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