We walked on up to the Thunderbird Mall then down through Stink Creek Park...very pretty and no stink at all...to the Rotary waterfront park then back to the boat. It was a pretty morning, sun shining, much appreciated after yesterday's slop. Back at the boat I went to work on Gennie. Changed her oil, serviced her heat exchanger, and refilled her cooling system with Ford Summer Coolant. One year seems to be just about the right time for the heat exchanger. It's tubes had just started to get clogged with mineral deposits. I scraped everthing out and ran a coat hangar wire through all the tubes. I got it all reinstalled and filled with coolant, started Gennie, and she got hot immediately. The dang fresh water pump had lost it's prime. I'd forgotten that I have to fill the reservoir from below though one of the heat exchanger hoses in order to avoid that problem. At least this time I caught it soon enough to not loose all the coolant.
While I was doing all this Lois walked back up to the P.O. where guess what...they'd found our mail. They were looking for a different kind of envelope. I suspect it had been there all along.
14:20 Gennie back in good shape, mail in hand, we cast off and head across the strait. It's a beautiful afternoon, bright, sunny, and warm, and the strait is absolutely flat calm. Hardly a ripple on the surface. It's only 13 miles across to Blunden Harbor or destination.
16:00 We poke our way slowly into Blunden. There are rocks strewn all around this big, landlocked bay but we've got good charts and everything tracks as we thread our way through them. We anchored in the east arm just under Jula Island, dropped Stormy in the water, and took off exploring. About a mile up the channel to the northeast there's a "waterfall" at the entrance to a big lagoon. At the six foot tide level it looks more like one of the drops we took on the Salmon River last year but it might be more of a fall when the tide is really low. In the other direction to the west the chart shows an abandoned Indian village but all we could see was one lone frame building with an unreadable sign on the front and a few rotting pilings. It seems strange that a beautiful bay like this should be so deserted but there's just not much in the way of human presence along this part of the BC coast.
11:00 Clear of all the protecting islands now and the sea is still smooth with a barely detectable swell out of the southwest. I put out the poles before we left the anchorage but it looks like we won't need them. Couldn't ask for a better day.
12:30 Around the Cape and headed for Egg Island. We debated for a while stopping at Millbrook Cove in Smith Sound but things were going so well that we decided to keep going.
14:00 Past Major Brown rock and into Rivers Inlet. The last of the fog has finally burned off and we've bright sunny skys with a little breeze on our tail aa we run up the inlet toward Dawson's Landing.
16:00 Moored at Dawson's Landing where we stopped in '87 on the way north. It's a little floating community with only a couple of houses on shore. The store, post office, fisheries offices, and a dozen or more homes are all on floats. It's a surprizingly well stocked store for so far out here in the boonies. We bought a sweatshirt, a few groceries, and a couple of charts from the nice young lady in the store. She has two girls, two and four, to keep her running.
Mailed off our yearly documentation form from the post office and filled our water tank...the water has a slight brownish tinge which the lady in the store called Cedar water but it tastes okay and she said it tests better than Vancouver water whatever that means. Had another chunk of our salmon for dinner. Guess we'll have to start thinking about fishing again. Looks like it may be a little early here. Not a sign of a fisherman anywhere. Discovered one drawback to this place...they keep the generator running and the lights on until about 02:00. Next time we'll park on the last float to the west instead of in front of the store.
10:00 Rounded Addenbroke Point and set our direction toward the other side of Fitz Hugh Sound. We'd been reading about Pruth Bay in the guide books and decided to go take a look.
11:00 Passed a beautiful cascade coming down over the rocks on Calvert Island. Following a small power cruiser and two others behind us on the radar. We're not alone out here.
11:30 Wedgeborough Point and the entrance to Kwakshua Channel. Kwakshua is about five miles long, a half mile wide and deep all the way. It leads to Pruth Bay at then end and has another arm which goes north to Hakai Passage. The guide books, all written 10-15 years ago, say that at the far end of Pruth Bay there are two small houses and a trail leading to a beach on the west side of the island; but, as we made our way down the channel we could see something a lot bigger than two houses at the end.
12:15 Dropped our hook in front of a big, new, cedar lodge with a bright red steel roof still under construction. On the beach where the two small houses should have been a new pier is being built and everywhere is a scene of frantic activity...piles of lumber, new gravel, bulldozers, backhoes, pipe being layed, etc. We dropped Stormy in the water and went in to take a look. A couple of the men hammering away on the lodge railings stopped long enough to tell us that it's a brand new fishing lodge that the crew is trying to get finished in time for this year's season. When we asked where we'd find the "trail to the beach" they pointed us down a muddy road cut very recently by a bulldozer. Didn't sound quite like Charley's description but it led in the right direction so we set off anyway followed by a couple of the camp dogs. Charley also described what he called a "fantastic mask" carved into a tree along the trail but we saw no sign of it before we reached the beach. The beach is beautiful, as nice as you'd find anywhere. A long, curve of white sand lines the shore of a bay a half mile across which is protected at its mouth by several small islands. A gentle surf was breaking on the beach as we walked along looking for clams or whatever. A hundred yards or so to the south of where we'd come out of the forest I noticed a stick propped up in the sand with a yellow plastic jug on the end. Investigating, I found the original trail and fifty yards into the woods the "mask". Hardly recognizable now but still fantastic, the tree has grown a huge bowel around the carving. The only thing still showing is the nicely adzed surface of the figure's eyes...everything else has been grown over by the tree's bark. We followed the original trail back, a primitive but well marked track paved with driftwood planks for most of the way. It comes in behind a group of trailer houses used by the construction crew. Charley's romantic vision is no more.
We spent the rest of the day poking around Purth Bay. The area surrounding it is part of the Hakai Provincial Park although the lodge is privately owned. The Ranger Station is in a float house at the entrance to the bay. A couple of young rangers at the station, just setting up camp for the summer, told us that the park service had tried to buy the land where the lodge is but couldn't afford it.
Lots of squid swimming around the boat. First time I remember seeing that little creature in this country. I tried jigging for them but had no luck. Wonder how you'd go about catching some?
08:50 Stormy up and moving out. Thought we'd look for some fish this morning so we turned left at the intersection and ran out the Kwakshua Channel north arm to Hakai Passage where the brochures say there's great salmon fishing. Well, maybe in season, but this morning we never saw any sign of fish, just a low, lazy swell rolling in from the ocean outside, so we kept going. Did a swing by the Goldstream anchorage at the intersection with Fitz Hugh Sound...looks pretty nice...then headed across the sound for Namu.
