Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Ketchikan to Craig : Never in 1,000 Years!!!


Ginny and I have been happily married for 50 years , have 2 sons and 6 grandchildren. We have been avid boaters since the mid 1970's. We have sailed in various parts of the world making 'bareboat' charter trips in the Washington and Canadian San Juans and Gulf Islands, Maine,the British Virgins, South Pacific's Moorea and Tuamoto's and New Zealand. We owned and raced a J-24, Laser, and cruised a Newport 30 before buying a long range trawler in 2003 and cruising the waters of the Pacific Northwest and the 'Inside Passage' of British Columbia to SE Alaska for the last 10 years. After first owning a 2000 Selene 47, and 2002 Selene 50 (both named 'Ina Marie', we now, in the 'bell lap' of our boating days, own, operate and thoroughly enjoy 'Ginny C' , our 2007 Selene 42.



JULY 27 TO August 1: KETCHIKAN to CRAIG, ‘Never in a Thousand Years’

For the entire next week weather is predicted clear with temps in hi 70's and low 80's. Never in 1,000 years would I have expected this!!!!!





Tuesday, July 23 to Friday, July 26, 2013, caching up in Ketchikan
 Our guests for the next 12 days, Dave and Stephanie D’Alessandro from Ft. Lauderdale arrive on Friday from Seattle.  In hindsight we are glad to have had the unanticipated 3 extra days here to get caught up on laundry,fuel, provisioning and routine maintenance before their arrival. 

Tuesday it rained hard all day.  We went into town and had lunch on Tuesday watching 6,000 passengers off 3 huge cruise ships mill around and thru all the tourist trap gift shops along the waterfront.  It reminded us of St Thomas and St Martin on our April Cruise....same exact vendors/stores with same names, many supposedly owned by the Cruise ship lines.  Wednesday and Thursday are spent on the above stated chores. Our guests arrive midday Friday missing one bag and pretty well jet lagged so we have lunch, do the safety and systems orientation and relax while I updated this blog. The missing bag arrives about 5 pm off the next flight in from Seattle.  We went out to dinner at the Bar Harbor Grill and then off to an early bed time. Weather is clear and predicted to stay that way for next several days
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Conditions are right  for rounding Cape Chacon on Sunday, one of three places we will face the open ocean on this extended trip up the inside passage. So we are up and out of Ketchikan by mid morning for our 35km run into Gardner Bay on the SE side of Prince of Wales Island, just 8km from rounding the cape. We arrive mid afternoon and share this pretty cove with 5 other big Purse Seiners. The weather is clearing up tremendously and it is actually getting warm-no hot-High 70’s. Just as we are arriving at the entrance to the bay, we spot a huge Humpback Whale.  We slow down and watch him for a bit.  He roles twice within 70 yards of the boat before he dives and is gone.  What a way to end our first day out of Ketchikan!!!

 Sunday, July 28th, 2013
To see our locations click on this text
We are up and off the anchor at 5:15 to make our rounding of Cape Chacon.  We do not want to go when wind direction is against tide direction. Plus winds usually calm down or die overnight, seas calm and then both build back up mid to late afternoon.  There is not a cloud in the sky and we are in SE Alaska the largest rain forest area in the US if not on earth. As we round the Cape and transit about 15 miles of Dixon Entrance seas build to a long 5 foot swell with no wind chop on top of them which makes the trip very easy. We are in these seas for only about 1.5 hours and we head north out of the swell into Eureka passage for a smooth trip the balance of our 45plus km day as we cruise into Kassa Inlet for the night. We play along with another whale for about 45 minutes just south of Kassa Narrows This is a beautiful big safe bay and we share it with only one other boat.  We drop the Tender and Dave and I set a prawn trap a mile away in a 280 foot hole we spotted on our charts on the way in.  Ginny and Steph hit the Kayaks.  Salmon are jumping all around us --have been all day--so we troll back to the boat.  Dave has the rod and hooks a nice small yellow eye, but no Salmon.  It is 80 degrees and nasty deer flies come and go.  Dave and i take a quick dip in the chilly 63 degree water and take an outside shower,before settling down to a great dinner and quiet evening.  We play a few hands of Pitch and it is off to bed.
We are up early heading out at 6am to pull the prawn trap and proceed on to Hydaburg, an Alaska Native village with a famous totem park and carving facility and then heading on to Port Refugio Bay for the night.  It is another jackpot day, no clouds ,temp in high 70’s, low 80’s.  The prawn traps yield 88 huge prawns and we arrive in Hydaburg to visit with the carvers and take some pictures of original and restored totems. The salmon  are swarming at the mouth of a small stream in the village.  we watch the village boys snag salmon out of the stream on our way to visit the carvers.
We just missed a totem raising by two days.  There was a huge 3 tribe celebration and Potlatch feast of Salmon and deer and other native foods.  Darn!!  We leave Hydaburg in time to reach Tlevak Narrows at slack water tide change in order to make a safe transit through this tricky area. As we exit Tlevak we spot 4 more whales.



