Wind and rain buffeted our boats overnight in Appleton Cove, but this morning the wind had died down somewhat, and the rain had mainly stopped as we pulled anchors and headed for Sitka.
We spotted another bear on shore this morning from Airship…it wandered out for a few minutes to eat some grass and then back into the trees it went.
Layers of silver and gray looking west in Peril Strait:
We were slightly early to Sergius Narrows (30 min or so) and had about a knot against us going through. Easy!
The last half hour or so into Sitka was by far the bumpiest! The wind picked up again, the rain was heavy, and the traffic increased by a lot–small charter fishing boats, fast big yachts, slow pleasure boats, trollers, and more! We overheard fishing boats on the radio saying things like “We got beat to s#%t out in the ocean this morning” and “It’s four feet at two seconds out here. It’s f*#%@g gross!” Compared to that, it didn’t seem so bad inside!
The boat in the slip Airship docked next to at Elison Harbor had a little skiff tied onto it, which made threading the needle to get in quite a challenge. We had about 6 inches to spare at our widest spot.
We’re all in now, and we’ll be here in Sitka for three nights. We met for group dinner tonight at Mangiare, (reunited with Ralph and Jeanette on Kali, who came into Sitka a few days early). Monday and Tuesday we’ll spend exploring, sightseeing, and re-provisioning for the next leg of our trip!
