Off the Kasaan public dock this morning around 7:30! Calm water and hardly any wind made for a very chill cruise up to Thorne Bay.
As we were first heading out, we noticed our new friend Skip in his skiff out fishing, so we detoured a little bit to say goodbye and see ya next time!
We saw two humpbacks, but the humpbacks were both pretty mellow, which didn’t make for very interesting photos. Here’s the fin of one that was cruising right along shore:
And here’s the other one further over to the east side of Clarence Strait:
We turned into Thorne Bay and passed a handful of float houses on the way in. I particularly liked the flamingo floatie on this one’s dock:
Owen at the Thorne Bay harbor office was super helpful in getting us all space on the dock! Three of us on the outer linear dock, and two in hot-berthed slips (available while the regular occupant is out).
Thorne Bay originally began as a large logging camp for the Ketchikan Pulp Company (located in Hollis) in 1960. It was a floating camp at that time, and so most Hollis residents resided in float houses. In the 1960s and 1970s, Thorne Bay was the largest logging camp in North America, with more than 1500 residents at its peak.
Fun fact (thanks, Wikipedia!): Thorne Bay is named for Frank Manly Thorn (1836–1907), who served as the sixth Superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1885 to 1889. The name of the bay was misspelled when published in the original record, and the spelling was never corrected to match the spelling of Thorn’s last name.
This is a very huge tree grapple. World’s largest, in fact.
Kevin and I took a several mile walk down the waterfront, and then cut up the hill to and through the main area of town…but (at least the way we went) there wasn’t all that much to see. Also it’s raining. We did a few boat chores, and then got together for happy hour this evening on Kali. Had some great appetizers and chatted about the plan for the next couple days. Several people put out crab traps today — there’s a boat here in the harbor selling fresh crab, so they’re definitely around.
After Happy Hour, Sara and David (from Kali) went out with the paddleboards, and DeAnne took this cool shot of them:
A couple shots from this evening after the rain stopped. And the forecast for tomorrow includes sun!
