Finally, Some Crabs in the Trap

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.

August 12, 2013-- 35 miles down Peril and Chatham Straights : Whale Tales

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I awake at 6 am and it is clear.  Ginny and I get up at 7 and we are fogged in.  We can see the crab trap floats but not much further.  The trap yields 4 barely large enough ‘keepers’ so we will feast on crab again when we  reach Takatz Bay, our destination about 35nm away in Chatham Straight on the east side of Baranof Island.   We pull anchor at 8:15 and run in dense fog until about 10:20 breaking out as it burns off about the last 5 miles of Peril Straight, before turning south into Chatham Straight. The forecast today is clear, 77, and light winds. Megayacht ‘Serene’ is nowhere to be ‘seen’ even as a blob on the radar.

During this time Lizzy disappears and after searching and calling everywhere we become convinced she has gone overboard in the fog as we had briefly opened the door once.  As a last resort, I ask Ginny to reopen every cabinet door in the boat and low and behold, out she comes from the master head’s under sink cabinet.  She had a good time exploring the bowls of the boat. :<)  WHEW!!!!!!

The highlight of the day, other than finding Lizzy still on board, were the three large whales we watched for almost on hour near shore just north of Pt. Lull, about 1.5 hours north of our destination.  Two were together, right next to each other within 75 yards of us.  

We cut the motor and drift silently as we were glued to them. One seemed to be almost sleeping right on the surface.    All of a sudden it bolted from the other with a huge forceful roll and for the next 20 minutes they first partially broached and them continuously rolled and slapped the water with their huge fins.  The water was almost mirror calm so watching all this was easy and fun.  We think we got some good pictures of all this.

Takatz Bay is absolutely spectacular as was yesterday’s stop in Appleton Cove.  It is a large protected cove about 3 miles long with high, high cliffs and glaciers towering over it plus a pretty waterfall. We anchored, dropped the crab trap and enjoyed the rest of the beautiful, warm, cloudless day.  After our third day in a row crab dinner, we both kayaked around the awesome bay for an hour. Dave thought he spotted a bear on shore. A sailboat came in and anchored so we were not alone. 

Tomorrow we hope to leave early for our 40 mile run to Cannery Cove in Pybus Bay on Admiralty Island.  We are told that a luxury fishing resort is located there which welcomes ‘transients’ like us in their dining room.  We will find out! Unfortunately, intermittent showers and overcast skies are predicted for the next several days, although seas are predicted to remain calm.

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Leaving Sitka for New Adventures.

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.

Sunday, August 11, 2013; leaving Sitka for new adventures.

To see our locations click on this text

It is Sunday, August 11, 2013 and today we begin the second leg of the Alaska portion of our trip leaving Sitka and heading for the Glaciers in Tracy Arm about 5 days away and then to Petersburg 2 days from there.

Drinks at the historic and funky, picturesque Pioneer Bar was a kick. That plus a yummy Halibut dinner at the Dock Shack was a perfect way to close our Ketchikan to Sitka chapter and bid adieu and abiento to Dave and Stephie.

We awoke to another cloudless sky and departed Sitka on a timed 28nm course to backtrack to transit through Sergious Narrow’s high water slack at 2:30 pm.  We then continued on another 23 nm to anchor in Appleton Cove along Peril Straight.  It was great to see the spectacular scenery on the backtrack leg as we covered almost all of it in dense fog and rain coming in to Sitka.  We got a good push in Olga and Neva Straights and neared Sergious 1.5 hours ahead of slack current . The super hi speed hydrofoil Alaska Ferry Fairweather screamed by us going the other way as we exit Neva heading into Salisbury Sound.  

The next thing that happened was amazing.  A large very nice commercial fishing trawler came our way about 20 minutes before our reaching Sergious. Low and behold her name was “Ginny C”. (We had heard that she was in the area). I called her on the VHF and she gave us a report on her transit through.  

Based on the report we slowed down in Deadman’s Reach to kill some time because we were too early. Six porpoise came right to our bow and played with us for about 10 minutes.  After circling near the mouth for about 15 more minutes my Nav. aids showed a 3.4 nm current going our way at 1:25, an hour ahead of slack.  Seeing a lot of moving water in numerous directions but no rapids or huge overfalls, we decided to proceed and went through without incident although it took some handling with all the turbulence, small overfalls and cross currents.

