july 15, Wrangell

Alaska state ferry in Wrangell Narrows


We are back in Wrangell tonight where we dropped off Debbief for her flight home. the time went just too fast and her short stay with us was over all too soon. She had a wonderful time and we enjoyed sharing this adventure with her as she was so excited and enthusiastic about everything we saw. She was like a kid in a candy store and it was a joy to watch her experience this part of Alaska. We will miss her.

We left Petersburg and made it part way down Wrangell Narrows on Sunday stopping at Keene Island Anchorage. We checked out another possible anchorage across from what is called honeymoon anchorage in the middle of Wrangell Narrows but Glen could not get the anchor to bite so we moved on. The anchorage behind Keene Island is ok, nothing spectacular and it is a bit shallow to get into and it too was hard to get the anchor to set. We went exploring by dinghy the next morning and ran through Beecher pass which is just west of Keene Island. the charts are very non descript and show the pass to be only 1 foot deep. We saw a number of small fishing boats using the pass as well as a couple larger fishing vessels. We ran it in the dinghy and had a minimum of 18 feet of water the whole way and most of the time it was 30 to 60 feet deep. We found a much better anchorage furhter in bhind Fair island with 30 foot depth and good protection on all sides by several smaller islands. If I had to do it over again this would be the preferred anchorage and by the looks of it the anchor would set in mud rather than rock.

We went through Beecher pass and took the north arm through the better anchorage and north of Fair island. Never got less than 22 feet of water on a 4 foot tide.

We did not go far on Monday, stopping to check out a potential anchorage behind Butterworth island. The little cove that Glen tucked us into was perfect and we named it Dodges Cove. A crab fisherman thought it was pretty safe as well as he had anchored a small float with several crab traps stored on it in the oove. The cove is a channel between Butterworth and woewdski island but at the narrow point between the two islands there is a reef with minimal clearance on the west side to get by. We stopped just short of the reef and dropped anchor. We tried our hand at fishing and I was able to catch two nice sized dolly varden trout that we ate for dinner. Debbie was familier with thse fish and fixed them up for the barbcue and the meal was great. The big fish fed four and I ate the small one by myself.



Dodges cove

Next morning, brite and early I cast off and let the girls sleep while I ran in to Wrangell They wanted a full day to explore and shop since I had interupted their shopping in Petersburg so we could get fuel and they had missed a couple of shops.
(Fuel was 4.59 a gallon plus 72.00 sales tax.) We will meet up with Glen and Liz somewhere between Wrangell and Ketchikan either on Wednesday or Thursday. Were supposed to meet them on Wednesday at Vixen Harbor but we got some hot tips from a local guide on where to catch salmon so were going to try our hand at salmon fishing tomorrow and may not get to Vixen harbor tomorrow as planned to meet the dodges. I promised the guide I would not divulge his secret spot so no matter what you say or do to me, I will not divulge the secret location unless of course I fail to catch anything.

King salmon fishing has effectively closed. You can now no longer keep anything smaller than 48 inches long. the guide we talked to has been fishing for 30 years and has never caught anything over 48 inches long. Lots of 60 plus pounders but even those are not 48 inches long. And you can only possess one a year. He says they are easy to catch right now, they were pulling them in all day long yesterday but had to throw them all back.
we will go for silver and chum salmon but with my luck I will catch nothing but small king and have to let them go to stay legal.
It looks like were not the only ones heading south now. We have talked to a number of other boaters here who are all on their southbound journey. In talking to the locals here they do not think the fuel prices have cut down business too much. they feel the season was about the same as always.

Weather is still cool and gray, little rain showers and fog but it was still a shorts an light jacket day. I jumped off the boat when we docked in my bare feet and the people who helped us dock commented later that they thought I was a bit nuts when they saw me without shoes. They were like Debbie, all bundled up like it was going to rain or something. It is summer you know!

July 12, Petersburg

Water fall at Red Bluff Bay

Bears, eagles, whales, waterfalls, icebergs oh my, bears eagles, whales, waterfalls icebergs oh my! Debbie has seen it all now and was turning every which way today looking for the elusive whales that were always just beyond camera range, and scanning the miles and miles of shoreline for the bears that were lurking just inside the tree line and took over dozens of photos of waterfalls. Eagles became common place and by the end of today she saw and photographed every iceberg in LaConte Bay. Today was a great day even if it was a bit wet and a bit grey.