Tuesday, July 30th, 2013

To see our locations click on this text

This is a short 14 mile day from Port Refugio on into Craig for a day layover.  Port refugio is a bomb proof anchorage about 3 miles from Waterfall Lodge, a Mercedes grade fishing resort set up in a restored fishing cannery.  Gorgeous spot!! Willamette used to entertain customers here in the good old days. We pull our first successful crab catch- 3 keepers- just fair size from this anchorage.  Black Bears are usually on the beach meadows here but we do not see any.  We wait for some early morning fog to burn off to another glorious cloudless day, exit the cove and slow down to salmon fish for an hour at Port  Estrella point.  We pick up a nice ‘pink’ or ‘humpy’ salmon in about 10 minutes but nothing after that.  The lodge guides and commercial seiners are here in droves, so we get one of the last spots on the docks in Craig’s south harbor.  Dave cleans the fish and I cook the crab while Ginny, Steph, and Dave scout this interesting fishing village.  We cap the day off with an incredible dinner at Stevens Point Fishing Lodge, just a 10 minute walk from our slip.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

To see our locations click on this text

Today, will be spent like most layovers, enjoying Craig, buying fresh produce, etc.  Showers for all as there is good water here to top up our tanks before we leave.  As I write this I am sitting at Pac Air’s float plane docks waiting for its 1pm flight from Ketchikan.  With the help of a local outboard dealor here I have arrange for a new out board start key to be flown in from Ketchikan.  We havea spare, but we lost one two days ago and we are ‘up the creek’ if we lose the spare, so we arranged for this ‘air freight’ in about 10 minutes.  It is amazing how these people up here are so helpful and ‘can do’, and self sufficient.  No Honda dealer here, so its competitor, Yamaha dealer, spent his time and effort to help me get this done even tho he knew there was not a dime in it for him and he would never see me again.  Makes me grimace when I think of the ‘what are you going to do for me’ attitude of so much of our country today.  As soon as the flight comes in I will be off to the library to hopefully get this posted.
Next update will be in Sitka about 10 days away if all goes OK.

































          









Next update will be in Sitka about 10 days away if all goes OK.


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

JULY 16 TO JULY 25: PORT MCNEILL TO KETCHIKAN IN ‘RECORD TIME’


Ginny and I have been happily married for 50 years , have 2 sons and 6 grandchildren. We have been avid boaters since the mid 1970's. We have sailed in various parts of the world making 'bareboat' charter trips in the Washington and Canadian San Juans and Gulf Islands, Maine,the British Virgins, South Pacific's Moorea and Tuamoto's and New Zealand. We owned and raced a J-24, Laser, and cruised a Newport 30 before buying a long range trawler in 2003 and cruising the waters of the Pacific Northwest and the 'Inside Passage' of British Columbia to SE Alaska for the last 10 years. After first owning a 2000 Selene 47, and 2002 Selene 50 (both named 'Ina Marie', we now, in the 'bell lap' of our boating days, own, operate and thoroughly enjoy 'Ginny C' , our 2007 Selene 42.