The rest of our day was uneventful...just flat water and awesome mountain views...... as we proceed on to this beautiful Appleton Cove.  

About 5 miles before arriving 3 young girls went screaming by on Jet Skis.  We had seen only one other pleasure boat all day.  We knew there had to be a big one ahead somewhere close by.  There she was 20 minutes later as we rounded Pt. Elizabeth to enter Rodman Bay and this beautiful cove.  Her name is ‘Serene’, flying a British or Bahamian flag.  We had seen her briefly, anchored off Ketchikan, as we departed there on July 27th, but she was much farther from us then.  

Without a doubt she is the biggest private yacht we have ever seen.  She has a very large helicopter on her bow, has at least 5-7 decks, three boat garages to house all her toys, including a miniature one man sub and a tender significantly larger than this boat.  I would guess she is nearly 500 feet long or more. We passed close enough to her to observe a security force aboard and an Alaska State Trooper escort boat with 4 state cops on board.  As I write this we are anchored around the corner about 1 mile from her.  

Arriving  here at 4:30, 51nm from Sitka, we dropped a crab trap on the way in and hadn’t had the anchor down 5 minutes before the Alaska State Troopers came into the cove and took down our boat name.

The rest of this beautiful day was capped off with a big crab feed, finishing off our catch from Baby Bear a few days back, watching a Grizzly bear fish the stream at the head of the cove and Ginny enjoying her after dinner kayaking on the mirror calm surface of this most 
beautiful spot.

August 12, 2013-- 35 miles down Peril and Chatham Straights : Whale Tales

I awake at 6 am and it is clear.  Ginny and I get up at 7 and we are fogged in.  We can see the crab trap floats but not much further.  The trap yields 4 barely large enough ‘keepers’ so we will feast on crab again when we  reach Takatz Bay, our destination about 35nm away in Chatham Straight on the east side of Baranof Island.   We pull anchor at 8:15 and run in dense fog until about 10:20 breaking out as it burns off about the last 5 miles of Peril Straight, before turning south into Chatham Straight. The forecast today is clear, 77, and light winds. Megayacht ‘Serene’ is nowhere to be ‘seen’ even as a blob on the radar.

During this time Lizzy disappears and after searching and calling everywhere we become convinced she has gone overboard in the fog as we had briefly opened the door once.  As a last resort, I ask Ginny to reopen every cabinet door in the boat and low and behold, out she comes from the master head’s under sink cabinet.  She had a good time exploring the bowls of the boat. :<)  WHEW!!!!!!

The highlight of the day, other than finding Lizzy still on board, were the three large whales we watched for almost on hour near shore just north of Pt. Lull, about 1.5 hours north of our destination.  Two were together, right next to each other within 75 yards of us.  

We cut the motor and drift silently as we were glued to them. One seemed to be almost sleeping right on the surface.    All of a sudden it bolted from the other with a huge forceful roll and for the next 20 minutes they first partially broached and them continuously rolled and slapped the water with their huge fins.  The water was almost mirror calm so watching all this was easy and fun.  We think we got some good pictures of all this.

Takatz Bay is absolutely spectacular as was yesterday’s stop in Appleton Cove.  It is a large protected cove about 3 miles long with high, high cliffs and glaciers towering over it plus a pretty waterfall. We anchored, dropped the crab trap and enjoyed the rest of the beautiful, warm, cloudless day.  After our third day in a row crab dinner, we both kayaked around the awesome bay for an hour. Dave thought he spotted a bear on shore. A sailboat came in and anchored so we were not alone. 

Tomorrow we hope to leave early for our 40 mile run to Cannery Cove in Pybus Bay on Admiralty Island.  We are told that a luxury fishing resort is located there which welcomes ‘transients’ like us in their dining room.  We will find out! Unfortunately, intermittent showers and overcast skies are predicted for the next several days, although seas are predicted to remain calm.

To see our locations click on this text

Fog and Fishermen-- Sergius Narrows and Sitka

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.