We left Red Bluff Bay yesterday and on our way to Kake where we sere to look at the totem poles and visit the village, we stopped for about two hours in Security bay to try our hand at halibut fishing. The guide book said it was a good place to jig for halibut. Glen caught one in abot 2 minutes and that turned out to be the only keeper of the day. I caught two infant halibut that I threw back to grow into adults for the next time we come up here. I caught three bull heads and two rock cod and a star fish and we called it a day and headed towards Kake. Before we got there I tried to turn on the generator to recharge the house batteries but the Generator would not stay running because once again it was sucking air into the fuel system and Diesels do not run well on air. We stopped in the middle of Keku Strait just off Kake for about an hour and tied the two boats together while Glen and I tried to fix the bugger. We tried to fix it by removing the filters from the system to see if that was where we were getting air but alas, it still would not run. So after bobbing around working in a hot engine room with the strong smell of diesel fuel and getting somewhat queezy, we opted the keep moving to more protected waters of Portage Bay 30 miles further along and skip sightseeing at Kake. Without the Generator my house batteries were too low to use the inverter and I lost all the equipment that uses 110 volts. Little things like the computer with the nobeltec mapping software, the refrigerator and freezer just to name a couple important items. So it was pretty important to figure out the generator and soon or all the crab and halibut we had frozen was going to be lost. Not to mention I would have to resort to paper charts for navigation or trust Glen to keep me off the rocks.

We made it to Portage Bay and anchored along with about a half dozen other boats. That was the most boats we have shared an anchorage with yet on this trip. With Glens help I was able to isolate the generator problem to a poor electrical connection on the fuel pump. The same fuel pump that I was unable to find a replacement for when I was down in June. We may have found a way to fix the faulty connection and so far it has continued to run without a problem but it would be nice to have a replacement for when it does finally fail completely.



Entering LaConte Bay, narrow channel, shallow water and small icebergs

From Portage bay we were headed to Petersburg where Debbie and Nobel, Glen and Liz's guests need to fly out of on Sunday. We thought a small side trip to LaConte Bay to view more icebergs would be an appropriate way to finish the trip for Debbie, Nobel and our Debbie. Now keep in mind that when I was planning this trip I had crossed LaConte Bay off the itinerary because of the guide book description of the hazardous and difficult entry into the bay. This is how it is described. ("LaConte attracts special interest, however its remoteness, difficult entrance, lack of large scale charts or aids to navigation means it is seldom visited by cruising boats. You must favor the north shore to avoid the large drying mud flats that flow out of the Stikine River North Arm while at the same time avoiding a line of rocks that extend from the north shore into the narrow, shallow channel for a few hundred yards . You must avoid this dike of rocks and the stationary icebergs all major obstacles. It is not well charted so you are entirely on your own when entering. The water is opaque giving you no visual warning of the depth or rocks. The low water bar (20') can be plugged with groundeed bergs and at the same time a strong 3 to 5 kont flood current can put you and small bergs on direct collision courses with the stranded house sized ice chunks leaving you unusure of which side to pass. Several groundings have occurred on this reef, extreme caution is advised.") But once again, with Glen leading and total faith in our ability to avert disaster we decided to give it a try. And sure enough we found the guide books once again a bit on the overly dramatic and exaggerated side of difficulty. We were able to wind our way through house sized icebergs and find open water with a few feet to spare on either side and defy the shallow water, minimum depth 22 feet, and made it into the inner bay. Once inside, proving to ourselves that we could do what the books advised against, we turned around and made it back out before the icebergs that were not grounded on the shallows and still floating moved too much and blocked out only avenue out of the bay. Of course we did take time to scoop up small ice chunks for our drinks with the fish net. Why else would we venture into such a terrifying location?

Were now in Petersburg and had time to walk the town, which was all boarded up and closed down, after dinner. Dinner tonight was fresh shrimp and halibut, yep, were actually eating food that we managed to catch.



Petersburg

Our Debbie set the record for photos taken this week. She had snapped over 800 photos so far. Get ready for the slide show gang; you’re going to get to see the entire week of cruising frame by frame from her camera. Today we saw waterfalls, whales, ice bergs and more ice bergs and a few more whales, a bunch of eagles but no bears. In all fairness, this is amazing country and there is so much to see and enjoy and every day brings a totally different veiwscape and surprise. visiting it the way we are is an up close and personal experience of Alaska and as I have said before, four months is not enough tme to do it all. We will be back.