JULY 16 TO JULY 25: PORT MCNEILL TO KETCHIKAN IN ‘RECORD TIME’


To see our locations click on this text



Tuesday, July 16, 2013

 Graham MacDonald, probably the best electrician and mechanic on Vancouver Island, [if not the whole coast] who helped us with fuel pump problem years back, stopped by at my request to check out or battery issues. It took him about 15 mi
nutes with our charging systems and a few meter readings to conclude that we did indeed have a bad house bank.  He opined that it was not certain but most likely caused by the bad new HB battery we had fought most of last summer, damaging the remaining two new HB units, which then continued to deteriorate over the winter months. I any event he agreed with my thoughts that the next 9-10 days will be a good test for the new batteries as we will be on the hook without shore power until we get to Ketchikan. 

The balance of the morning is spent polishing our refueling, doing laundry, topping up water and propane and updating the blog.  We depart  the harbor about 1:30 pm and make an uneventful 24 mile trip back around Malcolm Island and across Queen Charlotte Straights arriving at Blunden Harbor for the night. Unfortunately, no whales in sight.  We almost always have at least one humpback citing in the logs on these crossings plus a pod of Orcas.

We are about 2 hours behind ‘Full Moon’ [Don and Linda McGill from Ladner] who were next to us at Port McNeill.  They greet us as we come in and drop a crab trap for us with their tender, as ours is ‘up’ for the next several days.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Conditions are right  for rounding Cape Caution, one of the two places we will face the open ocean on this extended trip up the inside passage. So we are up at 5am, crab traps up by 5:15 [Nothing but females], and hook up and underway by 5:35.  Full Moon stays with us until after we round the Cape at 09:00.  Once again, a day without whales.

After rounding CC  Full Moon departs us.  They head up Rivers Inlet and we decide to make a long run all the way to Namu, a 72nm day, arriving at 3pm, nearly 10 hours on the water. 

QCS is smooth all the way with a low SW swell so we are surprised when face a nasty 1-2 foot chop on our beam running up Fitzhugh Sound and even a bit worse as we cross the opening of Hakai Passage.  

Namu is an abandoned Fish Cannery [which once employed 5,000 at its peak years] now literally gradually sinking and falling into the sea since about 1980.  Its three long time caretakers inform us on arrival that they are leaving in Sept. taking their docks and home on floats with them to Lizzie Cove in Lama Passage.  Thus no more stops at Namu.

The caretakers and another group of 4 couples who are fishing there and ‘camping out’ in their small trailerable boats which they launched in Bella Coola are quite festive and invite us to join them on the nice covered cooking float with a big fire pit.  We respectfully decline as we are POOPED! after our long day.



Thursday, July 18th, 2013    To see our locations click on this text

Long term weather forecast for Dixon Entrance, through next Monday the 21st, which is the next and last run we will face with open ocean exposure is very good, in fact, beyond expectations.  So we decide to change plans a bit and push ahead hard hoping the forecast holds and does not change.

We leave Namu at 6am heading north hoping to make it to an Indian village Klemtu or a safe anchorage nearby. 
Just as we are leaving we spot our first Humpback whale.  We watch him spout and dive, spout and dive for about 20 minutes, but he is not close enough for any real good pictures. 
We cruise down Lama passage meeting a huge Alaska State Ferry just before Bella Bella and Shearwater.  
  
         


Bella Bella is the largest native settlement on the coast.  As we pass by we see the remains of a devastating fire of just two days ago which destroyed their only Grocery Store and threatened several other buildings in the village.  Water is unusually calm in Seaforth Channel so we pass up transiting Reid Passage and proceed on past Ivory Island on into Finlayson Passage to Klemtu Passage.  When we got to Klemtu its small docks were full so we decide to continue another 10 miles to the head of Alexander Inlet, a bullet proof anchorage according to our books.  We arrive at 4:30, another long day, 71.4 miles closer to Dixon Entrance and Ketchikan.  We are all by ourselves in this beautiful inlet.