11:00 Almost in the middle of the sound now and we're seeing all kinds of fish sign on the sounder between 50 and 100 feet down. Doesn't seem like a place where you'd find salmon but I decide to try anyway. I'd barely gotten one line out when something hit it and I hauled in a two foot long fish. When I got it to the boat I at first thought it was a Ling Cod...it had much the same coloring...but soon realized that the mouth was too small and the fish too skinny. I hauled in three of them in about ten minutes then stopped to clean up and check the book. I think they are a fish called Whiting, or Walleyed Pollack. Damned little meat on them. They fillets from all three didn't make as much as one good sized rockfish. It's nice and white but not very firm, but what the heck, we'll try anything once.
12:00 Cleaned up an into Namu. It's changed a bit. Doesn't look as prosperous as I remember it. We were met at the dock by a man in his forties who said he was the store manager, wharfmaster, and general flunky. He opened the store for us but had little on hand. Said the ship with supplies for the season is due in tomorrow. I asked about Salmon and he told us that they were catching Springs in Burke Inlet.
12:30 Off again. Ran around inside the entrance to Burke to Fougner Bay where we decided to spend the night. It's a very pretty place...big bay filled with twenty or thirty tiny, cedar covered islands. As we anchored the sun came out warm and bright and we spent a pleasant afternoon playing. Lois stayed on the boat enjoying the sunshine while I took a pole and went out to see if I could catch any rockfish. Nothing but little guys. I kept one for crab bait and let the rest go. I put out the crab pot but by evening had only a couple of three inch babies in it. Left it overnight.
The days are still getting long now. I went to bed at my usual hour but got up about 11:30 and it was still light. And dawn breaks about four in the morning.
07:45 Pulled our hook, got the radar going, and headed out into the murk. Not too bad really. We can see about a quarter mile, enough to dodge the trash accumulated at the mouth of the inlet. It collects along the tide lines where water is moving in different directions - hundreds of logs, trees, and other debris mostly stuff left by the logging operations. We ran for about a half hour through the crap then, all of a sudden, it was gone.
08:00 Stopped and dropped in the fishing lines while we waited for the fog to lift a little. Quit when we got another Walleyed Pollack which I threw back.
09:00 At the first big turn in the inlet. Fog clearing now and the mountains are rising above us, towering mounds of tree covered granite. How the trees manage to find footing is a wonder. Some places they can't, leaving sheer walls of rock. Still snow on the higher peaks, and lots of waterfalls visible.
10:25 Orcas swimming along the shoreline on the west side of the inlet. A small pod of three or four. We swung by a gill netter moored on a small bight, anchor out and line to shore. Looks like he may be mending net. Also heard some talk on the radio about an "opening" for Springs. Maybe the fish are coming but they don't seem to be here yet. We fished again for a while after seeing a bunch of echos on the sounder and caught another Pollack but no salmon. The farther up the inlet we go the more spectacular it becomes. Near Gibralter Point the walls of the inlet become so steep that the trees can't hold on and there are still snow fields in the high bowls giving rise to streams of water cascading down the sheer faces. It's amazing what that water can do, cutting almost vertical gorges in the hard rock as it drops from 2000 feet to sea level.
13:45 We pass a River Otter sunning himself on a chunk of driftwood. He watches as we drive by but then our wake washes him off his precarious perch.
16:00 Bella Coola on the north arm of Bentinck Inlet, a little lumbering and fishing town of 2500 people at the mouth of the Bella Coola River. As we round the point we see dozens of fishing boats in a small marina and a big BC Packers sign on a pier. We poke our way in and find a spot on the long dock reserved for boats "over 15 meters". Pretty nice marina really -- sturdy floats, power, water at the loading float, and in a spectacular setting.
We got ourselves settled, had a drink, ate our crab for dinner, and then set out for town. It's about a mile walk along a paved road but even though the sun was hot on our backs there was an almost constant flow of cool air coming from the waterfalls along the road. Wild flowers are everywhere and things are so green you know that today's hat sun is something very special here. Bella Coola isn't much of a town as towns go, but it does have a post office, grocery store...which is also the Radio Shack...liquor store, hospital, a Coop, and a Bella Coola Arts shop which was closed on this Saturday afternoon. It's at the end of a long road which joins the Alcan Highway somewhere many hundreds of miles away and I doubt if they get much tourist traffic so there isn't much in the way of tourist offerings. We bought a few groceries, made a few phone calls at a booth in front of the BC Tel office, and then took a taxi back to the docks where the fishermen who had been working on their boats had knocked off and were having a party. The booze was flowing freely and at least one of the guys had to be helped out of the water when he fell in. Still a lot of hollaring, cussing and fighting until after midnight. We've been spoiled in our quiet anchorages.
10:30 Back into Burke Inlet and the wind and rain have picked up. The anemometer is reading a steady 30 knots, gusting occasionally to 40. The seas are a short, two foot chop though, the kind SEA RAVEN cuts through with hardly a bobble. The reason they are so low appears to be because the wind hardly ever stays from the same direction for more than a mile or two. One minute it's coming down over one of the towering mountains, the next it's coming down the channel. We stuck close to the steep shore and had no problems.
11:20 Into Labouchere Channel. As we round Mesachie Point there on the vertical granite wall is a bigger-than-life traffic cop in a green uniform with a whistle in his mouth. Some pretty good artist spent some time there. Running north in Labouchere the wind, wave and tide are all behind us and we're doing 9.5 knots. In every nook and cranny along the walls of the inlet are fishing boats, most of them gillnetters with anchors forward and a stern line to shore. The procedure must be to hang out here to reserve your spot for the opening. I keep an eye on the sounder but there's danged little indication of fish except for what I think are more of the Pollack we've been catching.
13:00 We nose our way into a little cove called Encott Bay and almost run aground before I can get turned around. It's a peculiar spot with a narrow, deep entrance leading to a wide, mile long bay in which is anchored today a very large vessel with a helicopter sitting on top. The sailing directions say a small craft can find "secure anchorage in 8 to 10 feet of water". Those things, plus the fact that we were nearing high tide led me to think we could anchor in the big bay. No way, at least not near the entrance, and I wasn't about to go beyond the place where Charley was yelling, "Four!" That's where we touch bottom. We got turned around though, as far as I could tell without bumping anything solid, and anchored just outside the entrance in about 30 feet of water. Rock bottom so we'll rumble as the tide changes but we seem to be fairly well hooked. The big vessel must have gotten in somehow but from its looks it may be shallow draft.
This is one of the prettiest places we been. We are surrounded by high mountains, some still with snow on their peaks. On one side a stream of water cascades a thousand feed down the face of a granite wall into the cove a hundred yards from us. On the other green grass grows along another, larger stream coming out of the forest. Through the entrance we can see the big bay with marshland beyond and watch operations of the helicopter as it moves men from somewhere back in the woods where we could occasionally hear a chain saw running to the deck of the ship. That must be the way most of the logging operations are run in this country. In no other way could the spotty shearing of sections of forest high on these slopes be done without disturbing that below. We haven't yet seen it happen but I suspect that when the cutters are finished heavy lift copters move the logs from the high slopes to the decks of the big log barges we've seen being towed down the inlets. That would explain the sometimes haphazard appearance of the loading of those vessels.