July 11, Red Bluff Bay

Not Liz's kind of water



Liz's kind of water



Bears in Red Bluff Bay

Add Red Bluff Bay as another spectacular place on a long list of spectacular places. This is a long narrow inlet and gets its name from the prominent red rock bluff that is at the entrance. It is a treeless rock ridge that is very different from all the other rock formations up here. There are dozens of waterfalls cascading into the inlet as you journey down to the end where you anchor in front of a large grassy river delta. And yep, there are bears! We spotted a momma and a cub grizzly foraging on the river bank and we were able to get fairly close by kayak before momma stood up, sensed us and took baby off into the woods at a rapid pace. Debbie was hanging back quite certain that the bear was going to come swimming out to us so her photos are of little brown specks in the grass but I think she was as thrilled as one could be. She is just amazed at the spectacular scenery and I am not sure if she has more photos of fishing boats or waterfalls or whales off in the distance but it is a good thing her camera is digital or her photo developing bill would break the bank.,

The bugs are out finally but they were not too bad anchored out but try paddling ashore and they eat you alive. Better them than the Grizzly’s however.

Glen found a waterfall that he could motor right up to with the big boat and stick the bow into the waterfall with 125 feet of water still under his boat. Got some good photos of them getting a shower and boat wash.

Were headed east today, towards Kake and then on to Petersburg by Sunday. We should be able to post this somewhere enroute today. I have been surprised at the number of places we have had connectivity. Certainly not in the bay where I am writing this but when we get out we should be in sight of the cell tower above Baranoff Hot Springs. We were able to cruise down the middle of Chatham Strait yesterday and Chris was able to get to her email and banking and I was able to post the last blog. Pretty cool stuff this technology we have.

The generator is acting up again, sucking air from somewhere. I tightened all the connections again and got it running and it stayed running and the fuel bowel on the filter stayed full so maybe this time I stopped the air leak. Other than this reoccurring problem everything is still running well. As long as the engines start every morning and we can charge the batteries each day were in good shape.

July 10, 2008 Baranoff Hot Springs

The community of Baranoff HS, no bear in sight


Hot pools at Baranoff HS, no bear in sight


We decided to stay an extra day at the hot springs. It is a very pretty place with snowcapped mountains surrounding the bay a large waterfall cascading into the bay just in front of the dozen or so cabins and houses that make up the community of Baranoff. We are anchored across the bay in front of the entrance to the small lagoon. The entrance is only about 15 feet wide and can only be entered with a dinghy at higher tides.

It rained hard the night of the 8th butt cleared off on Wednesday and we had some sun breaks and even some warmth for a while in the afternoon. The pattern seems to be clouds and rain at night and in the morning with clearing in the afternoons followed by a day of relatively nice weather followed up by clouds and rain. So we have alternated sunny days with rainy days for the last week or so.

The wind picked up a bit coming down from Angoon and we took a bit of spray over the top of the boat but it was a comfortable ride nonetheless. Today is cloudy but it looks like the sun will make an appearance a bit later.

We walked up to the hot springs yesterday afternoon, a distance of about half a mile on a boardwalk. We were advised by several people that there was a large grizzly hanging around the hot springs changing area and one lady had been in the hot pool when the bear wandered on by about 50 feet away. Others heard it in the brush grunting while they were bathing. We hiked past the hot springs because we did not know where they were and ended up at the lake where there are two or three public use rowboats and canoes. No paddles or oars but several boats. We opted not to venture out on the lake and spent some time taking photos and then headed back down. No sign of the bear yet. The rest of the crew had hiked on ahead of Glen and I as we ventured to some higher ground for better views and on our way back down we took a side trail that was muddy but well traveled and found the hot springs and bathing pools which sit right next to the raging river that drains out of the lake. The rest of the crew had missed this turn so we spent the next 20 minutes enjoying the pools by ourselves. Still no bear.


We hiked on down to find the others still in search of the hot pools and when we told them it was back up the trail only Liz opted to go back up with Glen. Debbie and Chris decided to use the three bathing tubs in a three room covered bath house.

The locals have built the bath house for public use and it is cleaner and much more convenient than the hike to the rock pools above. Hot water is piped from above and flows into the tubs.
Liz and Glen returned about an hour later reporting the hot pools were a busy place with half a dozen others enjoying them and still no bear sighting. The locals said there are two or three local grizzly bears that wander in on a regular basis but they seem to behave themselves and do not seem to mind people to much. They know when the bears are around because the local dogs keep barking until they move along. It still makes one wonder however when you see the locals walking along the boardwalk with a shotgun slung over their shoulder and a shotgun leaning against the wall just outside the door.