Friday, July 19th, 2013     To see our locations click on this text

Weather remain beautiful and seas are almost dead calm. Today we must transit Meyers Narrows, about 10 miles down Meyers passage.  We must time ourselves to arrive at near mid tide to be able to get through its trickiest part.  This means we can sleep in a bit later waiting for the tide to rise.  

We haul the anchor [and another empty crab trap-bummer!!] at 8am and clear Meyers Narrows with plenty of water under us at 9:25 am, exit Meyers Passage at 10:12 and cruise up Laredo Channel in almost dead calm seas arriving at Dunn Passage Cove in Weinberg Inlet on the west side of Campania Island at 4:15, an 8.5 hour transit of 61nm. Again no whale sightings!  

This is an amazing wilderness.  We share the Cove with one just one other boat. Not only that, during our entire 61mile transit today we saw only one other pleasure boat.

Weather for Dixon Entrance still beckons us for a Monday crossing which will continue to require us to make these longer transits, longer than ‘normal’ for us.  We think that 40 -45  km is about comfortable max which usually takes 5-6 hours with an early afternoon arrival to relax, fish, prawn, gunkhole, kayak or just cozy up with a good book.  

But Dixon Entrance can set you back a week if it kicks up. So, right now, getting it behind us is a priority. After that we will really slow down for more than a month of those 15 to 30 mile days with some layovers days and an occasional 40 to 45 km run.

Today, we start making hourly VHF radio calls to ‘Blue C’s hoping to connect with Carl and Carol Cederberg, who we met last year in this area and ended up cruising with two or three times along the way.  Our general mutual cruising plans indicate we should/might cross paths about this time and near this area.  They will be heading South as we head North but we hope to anchor one night with them along the way to tip a scotch or glass of wine or a potluck dinner in one of these great coves.
















 


Saturday, July 20, 2013

We depart Dunn Passage, again with an empty crab trap at 7:30am. 

           

To see our locations click on this text



Weather is good,Seas are very calm. Other than seeing a few commercial fisherman it is again another day of no pleasure boats and whales for the entire trip up Principe Channel across the mouth of Nepean Sound and on into Petrel Channel and its Captains Cove, where we will stop for the night.  Todays trip is a bit shorter, 53.6km.

Our hourly VHF calls to the Cederbergs aboard Blue Cs again bring no response.

We share this cove with just one other boat, arriving at 2:45.  We have not seen one other pleasure boat all day.

We drop the tender to set a crab trap.  The other skipper beckons me and informs me that he has been here two days with no success.  He tells me that in previous this has been his best crabbing spot.

I decide to fish a bit and low and behold I hooked a nice Halibut about 8-10 pounds estimated.  Estimated because while trying to net him flopping about next to the tender he broke loose with my lure still in his mouth because I had done a crappy job tying a weak knot to the lure.

I pulled yet another ‘empty’ crab trap after dinner.  It had one small male in it, not legally large enough to keep.  I could not leave the trap overnight because we had to lift the tender for an early departure as we have a long run to Dundas Island at the end of Chatham Sound and the beginning of East Dixon Entrance.


To see our locations click on this text
Sunday, July 21, 2013.

We departed Captains Cove at 7:15 entering Ogden Channel shortly thereafter.  There is not even a ripple on the water.  Our destination is Brundige Inlet on Dundas Island 63.3 mile away.
 About 11:30 we spotted a small pod of Orca whales about 1/2 mile off our starboard bow.They were a long way off and going the other way.  Ginny tried her best to get some pictures without much success but we enjoyed watching them for about 10-15 minutes. 





We entered Chatham Sound, a large body of pretty open water before Dixon entrance late morning and headed North past Lawson Harbor, Prince Rupert, the mouth of Venn Passage, and on into Brundidge Inlet on Dundas Island [just 8 miles south of the Alaska State Line], dropping the anchor at 4pm.  We shared this well protected anchorage with a sailboat flying a French flag arriving under sail just 15 minutes behind us.  I set the crab pot in 40 feet with my Kayak and paddled over. 