Rain and wind all afternoon and into the night so we stayed on the boat. I gave the new alternator regulator a tiny turn clockwise...it's been cutting out just a tad to soon to keep the batteries peaked. Also got out the manual and started to take the old Seascan radar apart but decided to try it once more before I did. Guess what. After I jiggled the connectors a couple of times old Raider came to life with a picture as good as ever. So we have too good radars again, a comforting feeling when the fog closes in as it did the other day. Hope tomorrow is a little nicer. There's supposed to be a hot springs somewhere over in the big bay. I'd like to go investigate that.
10:30 Pulled a nice clean chain and anchor from the rocky bottom and headed out. Pretty squally outside...thirty knot winds and lots of rain as we headed down Dean Inlet. We didn't get far. About five miles to the west is a narrow little inlet called Elcho into which we stuck our nose. It turned out to be so pretty and quiet that we decided to stay.
11:45 Anchored in sixty feet of water at the head of this pretty inlet where again we are surrounded by high mountains and have a lovely river flowing into the bay just in front of us. We spent the afternoon on and off the boat, exploring the area between showers. Access to the shore isn't very easy because of the overwhelming growth, so we contented ourselves with a shoreline dinghy tour. There's an abandoned barge with a house on it in the marsh at the head of the inlet...probably the remains of a long gone logging operation...but that's the only sign of civilization in the area. A flock of geese were feeding in the marsh and several eagles overhead. Pretty special spot.
I cranked up the watermaker this afternoon. It started right up and seems to be in good shape after being pickled. Timed the product water rate at 13 gallons per hour. We can usually get good water up here but it's nice to know we have this alternative.
09:30 Poked our nose into Jenny Inlet, which looked on the chart very much the same as Elcho, but there was a big logging operation in that one...roads, trucks, cranes and other equipment scattered around. Glad we stayed where we did.
10:00 Fished for a while off Barba Point at the entrance to Cousins Inlet. We'd seen some echos on the sounder but didn't get a hit. Managed to loose one outfit though...my knot came loose and the whole thing went: Deep Six, snubber, flasher, hook, and lure.
11:30 Almost to the head of Cousins Inlet just as we were about to Ocean Falls we started seeing hundreds of echos on the sounder. Thinking it might be a run of salmon I had to stop and fish. After a few minutes the poles didn't look quite right so I pulled in. Each of the divers had snagged a big jellyfish. That was what we were seeing on the sounder! One more lesson learned.
12:00 Tied to the long float at Ocean Falls. This is an interesting place. The falls are beautiful. Coming over the spillways of a quarter mile long, hundred foot high dam the water then forms a roaring cascade down another several hundred feet of rocks into the inlet. The scene is marred only by the huge, decaying hulks of the cannery plant abandoned according to the books in 1981.
We closed up the boat and headed for town where a large vessel, the TYEE PRINCESS which had passed us when we were jellyfishing, was unloading supplies on a wharf surrounded by people waiting for packages. Seems the
PRINCESS only comes to Ocean Falls every two weeks so the day it does becomes sort of a holiday. The one grocery store in town, a green house on the hill, closes while the owners sort out their newly delivered supplies. No matter, we don't really need anything anyway.
We spent several hours wandering around Ocean Falls, Home of the Rain People the welcoming sign says. It looks like it was a busy place when the cannery was in operation...a large hotel, at least two big apartment complexes, a hospital, ferry dock, many stores, a pretty residential area along a board road on the hill, and even a suburb about a mile to the west which seems to be the place where most of the few current residents live. We walked up to the dam and got a look at log filled Link Lake and a view of the falls from above. On the way back we took a "shortcut" up a paved street which turned out to lead to a development dream that never came true. Somebody put a lot of effort and money into building a street and water system for lots overlooking the town and falls. Only a couple of the sites showed any sign of having ever had any building done. The development must have been done just before the cannery shut down.
As we returned to the docks we met Ean and Virginia from the LECON whom we'd last seen in Alert Bay. They've been dawdling along much as we have and are tied behind us on the float. Later a man came by who said he was the wharfinger for the Ocean Falls Yacht Club. Seems this is one of the few places where there is no government dock so the "Yacht Club" maintains it. Pretty much the same fees though - $17.00 for us. We do have power and water on the dock though. That's a plus. Looks like our good weather won't last long...weatherman predicting a big storm for tomorrow. I spent a couple of hours printing out weatherfaxes which did nothing but confirm his predictions. We may be hunkered down here for a while.
The storm continued most of the night, sometimes with blasts that threatened to blow us off the float. We were kind of glad to be here rather than out on the hook somewhere.
09:00 Water tank topped, everything stowed, and we're on our way. Out Cousins Inlet and down Dean Channel toward Gunboat Passage. I need some lubricating oil and figure to get it in either Shearwater or Bella Bella and Gunboat is the most direct way. It's narrow and rock filled but Charley says it's well marked and we have a good chart.
10:00 Stopped outside the entrance to Gunboat when we saw a bunch of fish sign on the sounder. No luck again. Seem to be big schools of little fish on which the birds are feeding but no big fish.
11:00 Onward through Gunboat. It's not quite as well marked as Charley implies but we got through without bumping anything. The bottom is so steep that at times you go from over 100 feet to 20 in only a few yards. It's spooky when you can see the rocks on either side of the narrow, unmarked path you hope is the right one.
12:30 Through the passage and running toward the Dryad Lighthouse as we have lunch. The big BC ferry, QUEEN OF THE NORTH, passes as we turned to make a swing by Shearwater...we skipped it last time. Not a lot there. Big marine store and restaurant but no fuel dock. We decided to go on over to Bella Bella where we knew there is a Petro Canada dock.
13:15 Tied to the long float leading to the Petro Canada pier. While ois was getting ready to go shopping at the store I walked up to the office to get my oil. Turned out to be another of those bad experiences we've sometimes had with the native population of BC. The guy in the office was determined to let me know that he was doing me a big favor by selling me oil. If Gimmy wasn't due for a change I'd have let him keep it. As it was I took my bucket of oil back to the boat and we left.
14:00 As we ran back past the Dryad lighthouse we started looking for a place to park for the evening and found a likely looking spot on the chart called Wigham Cove. It's an almost landlocked little pocket in the south tip of Yeo Island in which the Sailing Directions say, "the holding ground is good."
