Alaska 2021- May 20-21

April 2021 – May 20 – 21

 

We dropped anchor in Petes bight and spent the night at anchor.  It was a beautiful warm afternoon on May 20 and Steve, Glen and I played cribbage on the back deck of Nelsea.  This was also our first night for Crab dinner!  Thanks to Glen and Dave who caught crab the night before we returned to Ketchikan we were able to cook fresh crab.

May 21 the weather had changed so we decided to go to Old Kasaan before the rains start.  Old Kasaan is the site of an old Indian Village that has remnants of Totem Poles, Longhouse poles and also gravestones. We had our first bear siting on the beach where we were landing to go ashore and there was lots of evidence of bears on the trail along the water where the ruins are located.

We left Old Kasaan and took a ride around Kasaan Bay where we had another bear siting.  This time we were able to get pictures.

 

On the way back to the boats we stopped at a site of an old logging operation with a few cabins and equipment left behind that is being reclaimed by the woods.

Next stop is the boats and dinner.  It has definitely gotten colder as the day has gone on (52 degrees)  so it is an afternoon inside the boats instead of on the back deck like yesterday

Alaska 2021 - May 20

We have left Ketchikan today after our few days at home.  It is a spectacular day!  We are headed to a bay near Kasaan where I was told by Pete to make sure all the camera batteries are charged! I will post pictures of our visit once we have internet again which might be awhile. We will be heading south around the Cape of Chacon at the south end of Prince of Wales Island and when we went there in 2016 we did not have connectivity for quite awhile.

     Just a few pictures to show you the huge expanse of Alaska from the water and the great weather we are having today!

Alaska 2021 - May 13 -14

 Alaska 2021 – May 13-14

     We left Ketchikan for 2 nights in Naha Bay which was a 22 mile cruise up around Revillagigedo Island.  Naha Bay is a beautiful bay that has a State Park float and the Naha River trail that goes around Roosevelt Lake.  The hike is a round trip 4.8 mile hike along a combination of trails, boardwalk, mud and roots that leads to Orton Ranch which is a Baptist Church Camp. The trail had some challenges today with all the rain and downed trees from the past winter.  It looks like they are doing some work to fix the trail but it was quite a challenging scramble in some places along the trail.

 

Roosevelt Lake spills over into Naha Bay with a small set of rapids but at a high tide you can take the small boats into the lake which the guys did after our hike. The picture shows it at about a 2 ft drop – it is about 4 feet at low tide.

In addition to the public float, Naha Bay also has a public ramp built from the Bay side to the Lake side that is used to haul kayaks over to the lake.

 

 

We have seen Bear in Naha bay on past trips but this time we only saw evidence that they are around. Skunk Cabbage pulled out and bear tracks along the trail.  We keep watching for our first bear sighting this trip which should happen soon!  Also the first Shrimp of the trip were caught by Glen just outside of Naha Bay.  No crab but we know we will get some soon. We had another great dinner on the Nelsea including Shrimp and a yummy lemon chicken dinner prepared by Jane and Dave.  We have had group dinners every night which is a lot of fun and easy since we have the 3 boats anchored together.

 

 

Alaska 2021 - May 11-13

 Alaska 2021 - May 11-13

      We have been in Ketchikan for 2 nights which has been nice to be able to get off the boat and walk!  We have all restocked groceries and went out to dinner at Annabelle's.  We met up with two other boaters from the US  for dinner- Brian and Steve on the Tonic which is a 52 Offshore.  It was a fun evening sharing stories and also talking about the planned itinerary for the next three months. We are headed to Naha and hope to put out crab traps - its time for some fresh crab! Its overcast and predicted to rain but at least we are in Alaska!  Nelsea will return to Ketchikan on Saturday as Steve and I are flying home for a couple nights to catch up on work and see the family! When we return we will head slowly around Cape Chacon and to the west side of the Prince of Wales Island. Last time we fished on the way and are hoping for Halibut again!

     Ketchikan is very very quiet.  Many of the stores are closed due to Covid and of course there are no cruise ships or tourists here.  

We stayed at the city dock which is right downtown 

More adventures to come!

Alaska 2021 - May 11

Alaska 2021 – May 11

     We left Dundas for Ketchikan at 8am.  We only had a 5 ½ hour cruise covering 52 miles for today – our shortest leg yet since we left on the trip.  The Dixon Entrance was very flat today so we had a good, easy crossing – no rain just heavy overcast again.  Steve and I cleared customs using CHP Roam and Nexus, filled up with 605 gallons of fuel and headed with the others to the City Dock.  We are going to celebrate Liz’s birthday at Annabelles in Ketchikan for dinner – our first day off the boat since May 3!

     We made fantastic time and other than the rain and overcast skies it was a great cruise up to Alaska. Our plan is to stay here tonight and get a few more provisions tomorrow morning including fishing licenses. We are going to leave Ketchikan tomorrow and play around for the next 4 days until it is time for Steve and I to come back to Ketchikan and fly home on Sunday for a couple of days. 

 Alaska 2021 - May 10

We left Lowe Inlet today with a destination of Prince Rupert but the water and weather are so nice we decided to push on to Dundas which makes a shorter run to Ketchikan tomorrow.  We are many days ahead of schedule but since we can’t stop anywhere in Canada if the water and weather are good we just push on. Beautiful snow covered mountains and scenery on the journey today.