The boat was from Papeete, Tahiti and its French owners were heading south.  They have been Cruising the Pacific Ocean for the last 5 years and this is their second summer in Alaska.

To see our locations click on this text

Monday, July 22 and Tuesday, July 23, 2013

      
   

Dixon Entrance and Ketchikan: We left Brundidge Inlet at 7:15 with ‘Yes’, another empty crab trap!, and headed out into the famous Dixon Entrance with no wind and no swell for the first 3 hours.  I ran almost the entire way without engaging the stabilizers.  We had a slight beam swell for a couple of hours.  We entered Tongass Passage and were at a fuel dock in Ketchikan by 2:30 our time, 1:30 Ketchikan time.  We called Customs who cleared us at the fuel dock.  We put on 177 gallons and were of to Bar Harbor Marina and at our berth at 2:35.  



We are here 3.5 full days ahead of schedule.  Dave and Stephanie D’Allesandro will fly in from Florida on Friday and will be with us for the next leg to Sitka. We will leave here on Saturday, July 27.



Soon after we docked we spotted Wild Blue, a Selene 53 owned by the Bensons from San Luis Obispo.  I have emailed with him but we have not met.  He has made several Alaska trips and posted a very interesting and helpful blog each year.  We dropped by and introduced ourselves and had a nice visit.  He is on board with 3 friends who have been fishing  the past week.  His and their wives are flying in Thursday.  If it works out we may be able to get together with them later in the week.


It is Tuesday July 23 and we are doing nothing today after our 6 straight days of 50 to 70 plus miles.  We slept in and walked into town for lunch.


  
Weather has finally changed-- pouring rain most the day, but not cold or stormy.  Just socked in steady rain and drizzle.  Downtown about 1.4 miles south of our marina is nothing but Cruise ship tourist trap shops, the exact same shops with the same names  as we saw in St Thomas and St Maarten.  Right now there are 3 huge ships berthed.  Yesterday there were 4 of them.  6 to 7,000 tourists are wandering the down town streets.  Locals say Tuesday - Thursday are the busiest.  The mills I knew in the 70’s are all gone long ago as are the big fish canneries.  There is still a large fishing fleet here however, at this time of year.  All three Marinas are full of big fishing boats, and very few pleasure boats other than those locally owned.  The fishing boats are mostly purse seiners and some gill netters seeking salmon with only a few drag netters fishing for halibut and other bottom fish.

 We Hope you are enjoying the blog.  Our next update probably will not be until we get to Sitka, about 2 weeks from now

   




Tuesday, July 16, 2013

DESOLATION SOUND TO THE BROUGHTON ISLANDS AND PORT MCNEILL.


DESOLATION SOUND TO THE BROUGHTON ISLANDS AND PORT MCNEILL.

Ginny and I have been happily married for 50 years , have 2 sons and 6 grandchildren. We have been avid boaters since the mid 1970's. We have sailed in various parts of the world making 'bareboat' charter trips in the Washington and Canadian San Juans and Gulf Islands, Maine,the British Virgins, South Pacific's Moorea and Tuamoto's and New Zealand. We owned and raced a J-24, Laser, and cruised a Newport 30 before buying a long range trawler in 2003 and cruising the waters of the Pacific Northwest and the 'Inside Passage' of British Columbia to SE Alaska for the last 10 years. After first owning a 2000 Selene 47, and 2002 Selene 50 (both named 'Ina Marie', we now, in the 'bell lap' of our boating days, own, operate and thoroughly enjoy 'Ginny C' , our 2007 Selene 42.


To see our locations click on this text

Friday, July 5, 2013
On our last night at Gorge Harbor we spent the evening with Dennis and Karen Green from Yakima aboard their beautiful Nordlund, 'Estiva'  It was fun catching up on all my great years growing up there.