The entire town is community is built on stilts along the hillside and above the bay. A couple of the cabins have collapsed and lie as they fell along the shoreline. A couple of industrious US&R rescue types could easily jack and shore up the two buildings and make them usable again. They are for sale and would make for a great fishing lodge if someone wanted to spend a little time fixing and finishing what someone has apparently abandoned. Of course it would help to have someone who knows how to fish so you would have satisfied clientele to keep the place going.

There is a small store here and the girls along with several other boatloads of people waited patiently for it to open. The locals said the owner usually opens late in the day for a few hours or whenever she feels like it. Right on Schedule the door opened at 5 pm and we quickly ran the ladies over for a shopping spree. Ice cream, soap and books were apparently the hot items that we could not do without.

I tried my hand at fishing again and sure enough the fish won another round. We had hot information that the entrance to the bay was a good spot for halibut. If I could have stayed on the 120 foot depth it might have worked but the wind just kept blowing the dinghy and I into 500 foot water and I don’t have that much line. I saw salmon jumping but they apparently do not like the lure that I have so they are not biting either. So far it would have been cheaper to buy fish from the local vendors than to buy the fishing license. I did get stopped by the state police in Angoon while we were fishing and they checked my license so even up here you better stay legal because you never know where these enforcement guys might be lurking. The looked like any other small fishing boat up here until they were 20 feet away and then it was obvious they were not fishing. They were a couple of nice guys out of Juneau, running around on a rainy windy day. They said it took just two hours to run down from Juneau while it took us a day and a half to run that far. Nice work if you can get it on a nice day but it did not look like much fun on this day. The little three sided shelter in the boat was big enough for one guy to stand and drive while the other guy had to huddle behind the driver to get out of the wind and rain while they zipped around at 30 mph. The girls thought the officers were cute.
They asked if we had caught anything and if we had any crab on board. I of course had to answer truthfully and say no. They said that seemed to be the same response from everyone, no one was catching anything.

I digress, back to Warm Springs, and a lazy afternoon and evening and we are ready to move on again, this time we are heading just a few miles down the coast to Red Bluff Bay. Were probably not going to go down to Tebenkof Bay on this trip and will save it for another time. We will slowly start heading east towards Petersburg.

July 7th, Angoon

Today was an awesome day and Debbie is simply having the time of her life. We left Sitka yesterday, July 6th and cruised about 30 miles north to Shultze Bay which is just west of Surgius narrows which we need to pass through at slack water. It can run up to 8 knots at full flood or ebb tide and we were now in position to run it at the 9 am slack. We passed at least 50 fishing vessels headed in to Sitka as we cruised north. It was the end of a commercial salmon opening and there was weather coming in so everyone was headed to port. It looked like some kind of exodus as there was a steady stream of boats going south and we were the only one going north. Sitka was full when we left so I am not sure where all these additional boats were going to fit. It was blowing hard when we reached Shultze bay and anchoring was a challenge. I finally found a spot on the north, lee side of Piper Island and stern tied so we were out of the wind. It was a perfect solution and we spent a comfortable afternoon and evening while we waited for Glen to arrive. By the time he arrived with Debbie and Nobel the wind had died and we enjoyed a perfect evening. I put out the crab pot and only got more starfish.

We cruised through Surgius narrows and Peril strait today without incident. It was a gray and wet day but beautiful in its own right. Debbie spent all day watching the shoreline for bear and she was not disappointed. Just opposite Appleton Cove Glen spotted a momma Grizzly and two cubs on the beach and we were able to get close enough to get some good photos.

We stopped shortly after that to do some fishing while we waited for the currents to change direction so we could enter the inner harbor at Angoon. The current runs up to 7 knots there and all the books recommend entering and exiting only at slack water. We stopped at the north end of Peril Strait where it joins Chatham Strait and fished for about three hours. It has been fairly windy coming down Peril Strait but the water here was dead calm. It was perfectly smooth water with rain and fog so all in all it was a pretty gray surrounding. I managed to hook a good sized halibut and was able to get him to the boat but when we tried to net him we managed to dislodge the hook from his snout and he was gone. Was I bummed. That is the third Halibut I have hooked and been unable to land.

About an hour later I got a second Halibut and this time we got him into the net and on board. He was smaller than Becky’s or Nicholes but at least I have caught one now.

