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.