We left Gorge Harbor docks in beautiful weather for our 22 nm cruise down Okeover Inlet where we tied up to the local government floats about 4pm.  We have come here to have dinner [5 minute walk up the hill] at the Laughing Oyster, our favorite restaurant in this cruising world.  Tomorrow is our 50th anniversary and we celebrate it with another wonderful meal at this lovely overlooking Okeover Inlet.

  




Saturday, July 6, 2013
We have a short day today so we sleep in a just a bit before heading to Prideaux Haven in the heart of Desolation Sound just 14.1 nm. north.  We want to arrive before low tide in order to take the tender to our favorite oyster gathering and clam digging spot 3 miles away across Homfray Channel.  Our timing was perfect.  We had the boat on the hook and had gathered a 5 gallon bucket of oysters and a 1.5 gallon bucket of manilla and little neck steamer clams by noon, as well as setting our prawn traps in 285 feet of water before returning to this spectacular spot to enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening.  We sipped on Monbalziac and nourished ourselves on foie gras, a gift from my sister Mimi for the big 50th.  We pulled and reset our traps early evening and were rewarded with 86 prawns before retiring.






Sunday, July 7, 2013
We awoke early to clear weather anxiously awaiting the arrival of Tucson friends, Rich and Judy Speers on Kenmore Airlines float plane service out of Seattle. While waiting I took 53 more prawns out of the trap and reset. Their plane buzzed the cove right on time about 11:30 am and I jumped in the tender to run outside the cove where they were in the process of their water landing and taxiing up to where they could climb aboard from the plane’s pontoons


     




      



Ginny had lunch waiting when we putsied back to the boat.  After the safety, man overboard
orientation and our ‘systems intro’, most of the rest of the afternoon was spent unpacking and organizing their stateroom, getting to know the boat, doing some chart orientation with them about the scope of the trip. 


 After Rich helped pull another 120 plus prawns we went for a swim (the water is 73.8 degree Fht).  Ginny and Rich kayaked, before we all enjoyed a happy hour champagne ‘cocktail cruise’ around all the pretty inlets of Prideaux Haven.  We ate a few oysters, followed by a great dinner.  Tomorrow is off to the Octopus Islands and we have to leave early to make the 30nm run and time slack current at 11:30 am to get through ‘Hole in the Wall’ rapids. 





  






















 


       



Monday, July 8, 2013,

We are off the hook at 6:30am, and head up through beautiful Waddington Channel and out into Raza Passage with a good 2 knot tidal push in our favor arriving at Hole in the Wall almost 60 minutes before slack current. Rich takes the helm and steers most of the way. 

   


We approach slowly and it seems to look fine in terms of tide rips, whirlpools, and overfall rapids so we go for it about 45 minutes before slack without incident figuring we have about 3.5 knots of current to help us. Once through we are right at the entrance slot to Waiatt Bay where we anchor, eat lunch, show the Speers “the cabin” and enjoy the rest of the day in this beautiful spot.







 Late afternoon Judy notices a tree branch lodged in the port stabilizer. Rich and I try dislodging it with the tender only breaking it off so I spend 30 minutes in the water in a wet suit getting the rest of the job done. UGH!! Cold- not close to 73.8
I am again not liking what I see with the House Bank batteries after three days on the hook.  They are not holding voltage after way more time than necessary on generator charging and with very little capacity discharge. 

Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Up in the morning early again. We exit the slot and take Upper Rapids right at slack, and head down Okisollo Channel for Blind Channel Resort where we will stay before taking on the famous Johnstone Straights which have been blowing Gale Force for 4 days. They are supposed to start calming down today and should be OK tomorrow. If they do not we will have to wait a day.

Our house batteries are worse overnight even after 2 hours of charging just before bed. Conditions logged.  Another day of warm weather and, gorgeous scenery as we pass Chatham Point and cruise on up Nodales Channel and Cordero Channel and on into the docks at Blind Channel.  We stock up on the important things at the store- wine and beer-- eat lunch and take a beautiful hike into the wilderness up to one of the largest Cedar trees in the world.