15:00 Anchored in Wigham. It's as neat a place as it appeared on the chart with a narrow but deep entrance and completely deserted. We parked in the east end near a small stream bubbling into the cove. There were showers on and off all afternoon and I had Gimmy's oil to change so we didn't go ashore. Probably not much you cold do there anyway...the cove is lined with a solid wall of cedar. That's one drawback to this country. The woods are for all practical purposes impenetrable by the passerby. It takes a lot of effort to cut even a foot trail through them.
Got Gimmy's oil and filter changed and had another chunk of our salmon for dinner. Sure hope we catch another soon...we're getting low on the good stuff.
07:15 Hook up and on our way early. We want to get through the stretch of open water in Milbank Sound before the north winds start to blow. Weathermans' predicting 10 to 20 this afternoon.
08:15 We pass the Robb Point lighthouse off Ivory Island and are into Milbank. No problems here. There's a low swell coming out of the southwest but not enough to roll us. Point the nose for Vancouver Rock and pass a pretty little yellow sailboat, the SALINE SOLUTION, motoring up the sound.
10:30 Running up the narrow channel behind Cone Island we stick our nose into the harbor at the Indian village of Klemtu but don't stop. Klemtu looks pretty neat for an Indian village...a hundred or more straight and well painted houses stand above the bay. There's a fuel dock, ESSO, and a store but we don't really need anything so we keep on up the channel following three or four fishing boats on their way north. We've seen more boat traffic this morning than we have since we left Nanaimo.
11:15 Through June Passage and back out into Finlayson we turn north and are joined by a pod of Dall's Porpoises. Colored black and white like miniature killer whales, they dance with us for several minutes while I take video pictures.
12:00 Waterfall Point on the east side of Sarah Island, the first of a dozen spectacular falls we saw today. This one is special...from a large lake a couple of hundred feet above a sheet of water flows over a huge granite dome into the channel. I had to get out the video camera again.
12:30 Water looks pretty clean so I turn on the HRO. It started okay but after about 45 minutes it started making clicking noises. I was just wondering if I should shut it down when it stopped by itself...?????? Guess I'll worry about that later.
14:00 Looking for a spot to spend the night...they are few and far between in these deep inlets...we ran into Green Inlet where the sailing directions say there's an anchorage for small vessels in Horsefly Cove. Well, there is, but a sailboat, the SEA CRITTER, was already in it and it is too small for more than one boat. The guy on the SEA CRITTER offered to let us raft with him but we declined. Ran on up the inlet to the tidal falls at the end but found no place where we could comfortably anchor, so onward we go.
16:30 Finally found our home for the night on Green Spit in Khutze Inlet. Not what I'd call secure anchorage...in sixty feet of water on a sloping rock bottom...but there's no wind and the currents are weak so we stay put. We got out the soapsuds and gave Stormy a bath trying to find the leak in his starboard tube. It suddenly started loosing air the other day after holding nicely ever since I first filled it in Port Alberni. We searched and searched but couldn't find a scratch on the tube or any sign of bubbles. Guess we'll have to just pump him up every day. Makes me almost wish I'd bought a hard dinghy.
Another problem showed up when Lois tried to turn on the oven to heat our dinner...the circuit breaker tripped. Same thing when I tried. The surface units don't cause a problem so it must be in the oven itself. She used the microwave for dinner and I put the oven on my to-do list.
After dinner we watched a movie and at nine when it was over the sun was still shining. According to the book sundown is at 10:02 PDT today. Kookie! While Lois was doing the dishes I stepped out on the deck and picked up the little fishing pole I keep ready. I'd no sooner dropped the Buzz Bomb to the bottom than I had a little rock sole on the hook. I threw him back but might try for his big brother in the morning.
09:00 HRO on. I saturated the oil wicks and it seems to have stopped the clacking. Ran for two hours to fill the tank.
09:30 We swung through Butedale to take pictures of the old cannery and falls and a big group of Dahl's Porpoises welcomed us, jumping and playing around us 'til we left. There were two big power cruisers there but they were anchored off the falling-down wharves...the float where we tied in '87 is gone and from the water it appears that the lights, which had been left on and were still burning brightly on our last visit, are off. The buildings show definite decay. Too bad. It's a neat spot.
10:30 Prince Rupert Coast Guard put out a "Pam Pam" about a ELT signal picked up near Goat Harbor in Ursula Channel. That's only a few miles out of our way so I called back and asked if they'd like us to make a swing up that way. Yep. So we did. Didn't find anything but a couple of Indians in a skiff fishing at the head of Goat Harbor. They weren't in trouble and didn't even know what an Emergency Locator Transmitter is, let alone have one that had been triggered accidentally. When I called back that report the Coast Guard cancelled the Pam Pam.
12:00 Running back across Ursula Fisher (That's the name we've given our new sounder) was picking up lots of echoes so we decided to fish for a while. Five minutes later we had two Walleyed Pollach on board so we quit. Oh well, they make good crab bait. Later we tried again in Walker Sound but got nothing. From what we hear on the radio they're having a fishing derby in Kitimat and the gus we heard weren't doing so well either.
15:00 Into Grenville Canal now, a fifty mile long, half mile wide freak of nature which runs through steep mountains. Behind and overtaking us is the SPIRIT OF 98, a nice looking old ship which passes us a few miles up the canal. Several fishing boats are behind us also.
16:30 Into Lowe Inlet which, as the books say is a special place. Two landlocked bays, each about a mile across and a hundred feet deep, are tucked into the mountains beside the canal. A river flows over a twenty foot high falls into the upper basin. We hung our hook in eighty feet of water beneath the falls where the water keeps us pointing always in the same direction.
I was surprised that we were the only boat anchored here...a crab fisherman was picking up his traps as we came in but soon left...but we didn't have long to wait. We put Stormy in the water and I'd set out a crab pot when they started to come in. One big power cruiser, the INSIDE PASSAGE from Mercer Island, pulled right up to the falls and dropped his hook, compromising our view and making Lois mad. By 7:00 PM there were 19 boats anchored here: four cruisers and 15 fishing boats, mostly U.S. gillnetters operated by orientals. There must be an opening in Alaska soon. The other cruising boats were the CZARINA, a big, long(We learned later 96 feet long), sleek looking vessel from Vancouver, and the ASKOV from Eastsound, WA, a trim looking little grey hulled vessel with lines similar to a Fisher.
Had a beautiful evening sitting in the sun and watching the activity on the other boats. Got the oven fixed. The retainer for one end of the lower calrod had come unriveted and let the power connection contact the oven wall. I redesigned and reworked the retainer so it shouldn't happen again. That's the kind of problem I love...simple, repeatable failure with an easy fix.
08:45 We haul up and leave soon after ASKOV heads out. We were just getting up to speed in the outer basin when I saw an odd movement in the water ahead. Looked like a set of ears moving across the water. Sure 'nough, it was...a deer was swimming across the mouth of the inlet. We stopped and drifted while she finished her swim, climbed out on the other side, and disappeared into the forest. Hope I got a good video of her.
