June 14, 2016

June 12 - June 14, 2016

We are leaving Craig today once we pick up the Nat and Linda Collier at the float plane dock.  Our plan is to play around in the Craig/Sitka area for the next two weeks for fishing, crabbing, exploring old mines, etc so no posts for awhile.  We have had a great time in town - Eating a celebration dinner at the Fireweed Lodge in Klawock for Gary's 75th - celebrating anniversaries and tomorrow is Glen's birthday but it is time to go Fishing! Next post will probably be around the end of June in Sitka unless we stumble across internet connection along the way - remember back to a time when you had to access internet by dialup not 3G/4G - we have 1x connection here in Craig so it is very very slow and hard to post!

May 31 - June 12, 2016

May 31 – June 4

      We went home for a few days to catch up on a bit of work and to go to S’Wiched since the restaurant opened while we were gone!   Yum – the food was great so everyone go try it out if you find yourself in Maple Valley – In the same shopping center as Safeway just to the south on Maple Valley Black Diamond Road.

    While we were gone the weather was terrible – rainy and windy while we had 80 in Seattle!  You might have heard about it on the news- on Friday June 3 a Cruise ship got blown into the dock at Ketchikan doing almost $4 million damage to the dock and $6 million to the boat – OOPS- Glen picked up his daughter Nicole that day in the Grady – gusts to 40 knots and 8 – 10 foot waves. Nicole said the Grady was taking waves over the top.  Glad we were home in Seattle and glad they got back to the boats safe.

June 4 – June 12^th

    This part of our trip was very remote – once we left Ketchikan we have not had any cell or internet service so I have a lot to catch everyone up on.  We left Ketchikan with Chris and Tom on Miners Debt headed to meet everyone else on the Prince of Wales Island in Kendrick Bay.  This bay was beautiful and very protected and puts us in the best position to go around Cape Chacon tomorrow which kind of feels like we are crossing the Dixon Entrance again as it is open water.  Nicole and Glen went fishing and Nicole caught the first Halibut of the trip!  We woke up to beautiful weather and after we went around the Cape we were back into lumpy rollers as we made our way around the south side of the Prince of Wales Island.  We spent the night in a bay by Hessa Island and Steve and I went fishing – Steve caught a Ling Cod which we had that night as Fish Taco’s on the Nelsea!  Chris made an amazing Mexican rice and Lenore added homemade coleslaw.  Diane and Liz flew in on a float plane that afternoon back from their trips home. We spent two night at Hessa bay and explored in the Grady.  Steve and I each caught a Cabizon but only kept Steve’s which was large.  We left Hessa Bay for Mabel Bay and spent one night there then moved on to Hetta Cove.  At Hetta we tried to hike to the lake but it was very steep and no trail so after getting a glimpse of the lake we went fishing and Steve was rewarded with a 44 lb Halibut! Yeah- fresh halibut for dinner.  From Hetta we went on to Crab Trap Cove which is by Hydaburg.  We spent two nights there and had our first afternoon of warm weather to relax in. Caught more crab in the cove and  we went to Hydaburg by dinghy and small boats which was about 2 miles away.  We had a beautiful sunny day and  a nice walk thru town to see the Totem Pole park.  We also had a tour of the carving shed and learned about the Haida Nation from Haa Goo who was quite a character. He taught us about his clan which has about 400 people in it and has the Raven and Eagle family lines which follow the mothers.  Haa Goo has a home in Seattle and family there but basically moved back to Hydaburg to be the Story teller of the Haida clan.

  We moved on from Crab Trap Cove to Port Rufugio to spend the night before heading to Craig on the 12^th. We had very wet rainy windy weather in Port Rufugio so we hunkered down on the Sea Life and had a group Spaghetti dinner which was perfect for a windy rainy day.  We were treated to a whale going thru the bay tonight after dinner. 

May 25 - May 30, 2016

May 25 – May 30, 2016

   We left Ketchikan on May 25 headed for the Misty Fjord National Park and Punchbowl. Chris and Tom ended up flying home from Ketchikan to move Tom’s parents to a retirement community in Gig Harbor (they have been living at one on San Juan Islands).  They will be gone for about 10 days and fly back up with us when Steve and I return on Saturday June 4^th. 

     Misty Fjords is a beautiful area of Alaska with steep granite cliffs and waterfalls. We came here in 2013 on our last trip and as I said then, the pictures don’t really show the beauty of this area – if you get the chance to see it I highly recommend a trip thru the Misty Fjords.  What seemed different this time is that there were many many more float planes out of Ketchikan taking the cruise ship people on a visual trip and at times we had 3 to 4 float planes landing in the areas we were anchored.  I am sure it was a surprise for them to see so many boats anchored together!  We met up the first night with Fran and Jeff on the Salpare.  It was fun to catch up with them and share Taco night with everyone on the Nelsea!  Fran and Jeff left on May 26^th for Ketchikan and Jim and Carolyn Mathison on Sea Jay and Gary and Lenore Timm on Noon Balloon caught up with us – they will be with us for quite awhile so now we are 6 boats in the floatilla until Chris and Tom return and we become 7 boats.  We also will  have 4 boats under tow so we have many  boats between fishing boats, dinghys and the big boats tied up at night! We spent two nights at Punchbowl then off to Walker Bay where we heard we would see Grizzly bear and cubs- the reports were correct and it was so much fun to see a mama with 3 cubs and another mama with 1 cub.  Grizzlies are quite different looking than the black bear we have been seeing – many pictures attached! We also continued our Jumbo Prawn and Crab catching so another seafood night on the Nelsea.

    May 29^th it is time for us to head back towards Ketchikan for our flight home for a few days and the weather was nasty – rainy, cold, misty(hence the name Misty Fjords) and the water was awful. Leaving anchorage this morning Glen had a dinghy problem – the Splice on the line attached to his Davit that raises the dinghy to the top of the boat broke an as the dinghy was falling back into the water it hit the side of the boat and flipped upside down.  Luckily not one got hurt but the dinghy motor is totaled along with a lot of the electronics etc due to being upside down in saltwater.  Luckily we have the same dinghy and we are not using it much since we are towing Nellie so Glen will use ours – he is working with insurance etc but probably can’t do anything about his replacement  in Alaska.  We got underway and the water is very rough with up to Six foot seas.  We decided to end our day at Alava Bay after a few hours of fighting the weather.  Not the best anchorage as it was very lumpy until the early hours of May 30^th but a fun place to stop as a barge arrived to pick up a float plane that was broken down and tied up to a float by us. Fun to watch them put the plane onto the barge.  We had a rocky night but woke up to beautiful water for our trip to Ketchikan on the 30^th.  Steve and I and Liz and Diane are all flying home tomorrow for a few days of work then backup for us on Saturday with Chris and Tom and we will join the others in an anchorage on the Prince of Wales Island.

This is how we Bear Watch!

Oops – Dinghy problems