Sitka

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Wednesday July 12, 2012 Hoonah to Baby Bear Cove (Peril Strait)

Ruth had an 8:00 AM interview for a teaching job at WVHS and hearing one side of the conversation I conclude that she interviews very well. They called her back within an hour to tell her she had the job so there is joy on the Little Liza this morning.

At the intersection of Icy Straits and Chatham Channel we spotted a large pod of at least eighteen humpbacks and we were fortunate to watch them dive in unison, slap their fins and tails and bubble feed as well as hear them make great fog horn-like sounds perhaps warning us away. We turned the engines off and just sat and watched from a distance, taking pictures and marveling.

I heard a distress call from Puffin, a thirty foot trawler that had blown an engine, was drifting close to shore and was requesting a tow. I was eighteen miles (two hours) away and relayed a call from vessel assist in Juneau that charged $350/hour. At six knots it would have taken ten hours for the sixty miles and the captain of Puffin did the math. A seiner called the Lucy-O came on the radio and offered to tow him home for free and I eventually watched them across Chatham Channel on a long sad leash.

This day is a gift. Besides the whales we have had a long transit down Chatham Strait and straight it is, right out to the deep blue sea. I was trying to picture what ten hours of wind off the Pacific and channeling right at us would feel like. Instead we glide over the ripples and as we turn into Peril Strait the mountains invite us onward. Peril Strait is also wide and smooth and passes right through the middle of what would be a very large island but now is two, Baranoff Narrows where the ocean squeezes through, in and out we must wait for the four times daily truce. By the way, Peril Strait is so named because many years ago some sailors ate poisonous mussels, not because this passage is a hazard to mariners.

After eleven hours we anchored in Baby Bear Cove which took us through a twisted opening and around corners like anchoring inside of a conch. It is calm, peaceful and with the waning sun lighting silvery cedar snags among deep green shadows. This day is indeed a gift.

Thursday July 13, 2012 Baby Bear Cove to Sitka

In order to go through Sergius Narrows at slack we left at 6:00 AM with clear skies only to find the narrows plugged with thick fog. Because of the new canvas top the radar can’t “see” straight ahead and thus we relied on GPS and calling on the VHS to announce our presence. Going blind through a narrow, rocky channel where I’ve never been is disconcerting and it left me wondering about prudent seamanship. Having three sets of straining eyes doesn’t help much if visibility is about twenty feet. The fog lightened a little in the next set of narrows and then we reemerged into a beautiful blue morning as we continued through a series of channels, behind small islands that protected us from the ocean swell. Between these islands we began to catch glimpses of Mount Edgecombe, a tall volcano, with a defined crater, and smooth, not yet scarred by glaciers. This is very different geology from the granite peaks on the other side of us.

We were directed into Eliason Harbor in Sitka and at the end of the first dock sat a large old (1908) tug called the Gleaner. Is it the Gleaner on which Uncle Lin carried out his medical work in SE Alaska in the early 1950’s? No one was at home. After docking we migrated to the grocery store for supplies and I was able to post a blog.

Keith and I got information from the harbormaster about fishing down in Silver Bay a half hours fast dinghy ride from Sitka. It’s in Bear Cove at the mouth of a river and a hatchery where the kings are spawning. They run along the shores and then are guided by a big net/fence into the river. Anglers are allowed up against the net and it was like shooting ducks in a barrel except we seemed to be using blanks. We did not have casting reels and we could see schools of large fish swimming right past our bright red spinners in the shallow water. Other fishermen fared better and the little boat right up by the entrance to the stream pulled them in until they limited. Another guy offered to give us a fish but that was not the point.

Friday July 14^th 2012 Sitka

Keith left this morning for home and responsibility. We piled into the Bullfrog for a tour of downtown Sitka, the gift shops, the bookstore, and the soda fountain in the drugstore. We also climbed the hill to old Fort Sitka where the Russians formally turned over “Seward’s Folly” to the U.S. for seven million dollars.

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Photos

Whale Tail
When the tail comes up the whale is diving and is gone for a while.

The Gleaner
I wonder if this is the "Gleaner" on which Uncle Lin carried out his medical work in Alaska.

Comments

[Lisa]

Love the whales! Beautiful country!
Have a wonderful time! I saw some SUP'ers, looks like a beautiful place to learn to SUP! Tim & Denise's Sequoia is save in the driveway. I still have the keys, I'll text Dan.