      


                                                                        

Wednesday, July 10, 2013.
Our last ‘up early’ day, off the docks at 5:45 to time Green Point Rapids and Whirlpool Rapids to enter the Johnstone Straights via Sunderland Channel, the ‘back way’ and shorter way.  Also, leaving early because normally winds die down overnight and then build back to ‘gale force’ late in the day. 
Rich takes the helm all the way to Havanah Channel. 






We we pick up a couple of 30 plus gusts after Green Point in Chancellor Channel, hit Whirlpool 2 hours after it’s slack with 4.5 knots going with us and have no trouble. As we enter the J-Straights at the end of Sunderland winds are reported 22 at Fanny Island, definitely dying down.  Seas are a 2-3 foot breaking wave on our nose with 2 knots current going against it.  Lots of spray but no green water. Really not great but not bad either so  We decide to head on.  Only15 nm till we are out of it and if it gets worse we will duck out at Port Neville Bay just 6 nm away. By the time we get there wind is below 15 and seas are calming by the minute so we proceed smoothly bast the Broken Islands and on into Havannah Channel, through the channel markers at Chatham Channel , through the ‘Blow Hole’, and on into Lagoon Cove Docks before lunch.  We hook up to needed shore power, I communicate my issues to Olympia and Port McNeil Fuel dock who will replace them when we get there on Monday. 
Rich and I set crab traps and prawn traps and we return to enjoy pot luck prawn Happy Hour, a tradition of Lagoon Cove and it is early to bed.  It is sad not to have its owner, Bill Barber with us. He is and will be missed.







 
              
















Thursday, July 11, 2013

Our 47 mile day from Blind Channel to Lagoon Cove behind us and no more rapids to time, we sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast and are off the docks at 11 am to pull the crab prawn traps and head for Kwatsi Bay, 24.7nm north. We go bust on crab but 50 plus nice prawns await us.  I buy two big 2 plus pound crabs from a commercial crabber who stops to refuel at Lagoon’s fuel dock.  The run to Kwatsi as always is stunning and Anka and Max are there there to greet us in this heavenly fjord. It is crab night on MV Ginny C. I cook them up and what a feast we have.

       



      


Friday, July 12, 2013
After Anka gives me my annual hair cut on the seas, while Judy and Ginny take off in the kayaks for a great time.  We are off the next 23.4nm to Stoppard Bay for a day of tranquility and another stab at catching crabs.  The Speers are great boat crew and Rich especially is enjoying running the boat through our navigation courses almost all the time we need someone at the helm.  After a short stop for a picture at Lacey Falls it is on into Stoppard for the night. Ginny and Judy are off in the kayaks to explore again. 


       


Rich and I are the losers..... bust on crab again.  All my ‘sure ‘ places for several years have been bust for the last 2 years.  The locals are telling us the Vietnamese commercial crabbers have cleaned out the entire area.




Saturday, July 13, 2013

Metropolis Day  in the Broughtons.  We are for Pierre’s at Echo Bay’s famous weekly Pig Roast, just a nice 2 hour run. This is totally the ‘other end of the barbell‘ after our night of solitude having beautiful Stoppard to our selves.  What a fun time. Had dinner with Joe and Connie Farina cruising on Shaman from Yakima.  Docks were chuck a block full as they usually are.  110 people feasted on the kpig... not an ounce was left for pickings.


    









Sunday, July 14, and Monday, July 15, 2013

Clouds burn off about 11 am and we are off on our 22nm run to spend our last night with Rich and Judy in Turnbull Cove.  We spend another  beautiful day cruising and enjoying this favorite cove.  Judy, Rich and Ginny hike up to Huaskin Lake.  I stay back to catch up on this blog.  We end the day with Rack of Lamb feast and a game of Pitch.



       




We are off the anchor at 7:45 and on into Sullivan Bay for the Kenmore flight at Noon and then Ginny and I are off to Port McNeill to deal with and hopefully solve our battery issues and head north. Ginny prepares a great brunch and packs a couple of sandwiches while we wait for Kenmore to come in and take our crew away. It has been a fun week which has flown by almost in a blink of the eye.