09:00 Another unexpected sight in the Grenville Channel so far from anywhere...a lone kayaker heading south, a white haired old gent paddling slowly along lay down his paddle and waved as we went by.
10:30 Stopped and fished along Morning Reef near Klewnuggit Inlet. Not a bite so soon gave up.
13:00 We'd sort of planned on stopping early at Kumealon Inlet but when we got there we found a big logging operation burning slash and filling the inlet with smoke. Didn't look like a very pleasant spot to anchor so we kept going.
15:00 Anchored behind Lewis Island in the McMicking Group. Not the prettiest anchorage we've been in but not too bad. The holding ground is good and there's lots of room. We're only about 20 miles from Prince Rupert and the islands around are low and have been pretty much striped of their trees. Again we were the first in but not the last. By the time we hit the sack there were five and two more came in after that. There's a lot of traffic heading north.
09:30 We're there, poking our way along the long waterfront. First the big grain loading towers where dust is rising from a ship being loaded, then the long wharves where rail cargo is loaded, next the big rail barge landings, and then the first of the many fishing vessel centers. All were bustling today...we learned later that there's an opening tomorrow and hundreds of boats are frantically trying to be ready with ice, fuel, etc. Prince Rupert is first of all a seacoast city. The city center is set on a hill above the harbor, a very pretty location. All of the pleasure boat facilities are beyond the center of town. Last time we were here we stayed rafted with a fishing boat at the government docks about a mile to the east but this morning we saw that there was space at the yacht club so we stopped there to check it out. Found that the Prince Rupert Rowing & Yacht Club is a very nice marina where transients are welcome...as long as they pay the fees of course, fees which are about the same as at Friday Harbor. No sweat, we've been on the hook for quite a while and they have 30 amp power and good water on the dock.
We got settled then walked up to the Safeway about a half mile away to replenish our supplies...haven't done any real grocery shopping since Port Townsend. Found that Safeway delivers, for a $5.00 fee, so had them pack our stuff boxes labled for noon delivery to the yacht club. On the way back we walked along the shore by the packing houses and saw big tubs of halibut being loaded.
Checked with Bob Moffatt about the condo sale and found that it still wasn't ready to close. He thinks maybe by the end of the week. Told him we'd check in again from Ketchikan.
Spent the rest of the day working on the boat. Lois cleaned house while I cleaned up the outside. I put Stormy in the water and wiped down the bows with phosphoric acid again to get the yellow off and this time, after rinsing it down, I wiped it down again with Penetrol. I had run a test last time which had left one nice clean spot where the Penetrol was. Hopefully that will keep the yellow off SEA RAVEN's smile for a while.
We went to Smile's Seafood Cafe for dinner, the place where we'd had such a good anniversary dinner when we were here before. Unfortunately it changed ownership, and probably chefs, in 1988 and ain't all that good anymore. We ordered fish and chips. The fish was fried in a heavy bread batter, both it and the chips were greasy, and the salad was served with one of those little plastic trays of dressing, not very good. Oh well, you win a few, loose a few.
Called Chuck and Bernie. They have reservations on the Alaska Ferry out of Bellingham to be in Ketchikan on the 4th of July and to return south on the 13th. Also Kris and Bob have firmed up for the 18th so we told them to come to Juneau. Nan said Paul and Eleanor wanted to come to Sitka about the 15th so I tried to call them but nobody home. We'll have a lot of company in July and August but we'll get it all sorted out somehow.
09:30 Off the dock in a very light rain. The entrance to Venn is just across the harbor from the city. It's a twisting trail between Digby Island and the Tsimpsean Peninsula leading to the Indian village of Metlakatla on Chatham Sound. It has four different ranges which, unfortunately for us this morning, all are to our stern. Lois did a great job though, of keeping me centered as we went from one to another.
10:30 Cleared Venn and out into Chatham. There's almost a straight shot from here out into Dixon Entrance through Brown Passage but we've only a low swell coming through. We'd planned on stopping at Brundage Inlet but there's little or no wind and it's beginning to look like a good day to cross Dixon.
12:00 Listening to guys on two passing tugs, the WASP & JEFFERY FOSS, talk about their trips through the Panama Canal. Brought back lots of memories.
13:25 Holiday Island, and it looks as good up here at the jumping off place as it did earlier. So instead of turning left we kept on going, following the JEFFERY FOSS across the Dixon Entrance. It's actually not very wide here...only ten miles over to Tree Point and the U.S.A.
14:00 Tree Point. We've gained an hour as we crossed. Alaska Daylight Time (AKDT) is an hour earlier than PDT.
15:35 Anchored in Foggy Bay. Spooky place to get into...big bay guarded by reefs on the outside with a perfect anchorage in a small pocket behind an island at the end of a very narrow passage. We were here before in '87 but I didn't remember a thing about it. I got a little confused in the outer bay when Fisher showed the bottom coming up more rapidly than I expected, but with Raider's help we soon had that sorted out and came in with no difficulty. (For the record, the end of the Delong Reef is at N54o56.5' W130o58.18')
As we approached the last narrow opening to the anchorage there was a black bear poking around in a grassy flat off to the left. I wanted to get the camera but we were in a little too tight a spot to leave the helm.
A boat which had been docked behind us in Prince Rupert, the WIDE WATERS from Juneau, was already here when we arrived and the ASKOV came in a little later. They had left an hour before we did but didn't come through Venn Passage.
After dinner I went back to the spot where the bear had been...needless to say Lois didn't accompany me...and found what was attracting it. A nice fresh water pool fed by a tiny stream is on the flat. Tracks of all kinds of animals are in the sand around the pool. Real pretty place.
10:15 Twin Islands, one of the lights marking the Revillagigado Channel. (I can pronounce that a lot more easily after spending a lot of time in Spanish speaking countries)
11:30 Anchored in Hassler Harbor about ten miles from Ketchikan. Not much point in going on in to the busy city when our mail won't be there yet. We'll hang out another day before going on in. From what we hear on the radio moorage in Ketchikan is a real hassle. Hassler Harbor isn't. It's shown on the chart as an explosives anchorage and, sure enough, there's an old rusty hulk of a ship anchored here with faded signs saying, "No Smoking! Explosives Storage" although doesn't look like it's been used for a long time.
In the afternoon I went out and poked around on the beach while Lois did some mending. Found a couple of old camp sites and lots of deer and bear tracks. There are huckleberries growing in the woods. They are blue like the mountain huckleberries but they don't have the same sweet taste. I wonder if it takes a lot of sunshine to make the sugar. These probably don't get a lot.