We cruised on over the Angoon with about two hours to wait for the slack water and just as we got across Chatham Strait we spotted what we thought were small black fish (porpoises) swimming to play in our bow wave. But the next thing we saw was a large killer whale leap entirely out of the water right in front of the boat. This thing came all the way out vertically and was 5 to 6 feet above the surface of the water with its tail before it arched over and dove head first back into the water. It was something out the movie Free Willie when the whale escaped out of the pool! No we did not get a picture! We watched a large pack of killer whales for the next hour as they swam around us. We were all stunned and amazed at what we saw and it has to be one of the highlights of the trip so far.

We entered Angoon’s inner harbor without a problem. I had called the harbor master and got someone on the phone who was quite helpful but who denied being the harbor master. He said he wasn’t but what the heck, what could he do to help. When I asked about the entrance he asked if I meant the entrance to the inner harbor. I said yes and he asked how big our boat was. I told him 43 and 55 and he said, you want to come into the inner harbor? I said yes and he said well, I guess it will work, we had a 100 footer in her a few days ago and he made it ok. I guess you can too. Not to many boats that size come in here you know. The books do suggest not entering without local knowledge or local advice.

We made it in just fine but the local advice about following the markers and avoiding the uncharted rocks was very helpful. I think Angoon is the Tlinget word for boat graveyard. The harbor here is full of abandoned and derelict and soon to be derelict Alaska boats. Glen was told that he was parked over a sunken fishing vessel and that he probably needed to move which he promptly did. There is definitely something down there according to my depth sounder on the dinghy. The shores are lined with sunken and rotting hulls and we are surrounded by small boats with years of moss growing on them.

The harbor master met us at the dock and took our information so the city of Angoon can send us a bill for moorage. When we asked how much he did not know, just told us that we would be billed. Trusting folks here in Angoon..

Speaking of Dinghy’s! Glen and I took a long tour of Kootznahoo inlet which is where the inner harbor of Angoon lies. The inlet is amazing and it is the Indian word for land of bears and eagles.. The inlet is huge and to get into the labyrinth of waterways you have to run up a outflow rapid that is like running a class 3 river. What a hoot! We were gone an hour running at 25 knots and only covered half of the inlet. We ended up coming out a different way than we entered and had to run down another class 2 river current. This is truly a remote, spectacular and hauntingly beautiful place that not very many people ever get to see. When we asked a local about it he told us that you cannot get there because fo the rapids by boat so don’t try. He looked at us like we were nuts when Glen suggested a route up the first inlet across from the docks, he just looked at us as goofy tourists and said no and shook his head! All the guide books say there are too many uncharted rocks to actually enter the inlet very far. One book says “Caution, the navigation of Kootznahoo Inlet should not be attempted by strangers; A guided can be obtained at Angoon Petersburg and Sitka. Not being the type to shy away from an adventure we disregarded the guidebooks and local knowledge and went to find out for ourselves. We found the rocks to be charted fairly accurately on the Northstar GPS on Glen’s dinghy. It got us there and back without hitting anything solid. There is not a sign of anyone being there before except for two crab pots in the first bay past the first rapid. Too bad it is not better charted and marked because Glen and I are convinced at the right tide you could get a full sized boat into Mitchell bay which is the middle section of the Inlet and anchor in total security and explore for days by kayak or dinghy. The shores are perfect for wildlife sightings and the rock formations are spectacular and out of place. They look like sandstone and are carved out as if rivers of water or wind scoured the lower sections leaving large mushroom shaped tops capped with trees. The rock formations are not everywhere, just here and there throughout the inlet and just seem out of place in the forest of trees that surround them.

July 8, 2008
The plan is to head down to Baranoff hot Springs to get Debbie warmed up again. She runs around in fleece and long johns while I run around barefoot and in shorts. It is just like in the office, she has a heater under her desk in the summer and I have the AC on.

I doubt if we will have connectivity after Angoon until Petersburg so until then enjoy, we certainly are!

July 5th, From Goddard Hot Springs

Goddard Bay



the hot springs





We left Sitka and motored down the coast to Goddard Hot springs a distance of about 10 miles. For a short portion we are exposed to the Gulf of Alaska but it was a picture perfect day and there were only very small rollers breaking on the multitude of rocks that make the navigation interesting. It is a maze of small reefs that ensures you pay close attention to the charts. We tried trolling for a while for salmon, it appears they are finally in and the fishing is not bad out here. We had no luck except for a small black rock fish that I caught. The girls were watching a small seal following the boat about where the bait and lure were at and shortly after the seal dove down the line went tight and they screamed that I had caught the seal. When I reeled in the line it was not the seal but the rock fish. Not sure what I would have done with a seal.

