March 25-31
Hi All,
We have been out for a week now and we are both starting to feel rested…..it is sooooo cool to be out of the marina, at anchor and seeing some spectacular scenery and a few critters…yea!!!! And we have been unplugged….no internet….don’t miss the news at all but do miss Goggle:)))) Our SAT phone Iridium GO! has worked wonderfully for emails on UUPlus and texting…..dial up speed tho, no surfing:(((
We stayed in 3 anchorages in Salisbury Sound for 5 nights, about 25nm north of Sitka…..Sukoi Inlet (2N), St John the Baptist (2N, none of our books say how this bay got its name but it must be a good story!!), and Kalinin (1N)…..the latter was DDG (drop dead gorgeous and we were the only boat there) and the others were scenic as well. On Saturday March 30 we ventured out into the open ocean…ODG….”how do you do this again”…..went north on the west side of Chichagof Island, we had 2-4′ headseas but <8kt winds….the Admiral was not happy, she is insisting on a easy cruise this season…in all fairness, it gradually calmed and we both got our sea legs and got used to hobby-horse-pitching motion again and all was well…only 40nm in the open ocean and now we are in Stag Bay off Lisianski Strait, the north part of Chichagof Island…..this has to be one of the most iconic anchorages in Alaska, snow capped mountains, large salmon streams and huge meadows…..DDGx2!!!!
Whales: As we were leaving St John’s Bay on Friday we saw 2 humpback whales and several sea lions feasting on a large herring baitball…..and as we trolled that day in Salisbury Sound we had an additional 8 whale sightings….2 came within 100 yards of the boat surface feeding….whoa!!!
Crab: WE HAVE DUNGENESS CRAB…..YEA!!!! We have only been successful in St John’s Bay…9 large crabs…several close to 8″ and many over 7″…legal in Alaska is >6.5″…..wow….yummers!!!!
Prawns: Hmmmm…..only 3 Spotted….oweee…..one was a female with lots of eggs which we let go. And the other 2 were on the small size for Spotted prawns. We remember in 2006 they were the size of a small lobster tail…..maybe overfished as well:((((
We did troll for salmon 2 times….there are supposedly some winter Kings still around as none of the other species will arrive until June. But, nada…..whaaaaaaaa…..it however, was a good test drive for both of us…..Kathy getting used to piloting Mystic again with the 56hp Yanmar as you troll for salmon at 1-2 knots…..another one of those “how do I do this again” moments. For me, I had several fishing gear failures….several of our downrigger line pincers are worn and would not hold the line under load…..and my brand new reel with thin, highly visible line kept free wheeling…..made a huge tangled mess….did it several times…..ugh….I had a shop in Sitka spool the reel with 400 yards and now down to half that….I will be seeking help to understand why and possibly changing the line type…ugh!!!
I have also been fishing everywhere for bottom fish like rockfish, halibut, lingcod et al…..but nothing except a 6″ baby sculpin which I discovered last year crab do not like. What gives….all these bays should be loaded with fish. Hmmmm…..the water temp is 43-45*F…..could it be too cold, fish hibernating, fish gone to deeper waters…..more questions to ask the experts!!!
Yep….so “how do we do this again” became the phrase for a few days. Amazing that after 4-5 months you forget the little details that you had done for the past 10 months or so (not to mention the years before that)…..arghhhhhh!!!!
Weather: The days are getting longer fast. Three weeks ago when we arrived in Sitkathere was <12 hours sunlight…..now more like 13+ hours….sunrise ~6:30am and sunset 7:30pm…gaining 6-7 minutes of sunlight/day!!! It has been sunny the past week or so….another huge HI sitting in the Gulf of Alaska…..no rain, great for us cruisers but horrible for the rain forest/critters…..SE Alaska is now in a moderate drought…..not good:((( When the marine layer/clouds come in the LO’s are in the upper 40’s….clear skies and we have heavy frost and upper 30’s. Daytime temps are high 50’s – low 60’s!!!! We are able to sit outside in the cockpit quite a bit as long as the wind is not too bad…it has been getting to 10-20kts in the afternoons!!
Critters: We have seen just 2 Sitka deer, no bears, moose, wolves et al…..come on guys wake up….we see buds on the trees and some young grass growing:))) Lots of harbor seals, many birds….ducks – golden eyes, buffleheads…Vancouver Canada Geese. One day in Stag Bay we saw a harbor seal doing a mating ritual…..flapping it’s feet, fins, and body on the surface of the water….made quite a sound that echoed around the bay…..did this for many hours…..well, actually it continued all day…..a group of 6-10 seals….maybe !!!
Boat Stuff:
Watermaker: For a year or so now the auto divert valve has been working 50%…..when the salinity is <500ppm it diverts the good product water to our water tanks. So each time we make water I need to go into the Laz and check if it has diverted. If not, I push the manual divert button and we have good water. Well, the first few times we made water I checked…it had auto diverted, then I forgot once and it did not auto divert so we made water into the ocean for those 2 hours…..arghhhhh!!! But a curious thing, it has only failed to divert that one time I failed to check…yes, I do believe the watermaker is Miss Watermaker and it is having fun with me:)))) OTH, the engineer in me asks could the failed variable frequency drive I changed in January that controls all the various voltages, maybe have started to fail last year and was not giving a good 12.5V volts to the divert valve…..Spectra suspected it could be low voltage…..hmmmmmm….curious for sure!!!!
CA44: When we sent the unit to Zack in Florida and he changed the battery, we lost all our settings. It’s taken me all week and I think I have it back to 80% of our old settings…ugh!!!
Most of my “project” time has been setting up the fishing gear….2 crab traps and 1 prawn trap and the various trolling gear!! The first night we are at anchor I go up to the flybridge and smell….hmmm, not sure, maybe propane….check all the tanks and nada…..say Kathy can you come smell this….gee John, it smells like gasoline….sure enough, we found one of our gas cans had a leak near the top….we had just filled it before we left Sitka….JOMT…..just one more thing:(((((
The Plan: On Monday, April 1 we head 15nm to a small town called Pelican….maybe internet but doubt it, then to the head of Lisianski Strait, then to the cute town of Elfin and hopefully internet, then up to Dundas Inlet and then Glacier Bay by the end of the week!
Critter Stats:
Dungeness crab: 9
Prawns: 2 Spotted
Whales: 10 Humpbacks
Salmon: 0
Bears: 0
Wolves: 0
Otters: 7, several with pups
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
Stags Bay, Lisianski Strait, Alaska
PS: No pictures, no internet!!
Position: 57 54’22.09 N, 136 16’50.32 W
Course: Stopped.
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Position: 57 54’23.42 N, 136 16’52.96 W
Course: Stopped.
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