The weatherman is saying a front is coming through so I decided to get a weatherfax but when I loaded the program I couldn't get any signal. The radio is working fine, and our old weatherfax machine can hear it, but the new demodulator doesn't seem to be working. Guess I'll have to pack it up and send it back for a new one.
09:00 Pulled up figuring we'd probably better get on into Ketchikan and report to customs, miserable weather or not. We had hauled anchor before either of us remembered that we had Stormy tied behind. With the winds in the strait we didn't want to tow him so Lois kept us drifting down the narrow channel behind Pow Island while I got him stowed. Pretty good trick when he's half full of water, boat's rocking, and wind blowing, but I got it done.
10:30 In the Tongass Narrows in front of Ketchikan two huge cruise ships appeared out of the murk...the NUEVE AMSTERDAM at the downtown wharf and the CROWN PRINCESS anchored out with boats hauling passengers back and forth to the docks. Haven't seen that cattleboat routine since we left Cabo. I called the harbormaster to see if he had a spot for us and found that no one had checked the floats yet. So, since the Thomas Basin is the first possibility and the closest to downtown, we decided to take a look. Found one slip empty but the harbormaster said it belonged to a charter boat that would be back but that there might be another on down the float. The crew here is exceptionally helpful in finding spots for transients. Yep, about two thirds the way down the float a slip next to the BARBARA K was open. What's more the skipper of the BARBARA K, who helped us tie up, said the guy who owned our slip wouldn't be back all summer and that there was even power on the dock. The latter is unusual here in Alaska. They've got some stupid rule that the ports can't retail power to transients...each slip must have an individual responsible for the meter. The receptacle on our dock turned out to be bypassing the meter, something the power company would probably frown on if they knew it.
With the boat all tucked in, I walked up to the telephone and checked in with the customs lady. No problems; our Clearance Number is 130129D. Checked in with Bob Moffatt on the condo...still not ready to close. Now estimating the 24th or 25th. Told him we'd check in again from Wrangle. Called the post office and they wouldn't tell me if our mail was here... another stupid rule...but said not to count on it before tomorrow. Since the post office is a couple of miles out of town we'll wait.
Later we walked over to the cruise ship docks and got a ferry schedule, went to the bank for cash, took the boardwalk along Ketchikan Creek back to the basin, and had lunch at the Potlatch Tavern...beer & hot dog. Fooled around on the boat most of this rainy afternoon and then, when the rain finally stopped, went to dinner at the Good Fortune Restaurant, formerly the New Peking. Their hot spicy Chinese food was just as good as the former owners served when we were here in '87.
Ketchikan is sure full of tourists these days. There were three cruise ships in town today, two on the wharf plus another anchored out, plus two more that could almost be called ships. The California Marine Academy GOLDEN BEAR was also in town. We didn't see it because it's moored down at the Coast Guard wharf but the town was filled with bright young faces in merchant marine officer uniforms.
Back at the boat we went to work on the next project. Our freezer was badly in need of defrosting and now, while we had shore power, seemed like a good time to do it. We moved all the frozen stuff to the cooler on the aft deck and got the heat gun going while we went over our mail. It took about three hours...there was a lot of frost on the plates...but we've now got a nice frost free freezer which should stay that way for most of the summer.
09:00 On our way. Plenty of water after all. Charley reported a minimum of three feet under the keel as we cleared the entrance. We swung by the Coast Guard docks where the lady at the Forest Service office had told the the GOLDEN BEAR was moored but it wasn't there. Instead, we found it north of the city at the shipyard wharf. No sign of action on the decks even at 9:30. The boys must have had a big night on the town.
10:00 Out of the Tongas Narrow and into Clarence Strait. There are a few fishermen around Guard Island but we see no action on the finder.
11:30 We stop and fish for a while around Ship Island-no luck.
14:00 Tied to the dock at Meyers Chuck, one of our favorite places. It's a tiny cove tucked in behind some islands just south of the junction of Clarence Strait and Ernest Sound. There's a small community there and sometime when the State of Alaska was flush with oil money they built one of the best piers and float we've seen anywhere. The pier and the pilings are all galvanized steel and there's a helicopter landing pad on the pier and a float plane finger on the float. As we came in today there were half a dozen fishing boats along the float but plenty of room for us and another cruising boat that came in right after. The skipper of a small fishing boat called HUMMER helped us tie up. He's from Silverdale, just outside of Bremerton, and is up here for the summer fishing season.
We went to home comfiguration then took a walk to see what changes have occured in Meyers Chuck since last we were here. Not many. The little store is no longer open but there's now a small art gallery displaying the work of some of the locals. The young lady running it is an artist herself. She had a few outstanding carvings by another local.
You can't walk very far in Meyers Chuck without being stopped by the sea or forest but we covered the available trails. Lots of Salmon and Huckle berries along the trails. At the Meyers Chuck Fishing Lodge the lady told us that they only have two guests right now. It's not a very big lodge...they can sleep eight and fish six on their 32 foot boat. Meyers Chuck is served only by float plane and boat. Great place to get away from it all.
08:30 Off the dock at Meyers Chuck. Very low tide this morning, -2.5, but still lots of water in the entrance channel, 16 feet according to Charley. As soon as we got clear of the entrance we started fishing along the reef and the west side of Misery Island. Hadn't gone far when the port line started zinging. Unfortunately, as I pulled the pole from the holder and started to play the fish all the action stopped dead. And that was it for the day. We tried several times later but never got a hit. So much for fishing. Never mind, it was a beautiful sunny day as we poked our way northward toward Wrangell through Ernest Sound stopping every now and then to fish. The water was mirror flat most of the day, reflecting the snow flecked mountains around the sound.
12:30 We'd been idling along on one of our fishing tries and when we went back to running I noticed that the ammeter was showing no charge. Another regulator gone bad?
14:00 At Anan Bay, a place where the Coast Pilot says the Forest Service has a trail to a bear observatory. As we approached the two boat there already seemed to be leaving. One is a big seiner and the other, which had been tied to a big mooring buoy, turned out to be the GALE, our friends Gary and Judy Larson from the Duwamish Yacht Club. On the radio Gary told me that last evening he had caught a 77 pound Halibut here in the bay. He was in his skiff and couldn't handle it, so he dragged it over to the seiner where the crew helped him get it out of the water. They were heading for Wrangell this afternoon so we took their place on the Forest Service buoy.
