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.