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Published: July 18th 2012
Saturday July 15, 2012 Sitka to Appleton Cove
Twice a month a produce truck arrives by barge from Seattle and today is the day in Sitka. It was a small farmer’s market but the people were crowded around snapping up watermelon and sweet corn etc. while supplies lasted. Winds have kicked up outside the harbor, which made pulling up the Bullfrog out in the harbor more interesting. Ruth and Kira helped with lines and loading while BJ took the controls. We also made a positive landing at the gas dock by just pulling abeam of it and letting the wind shove us in. Our track today is a reverse of the one we took two days ago except we went past Baby Bear Bay and on to Appleton Cove. Predicted wind seemed to dissipate and we ran from the flybridge where we regulated the temperature and circulation by zipping the curtains up and down. I frequently scanned the shoreline for bears.
Appleton Cove came highly recommended and while it is nice it is also pretty open unlike the cozy Baby Bear Bay. It’s fairly shallow throughout and while there are four boats anchored in here
Seiners
Seiners in Chatham Straitwe all have bights of our own. The kids needed to run so I took them to shore and they scoured the beach for pretties and played in the water filling their boots and then finding creative ways to squish the water out. Gwen wants to drive the dinghy and she does pretty well at the controls. We put out crab pots where the commercial guys are and caught females. Tonight we put the pots alongside the Little Liza and got three keepers.
Sunday July 15
th, 2012 Appleton Cove to Red Bluff Bay
We were up at 5:00 AM and within half an hour we had pulled in the crab pot, cleaned the crab, had the pot boiling, sprayed the mud off the deck and were on our way out of Appleton Cove and into Peril Strait. By 7:30 AM we turned into Chatham Strait with the wind at our backs and the sun shining on a brand new mountain range that is Baranoff Island. On these long smooth cruises I sit at the helm station and scribble in my journal. These snow covered spires are on my right and on my left
Red Bluff Bay
Passages narrow in Red Bluff Bay is Admiralty Island with its own range of peaks. Chatham
Strait just goes on ahead until it falls off the edge of the world. Little Liza is now pointed at a large waterfall many miles ahead, a worthy waypoint on our morning cruise. It’s 8:30 AM and BJ and I are the only ones up. Fishing boats troll in the distance outriggers outstretched as in supplication. Oh! And a pod of orcas head in the opposite direction to a fishing ground of their own choosing.
Holy Cow! There’s a whole fleet of seiners on the horizon concentrated close to shore but still stretching for a couple of miles into the Straits. I hear them on the VHF talking to their skiffs and jockeying for position. “Round out that net! Get closer in to shore! Give it more rpms”, they say into their mikes. We’re skipping the planned stop at Baranoff Warm Springs because we’ve been told it’s a zoo when the seiners are in. They raft their boats three deep at the dock and they leave suds in the hot springs. How gauche! Now I know why the orcas were moving on.
On we go,
way around the seiners and on to Red Bluff Bay, easily identified by a very unique mountain of red granite at the entrance to the fiord. The path is narrow, deep and high with waterfalls cascading from snowfields into steep forests and reappearing as they splash off the last rocks and into the salt water. The inlet narrows, then widens and shallows into a salt marsh with an underwater shelf that provides a limited area for this popular spot. In fact with six boats this is the most crowded anchorage we’ve had in Alaska. I had difficulty anchoring since contrary winds and currents blew us uncomfortably close to our neighbors. The third attempt worked since a big charter yacht was leaving and we took his spot.
Before we could lower the shore boats we spotted our first bear! Now we know that they are not just mythical beasts, smiling, stuffed with cotton and sitting outside gift shops in Juneau. Kira and I took kayaks and then Gwen, Cole and I took the Bullfrog on tours of the salt marsh and of waterfalls. Later I went back to the shoreline and rounding a corner spotted a big grizzly tearing
Brown Bear
These bears subsist primarily on grass this time of the year. away at the grass like it was his last meal. A group from a charter boat landed up the shoreline and “snuck” up on him like a gaggle of geese. He knew they were there but pretty much ignored them except once when he stood up and of course my camera was not ready. I don’t think he ever saw or smelled me sitting offshore in the kayak. I spotted other bears off in the grass flats including a sow and cubs but they were much too far away for a photo op.
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Kim hull
non-member comment
Nice bear!
How fun to see a bear! He looks like a nice one! Thanks for sharing!