Drained Stormy...lots of water in him from all the rain of the past few days in Ketchikan...pumped him up...starboard tube still leaking but we can't find the hole...and went ashore to the small Forest Service cabin the beach. Because of the bear story I had to coerce Lois a bit, but she finally agreed to come along with her little bell in hand. This is a pretty neat place. Sturdy little A-frame cabin with two wooden bunks and an oil burning cook stove. There's an outhouse outside. From the cabin a mile long boardwalk/trail leads along the shore and up the stream to the bear observatory. As we were making our way along two small sport fishing boats came in and four people joined us on the trail. They were from Florida and had trailered their boats to Prince Rupert and are cruising Southeast Alaska in boats not much bigger than most cruiser's skiffs. As we headed up the stream on the sturdy boardwalk there was a sign saying that you should make lots of noise as you walked to make sure the bears hear you so they don't get startled. One of the Florida guys ...we later learned that his name is Rodger Shulzinsky, a good Alaskan name...told Lois a story:
"The last time we were here", he said, "we wore little bells like the one you are ringing on our shoes. Well, the problem was that the bears thought those were the dinner bells and came after us. We couldn't outrun them so we threw our shoes in the lagoon and the bears when right in after them." He told the story with such a straight face that for a moment Lois believed him.
Well, we didn't see any bears today but it was a beautiful walk. The trail and boardwalk built by the Forest Service is excellent and leads through old Hemlock and Sitka Spruce forest to a platform above the stream where you can watch the salmon coming up to spawn. We're a little early for the run so saw no salmon or bears. Lots of blueberries along the way...the ones I originally thought were Huckleberries...not the greatest tasting but I guess the bears like them. There was sign along the trail. Later, when we were back on the boat, one of the two small boats came by and said they had seen two black and one brown bear on the beach.
After dinner and a piece of Lois' good pie we got out the cribbage board. It had been so long since we played we had to dig out Hoyle to remind ourselves of the rules. Lois whipped me.
10:00 At the Harding river now. We don't see the Forest Service cabin but all along the spits formed by the river are crab buoys. We've seen them not only here but on almost every flat where a stream come out. Must be several hundred of them up and down the canal. Somebody figures this is crab country but so far we've seen no sign of anyone tending them.
10:30 We made a pass at a place on the south side that the Coast Pilot said was the best anchorage but it was full of crab buoys and exposed to the north so we kept looking. I figured we'd probably have a north wind in the PM.
11:00 Found our spot back on the north shore just east of the river, a fine flat behind an island in about 50 feet of water, protected from all directions and with a fine view of the surrounding mountains. More crab buoys here. We anchored, got out our own pot, dropped it up near the river spit, and went exploring. We found the Forest Service cabin hidden in the trees on the east bank. Very similar to the one at Anan but here there isn't any developed trail. The Harding is a pretty good sized little river and we could run upstream for almost half a mile before the white water started. Lots of seals here...in the river, at the mouth, and all around the boat. Lois says they are curious. I was skeptical at first but I'm beginning to believe she's right. They seem to always be watching us with just their big eyes and noses out of the water. One with a smaller at her side completely circled the SEA RAVEN this afternoon, watching us all the time.
Spent the afternoon enjoying the sun and doing some cleaning up of the boat. The first time we checked the crab pot there was one big male and a small female which we threw back. The next time there were five small crabs in the pot plus a little flounder that had somehow found its way in, so I threw the crabs back and put the flounder in the bait holder. The one big guy was plenty for dinner. Cribbage again tonight. Took me 'till 9:30 but this time I won...barely.
8:35 Pulled up a nice clean hook...must be a fine sand bottom. Before we headed back west we ran across the canal to where a high waterfall comes down from the snowfield above. Sure pretty.
09:15 Just west of the Harding River we pass a rock off a point where about thirty seals are taking advantage of the low tide to bask in the sun. They watch us go by without moving.
10:00 Stopped and fished for a while through the narrow passage on the east of Blake Island but the current was so fast that I couldn't get the hooks down so soon gave up.
11:00 Anchored in Berg Bay in front of another of the Forest Service's camps. This is a really neat spot. The bay is about a mile deep and 150 yards wide with two small islands at the mouth. The cabin is at the head of the bay looking out toward the main channel. From the cabin a planked trail leads about a half mile across the muskeg of the forest floor to tide flats on the other side of the penninsula which forms the bay. It's sure a pretty walk. Blueberries are ripe and the thimbleberries and crowberries are turning red. A big Bluejay seemed to almost be following us as we walked the planks. A book in the cabin said the trail had been replanked in 1989 by the Wrangell Teachers Association. They did a good job. It's not quite as fancy as the one at Anan which was three or four feet wide. This one is just a one plank wide path made of pressure treated two by twelves set on chunks of log, but it's solidly supported and nailed. Like the Anan walk, it has hundreds of ups and downs, something my knees complain about. There's a visitors log in the cabin which indicates that it isn't used awfully frequently...there've only been four or five parties this year, most from the Wrangell-Petersburg area. Those that wrote in the book seemed to enjoy it. Many caught halibut down the channel near Blake Island and some flounder right here in the bay. We didn't have any luck fishing here either. I cut up what was left of the little flounder that was in our crab pot and baited some hooks. Nothing touched them. Guess we just ain't fisherpeople.
This afternoon I dug out my spare hour meter and had started to install it on Gimmy when I discovered that the old one had run for a while today. It reads 1.8 hours more than yesterday and ticks when I short out the leads. It didn't do that yesterday but now I'm not sure whether it's the meter or the pressure switch that's bad. Guess I'll just have to watch it for a while.
10:30 Fished again a while at the narrows...again nothing; but on the other side where the passage widens to a couple of miles gillnetters where spred out all over the channel. Must have an opening for something but again Fisher saw nothing all the way into Wrangell.
12:30 Wrangell. I was surprised when I called in and the lady on the radio said she had a spot on the dock for us...last time we were rafted as the fourth boat out. Guess it's because all the gillnetters are out fishing. We parkedon the dock behind two big seiners from Juneau rafted together, right next to water and just barely out of reach of power but an extention cord did the trick. Then we headed for the phone to check status of the condo sale. Good news! Moffatt says a package of papers for us to sign will be here tomorrow. I'm a little skeptical about that but it ought to be soon and Wrangell isn't a bad place to wait. It's a fishing town of about 2,500 people with a long history of Tlinget, Russian, and U.S. occupation. There are some really special totems and a big long house on Chief Shakes Island, a tiny park reached by a foot bridge from the marina approach. Since we were here in '87 they've built another totem park nearer to downtown. We walked through town to the post office, checked on mail delivery time, then bought a new pair of jeans for me and a few other goodies on the way back to the boat. Wrangell has at least one of almost every kind of store.
Later, a very interesting boat, the DECOY from Victoria, approached and asked if they could raft to us. I've never seen the likes of her before. She's 60 feet long and 20 feet wide and the nicest houseboat I've ever seen. Built sort of like a Dutch canal scow, she weighs 35 tons, the same as SEA RAVEN, but only draws two feet of water. She was designed and built by her skipper Lodo Wertheim-Aymes. We climbed over the rails for an evening cocktail with he, has wife Mavis, and daughter Daphne. The interior of DECOY is decorated and furnished not like a boat but like a Victorian drawing room. Beautiful! Don't know that I'd want to be out on the big ocean with her but for the inland waterways she looks great.
