Every summer during the flotillas, almost every evening, there’s discussion about what time people want to leave in the morning. Sometimes we have a reason to need to leave early (weather, timing for current and tides, things like that), and when we don’t have a reason to leave early, we leave it up to the individual boats. We’ll put in the written plan, even “Leave whenever you want today!” Inevitably, … Read more
We wanted to leave sometime before 6am this morning because it was a long day (53nm) down to Taku Harbor. As has become customary, most of us are pulling anchor at the time we all said we’d set our alarms for…so 5am it was! But the reward was pretty incredible. We had a tiny bit of wind and a little chop, but the wind wasn’t supposed to pick up until … Read more
We never did see the sow and teeny tiny new cub that our friends saw at Pavlof, but before we left this morning, this one came out and was munching some sedge grass on shore. There definitely will be more bears here later when the salmon are running. See last year’s post from the end of July. Left to our own devices with a comparatively short day (30nm) and a “leave … Read more
We left Appleton Cove right around sunrise so we could scoot out and up Chatham Strait and into Pavlof Harbor before the weather came in. It’s really tough some days to get up and going so early, but then we’re often rewarded with incredible sunrises and scenery like this along the way: Out in Chatham just before turning into Freshwater Bay, we spotted three orcas, two adults and one little … Read more
We left Sitka by 5:30am this morning to catch the early slack at Sergius Narrows. Feels nice to get off the dock after four days, but we still love Sitka (and I’m sure we’ll be back at least once this summer). We saw another minke whale on our way out, plus a few sea lions and a bunch of deer. Since we left so early, we arrived early, but it’s … Read more
We spent the past few days exploring Sitka, doing boat projects/maintenance/chores, shopping, letting others cook for us, and walking walking walking! The list of places we all visited is long and varied: attractions included the Raptor Center, Fortress of the Bear, the Sitka National Historic Park, the Sheldon Jackson Museum, the Sitka Science Center, St. Michael’s Cathedral, and the Russian Bishop’s House. Restaurants included the Channel Club, Beak, Ludvig’s Bistro, … Read more
This morning’s alarm was set for 4am (!!!) and we all left Deep Bay in time to catch slack at Sergius Narrows (4:50am, about 30 minutes from Deep Bay). Conditions were calm, gray, and rainy today, so not many photos were taken along the route. Along the way, Two’s Out had a mechanical problem. A new sound had appeared – vaguely like a pump. But, the sound only happened when … Read more
This was actually last night in Takatz Bay (Free Solo and Seabear). By the time we got up just before 6am this morning, everyone was gone but us! We cruised out into Chatham Strait and headed north, and conditions were blue-gray, slightly cloudy, and calm calm calm! We turned west into Peril Strait, which pretty much looked like this the entire way to Deep Bay (it was a long, boringly … Read more