August 8, 2013, to August 11 2013:  Fog and Fisherman-Sergious Narrow and Sitka

To see our locations click on this text

If we make it we will finally be having a crab feast in Sitka.  Before retiring for the night Baby Bear finally rewards us with 5 nice size Dungeness Crab and two Tanner Crabs which look like small Alaska King Crab.

However, we awaken to drizzle and dense fog when we pull the anchor at 5:30 am to exit Baby Bear in time to reach Sergius Narrows at its 6:30 slack water.  I definitely do not want to transit it in fog with  the thought of meeting and having to yield to oncoming commercial traffic in this narrow spot. Our hopes and prayers are that the fog will lift at least some from our less than 1/8 to 1/4 mile visibility we are ‘seeing’ as we head toward it  about 2.5 miles away.  We are locked on to our radar as we proceed slowly and I decide to give a “Securite’ ” radio call with my location and speed and direction.  We get an immediate response back from 3 other commercial fisherman, two heqding our way and one coming at us. We all get on Channel 13 to describe our positions relative to each other as we proceed. We determine that we are between the two going our direction about 1/4 to 1/2 mile apart and we all agree to proceed at the same speed.  The boat coming towards us agrees to stand off and not come through until all three of us have made the transit through. Just as we get to the beginning of this 300 yard passage the fog lifts slightly and we can see both of the red navigation bouys in the narrows.  We can not yet see ‘Nor Pac’ in front of us or ‘Aljac’ behind us, but they we do have them identified on our radar.  Our timing is perfect because we make the transit thru right at 6:25 just 10 minutes before its predicted slack at 6:35.

Wow! talk about a ‘dry mouth and wet socks’!!!!!  About 15 minutes later the fog raises enough so we can spot the other two boats.  I am flatterred that Aljac’s captain, Jim Moore, thanks me for initiating the chain of VHF radio communication and we have a nice conversation with him and Nor Pac as we head on to our passage through Neva Straights and Ogden Channel.  We arrive in Sitka in light rain about 10 am, take on 200 gallons of fuel and are in our slip about 11:30 am. We spend most of the afternoon on boat matters anticipating better weather for the next two days to enjoy all Sitka has to offer which is a lot!

After a great dinner at Ludvigs, a tiny but fantastic restaurant,we tuck in for a good nights sleep-- no need to be up at sunrise to get somewhere at a certain time.

Rain has stopped and weather is clearing .  Sitka exploring is the agenda for the next two days in between laundry, propane and grocery/produce shopping.

This town is more than the books say it is in terms of it s beauty and culture and history.  It is bustling with activity, not from cruise ships, but the hard working fishing boats.  Their catch here is the best in 10 years and they have had to stop for a few or more days because the processing plants, co-ops and canneries are backlogged and on overload.  They are catching more fish than can be processed. 

Historically Sitka is where Sewards folly was closed with our purchase of Alaska from Russia.  It was also the capitol in the early part of the century, long before statehood in 1959. The Russian presence is self evident with museums and churches and even with the native Tinglit tribe, many who have converted to Russian Orthodox.  we spend our first day here taking it all in with Dave and Steffy and end the day with a fantastic crab feast of our Dungeness catch and our first taste of Tanner crab.  We find them quite similar, the tanner being a bit more mild and sweeter.

It is August 10 as I update this.  There is not a cloud in the sky and as a result Sitka is showing us how incredibly picturesque it is. Steffy and Dave will move off the boat today and stay in a motel tonight before their flight to Seattle and on to Miami because we have a very early departure to get back thru Sergious Narrows at high Slack current. We will be essentially backtracking for the 11th and 12th as we leave Sitka heading for Tracy Arm and Sawyer Glacier about 5 days away.  Long term forcasts are for sunny weather for the next several days.  After Tracy Arm it is on into Petersberg and Wrangel, wher we will try to post further updates.

I am fascinated by the fisheries here so in my un-bashful way I decide to walk into a Co-op Processing plant and ask for a tour dropping the name s of two fishermen we had met on the docks.  I score and get the tour.  Wow - 4 tons of ice an hour, 80,000 pounds processed a day, automatic cleaning , filleting and beheading machines with fine tunning and egg processing done by workers on the 'slime line'.

We will enjoy more of Sitka today and meet for drinks at the Historic Pioneer Bar before having dinner  and saying ‘goodbye’ at the Dockside pub.