Learned something else today that I hadn't known. We have several dry chemical fire extinguishers on the boat which I've never had checked, assuming that because the pressure gages were in the green they were okay. Well, this afternoon a guy came down the dock rolling such a strange looking contraption on a dolly that I had to go see what it was. Turned out to be a fire extinguisher maintenance machine. The guy who owns it services them and demonstrated what happens to the powder inside if you just let it sit for a long time. It all gets packed down and won't come out of the bottle, pressure or not. Only about half of the powder came out of one of ours before the pressure was gone. So, I had him service all four of ours. He says you should turn them upside down and beat on them every month or so, and have them serviced once a year. A new item for my tickler file.
While trying to get an AT&T operator on the phone to make some calls this evening I talked to an ALASCOM operator, Ray Johnson, Operator Number 370 about my problems with non-AT&T carriers. He assured me that if I used ALASCOM, I would be billed by AT&T at At&T direct dial rates. Okay, I'll do it, but it that isn't true when the bills come in that guy's in trouble.
When we got back from town we had a new rafting partner, GRUMPY from Sitka, Darryl Hartman and wife aboard. He's a retired contractor who has built all over Southeast Alaska.
11:00 Everything done and back aboard, we cast off the lines and let the current carry us free of the float. Goodby Wrangell. We ran south down Zimovia Strait past the Wrangell Institute and around the south end of Woronkovski Island into Chichagof Pass. Last time we were here we caught a nice salmon and a rock fish near Drag Island on the west end of that pass so we decided we'd give that another try.
13:15 It worked! Just off Drag Island we caught our first Alaskan fish for this trip and the first fish since we left the north end of Vancouver Island - a nice 26 inch, 7 pound Chinook. Lois was so excited she made me clean it and stow it in the freezer with the head on so she can show it to Bernie and Chuck when they get here.
15:30 We made a few more passes but no more action so we pulled in and started looking for a spot to park for the night. Across the pass on the northwest tip of Etolin Island there's a place called King George Bay which looked pretty good on the chart. It isn't! As we approached we saw a line of crab buoys across the entrance and thought it might be similar to our pretty little Berg Bay but as we crossed it the bottom came up so fast that before I could get stopped and turned around we only had a couple of feet of water under the keel. So on to the next spot
16:35 Quiet Harbor. This one's a lot better. A pretty little cove about seven miles to the southwest of King George, it's a couple of hundred yards wide and a quarter of a mile long. It's deep almost to the head but then shoals quickly so you need to anchor in about sixty feet of water but there's plenty of room. Fish were jumping everywhere so I tried jigging and casting but couldn't find the right combination. We had on and off showers until bedtime so we didn't go ashore but stayed on the boat and enjoyed the view. Off to the northeast out the mouth of the bay we can see the white snowfields of the LaConte Glacier shining in the evening sun. Pretty place.
After we anchored Lois and I went out, dropped the crab pot with my little Greenling in it, and then trolled for a while in Stormy. As we approached Southerly Island, one of the little islets which form the harbor, we spotted a deer on the shore. It was a big female mule deer, light brown in color, with a light colored chest and black tail. She didn't seem worried about us as we putted by, just went on grazing in the grass and browsing leaves from the trees, stopping now and then to gaze at us and cock those long ears in our direction. Pretty to watch.
09:00 Blind Slough. Here's where all the fish we've been looking for are...and there are lots of fishermen here to catch them. On both sides of the narrow, thirty foot deep channel skiffs of every description are hauling in big salmon. It looks like Point Deception on a summer Sunday afternoon but I've never seen as many fish caught at once. We draw to much and aren't maneuverable enough to join the crowd but in the few minutes it took to work our way through we must have seen close to a dozen fish being hauled in or played. Wow!
09:30 Stopped on the State float at Parkes Landing about two miles from all the excitement and talked to Barry Croft on a sailbot parked there. He's on his way back to join in the fun. Says the fish are returning to a hatchery there and all you need to catch them is a weight and a piece of herring on a hook. While we were talking a skiff came in with confirmation in the form of a 25 pound King which he said he'd caught with a mashed up herring he'd been planning to use for halibut. I got all excited and started to get down Stormy, planning on going back and try my luck, but when I walked forward I found oil all over the forward deck. Oh, oh, what now? The little hydraulic motor for out windless has blown a seal. Well, that kind of put a kabash on my fishing plans. With a leaking motor we not only don't have a power windless but we can't use our cruise generator. I'd better concentrate on getting that fixed before Chuck and Bernie come next Sunday.
10:00 Mess cleaned up, hydraulics shut down, and we're on our way to Petersburg leaving all those good fish behind. Sob, sob.
11:30 I call the harbormaster and she directs us to stall 549 in the south harbor. This is a new facility since we were here before and a nice one, but it's sure full of fishing boats. We're between two big seiners with water but no power because the owner of the slip has the meter shut off while he's gone...Alaska's funny rule again.
The rest of the day was spent working the hydraulics problem. The nameplate on the motor was pretty badly corroded but with some scraping and magnifying glass we came up with the model number. It's a Char-Lynn 101 1002 007 motor made by the Eaton Corporation. It's very commonly used to drive the gerties on the fishing trollers. Found a machine shop called Piston & Rudder with a guy who says he can fix it in two days, called Spencer in Seattle and got a price of $179.00 for a new motor, then called Kohlstrand, also in Seattle, and got a price of $145.60 for the motor or $13.13 for a seal kit. In any case I had to take the motor off so that was the afternoon's job. Took a bit of doing because the fittings were pretty rusty, but with Lois' help I got it off. Carried it over to Piston & Rudder but it was after five and they were closed. Guess I'll go all three ways...have the old one fixed here if they can do it, but buy a new motor and seal kit from Kohlstrand just in case. I can always send the new motor back if it turns out we don't need it.
We cleaned up and went out to dinner this evening. While we were looking over the town's restaurants...not too many choices...we ran into the crew from Florida whom we'd met at the bear observatory in Anan Bay. They were heading for a pizza place at the south end of town so we joined them. Had a fun evening visiting with them. Bill and Nancy Shaddix run several mobile home parks in Daytona Beach and Roger Shulzinsky works for them. He's with Kathy Martin who's a life guard in Daytona. Since we saw them they've been to Juneau, Roger's caught a five foot halibut...he says once is enough...and now they're heading for Sika for the 4th celebration there. After dinner they all stopped by the boat. It looks pretty big to them, living as they do on two eighteen footers. Fun people, full of adventure and ready for anything.