propellor shaft and the gears finally said enough was enough abuse. 

8/1/13 We motored thru Rocky Pass without incident, it is narrow and complex but the charts were dead on accurate and we had no problems finding our way around all the rocks and shallows. Not sure I would ever do it with paper charts or without a good working GPS. Found a really nice anchorage in Totem Bay on the north side of Sumner strait. The Douglas book does not speak highly of the bay and it is poorly charted so it is doubtful if many people use it. The cove I found was well inside all the shallows on the SW side of the bay just past two small islets. The chart showed that we anchored on land but we were in 20 feet of water at low tide 100 feet off a gravle beach protected from all but a NE wind. It was a perfect small cove with limited swinging room but enough for all four of us with a stern tie. I decided to name it RHYC cove.

 It was hot, near 81 so we had to take the dinghies out to get some cooler air. We took the shrimp pots out to a deep 330 foot hole just outside of the bay thinking it had to be a good shrimp hole. It was quite windy out there and the chop was all that No Debt wanted to handle. Tried fishing but no one was biting. Went up the river at the head of the bay at high tide after dinner and the fish were thick but again no luck. A few would grab the lure but I could not get them hooked. There was one black bear but he took off as soon as he saw Nats boat. 

 8/2/11 
Woke up to another great day. Went out to get the shrimp pots this morning and nothing in them. Dave lost his, not where to be found. We searched for quite a while in dense fog but no luck. Cruised on up to wrangle this morning in thick fog all the way to the south end of Wrangle narrows. The water was flat calm but had less than a quarter mile visibility all the way.  Thank god for AIS and good radar.  From Wrangle we will head down to Anan Bear observatory for hopefully some up close brown bear encounters. We have seperated from Colliers and Mehlum's and will be with Jung's for the trip home. Glen and Liz will be with us for the next couple days and then they have to leave the boat and head home for a week so we will be leaving them as well. Jim and Cheryl Matheson are here in Wrangle so we can catch up on all their adventures as well. Next posting will be in a couple days in Ketchikan.