The hot springs were great. There are three of them with the uppermost one out in the open. It is an old wood sided pool with a foot of rotten wood sediment in the bottom that you stir up when you step in. The water is really hot; it takes a bit to get into it. It looks like your bathing in mud after everyone stirs up the bottom. There is an old claw foot tub someone has set into the pool so everyone had to get their photos in the tub. The mosquitoes were out so the mud pool was the preferred location while up there. We moved down to the middle hot tub which has a forest service wood building around it. We tried getting in but not even Debbie could stand the 115 plus degree water.



Deb in a tub

We moved down to the lower one where a group of Kayakers were enjoying it and joined them. During the evening at least 5 fishing vessels pulled in and most of the crews took their turn in the hot tub at some point in the evening. We went twice, once before dinner and once after. Well worth the effort. Debbie was even warm for the first time since she arrived in Alaska. We found out she was not only wearing long pants and shirts but had on long underwear to boot while we are running around in shorts.

We woke up this morning to the shallow water alarm, were in 9 feet of water and the rocks we are stern tied to are just a few feet behind the boat. Plenty of water left however as we are at low tide and the water is going back up now. Debbie is out this morning with Sophie in the Kayak in her own little slice of heaven. She is looking at all the marine growth and animals on the rocks, it is a minus 2 foot tide this morning and I don’t think I have ever seen her grinning so much as she is this morning. Not sure what she sees than we don’t one rock covered with sea slime looks like any other up here but to here it is a different world with her biology background.
I caught a few monster starfish and she thought that was just great.



Were in no hurry today, Glen and Liz will run back into Sitka to be there in the am to get Shaun and Nichole off and pick up the next group of passengers. We will find a place to hang out near Sitka and then meet Glen and the gang at Shultz bay just this side of Surgius narrows on Sunday night. We will need to top off fuel before we head north towards Peril strait We will be out of internet touch after leaving Sitka so this will be the last entry for about a week. We are going to do the east side of Baranoff Island, the hot springs and Red Bluff bay and then run over to Tebenkof Bay and spend a couple of days there before going north Petersburg and then on to Wrangell to drop off Debbie. We got good advice on where to catch some halibut and that Tebenkof Bay is a hot spot for crab.

Sherm, can you check on the possibility of changing debs flight from Wrangel to Petersburg. that will give us a bit more time to loiter about.

July 3, Sitka

Liz gave me a hard time for the first photo of the bear in the tree, something about a bears butt. So here is the better shot.




Crabs in the pots

We woke up early to dense fog in DeGroff Bay. We needed to get an early start in ordr to get to Sitka in time to meet Chris and Debbie's flight. It never occured to us that the dense fog just might create a problem for planes landing at Sitka. We had no problem navigating through the fog and arrived at Sitka at about 9am. Chris called shortly after and said that they were delayed in Juneau due to weather at Sitka so we waited.
they made it in about 1030, the fog was still thick and according to Debbie it was an exciting landing with the pilot getting an ovation from the passengers for finding the airfield succesfully. He was the first pilot to manage to land in the past two days. One poor guy on the plane had been 15 hours between ketchikan and Sitka as he waited for the fog to clear and multiple flights were cancelled or delayed.
Sherm made it out on time and were looking forward to having both him and nancy back in a few weeks. He was pretty helpful and made the run down from Juneau to Sitka enjoyable and I promised I would not list the litiney of small mishaps that could be blamed on him. (Fenders, Flames, Toilets,) In his defense he made coffee, lots of it, cooked breakfast, made lunch while underway, swept the cabin, did dishes and made the bed for Deb. All in all he's a pretty good first mate.


We walked the town and found it much more interesting than Juneau or Petersberg or Wrangel for that matter. We had a ringside view of the fireworks which were last night instead of tonight. Not sure why they set them off on the 3rd but they do. The fireworks site was directly across from the boats about 500 yards away and the concussion from the big rockets was pretty impressive. We had to drug up sofie so she was out of it. She found a spot down deep inside Glens boat and hid under a couple layers of pillows in Nicholes room and did just fine. She is still a bit unsteady on her feet this morning, maybe a half of a pill is still too much doggy downer.

Chris and Deb are on their way to do another load of laundry, the towels that never got done prior to my departure. Should be underway for Goddard Springs tonight. Tomorrow Glen and Liz have to be back here to drop off and pick up people. We will hang around the area and meet them on the 7th somewhere along Peril strait.
It looks like the salmon (kings) are finally starting to run so we will try our hand at some fishing out here.