June 2 – 4
Hi All,
Well….more livin’ the dream stories!! We did wake up in Cannery Cove on Kathy’s big birthday to….wait for it, try to guess….more frickin’ rain…..the mountains completely socked in…..arghhhhhh. I was up by 6am to go get the crab traps….but let me digress a bit….the previous night a boat came from the Pybus Fishing lodge with 8 crab traps and proceeded to put them all around one of my pots and the Hunting Lodge’s 2 traps….I mean w/in 20-30′ of my trap….we gave them triple stink eye for such brazen behavior and poor form…..they’ve been watching too many Deadliest Catch shows:))) And guess what….I had no crabs in that trap…WTH…steam coming out my ears….go get the 2nd trap which I placed on the other side of the cove….hmmmm, this feels kinda heavy….and, drum roll please, 8 big ones….YES, YES, YES….1 was a female and 1 was a soft shell (which is illegal to keep) so we ended up with 6, which is our limit, 7-8″ size….and that is how the Crab Gods
smiled on John-boy that morning….finally:))))
The winds started off calm for the 40nm run to Baranof Warm Springs but soon started building and ended up being 15-20G25kts on the nose….and it’s foggy/misty/rainy, radar on plus navigation lights, and it got choppy, 3-5′ chop, spray everywhere, we had to even slow down….then as we rounded the southern end of Admiralty around Yasha Island and turned beam to, we took an 8 footer, rolled a good 30*+…..items went flying….the Admiral was not happy….ugh!!! But, the last 10nm we were going downwind in Chatham Strait so easy peasy and we got a delightful humpback whale breaching maybe a mile away….it put on quite a show….pretty far away but I caught the act several times in the binocs….unfortunately Kathy missed it…ugh!!! We get to the Warm Springs and the dock is full….ugh….turns out there was maybe room on the inside but a guy had put his dinghy there and was gone for the day….we tried a nice cove off to the side but it was all gravel….anchor would not s
et, so we came back to the Falls and anchored behind a BFB…big frickin’ boat….in 125′ with a 1-2 knot current from the falls rushing by…but a pretty view of the falls….and it is loud with all the gushing water!!!!
As we were lowering the dinghy, we had another whale show…..4 humpbacks in the Bay….nice!!! We finally got our act together around 3pm and went in for a long soak at the hot springs by the falls….ODG, never seen so much water rush by….it’s about a 1/2 mile hike, the last 100 yards pretty onerous with rocks and tree roots but we get there and have the pools all to ourselves….sweet as!!! It was fabulous, rain and all! Well it’s Baranof Island, after all, and doesn’t it rain here every day? No matter. We were wet anyway and only slipped in the mud coming back just a couple of times. No harm, no foul…and the champagne was tasty!!!
So we take a little break before starting dinner preparations, but when we start to prepare the BD dinner, all AC power goes out….hmmmmm…..go to the fuse in front of the inverter and it is blown….ok, switch it out and turn on switch but nada….hmmmm…..now by this time we both have had copious BD amounts of champagne (from doing the hot springs) so the brain is a bit slow….go back and fiddle w/switch and voila we have power. Turn on the GEN to charge the batteries and all is good….but….look up and there is a fisherman trawler anchoring on top of us….WTH….we are in 125′ with 300′ of chain out…..so I call him on the vhf several times….finally he answers and I tell him he is 225′ away and we have 300′ of chain out and he is on top of our anchor….he then proceeds to tell me what a god awful job of anchoring I did, I only work in fathoms which is the only real way to measure depths (I helped him do the math…probably pissed him off more), you put out way t
oo much scope, back in his commercial fishing days they could put 3 more boats in between us and all be good (of course I’m thinking they also played bumper boats)….by this time I had the mic way out as he seemed to be shouting….turns out he is a charterer now (I guess couldn’t make it as a fisherman) and I must have embarrassed his snobby self to his guests…..I just said, dude, you are over my anchor, good luck getting it untangled when you raise anchor….after about 10 minutes he did raise anchor and moved about 150′ to end up 375′ away.
June 3: Woke up this am to no power again….ugh, turn on GEN and bypass inverters and it looks like only one inverter is charging plus the Mastervolt, but erratic DC voltages going to Master inverter….got some coffee and then started problem solving….3 hours later determined cause to be a faulty battery disconnect switch in front of inverter that I got to finally work (maybe spring was hung up??), and a cracked fuse holder not allowing nut to tighten on cable lug…replaced fuse holder but don’t have a spare battery switch…we both can’t believe that we don’t but we don’t….for now switch is working…fingers crossed!!
Charterer just left as I was writing this….we both gave each other stink eye:))))
BTW, K scrubbed her BD dinner last night on her BD….it was just too late and she was fried….but, we had the BD dinner tonight, a day late but still w/in her birthday week/month…..prime steaks, with fresh Dungeness crab on the side, with a scrumptious 2008 Concannon Heritage Petite Sirah…..yummers!!!!
We did go for a long soak in the tubs here at Warm Springs…the bottle of champagne in the hot springs by the falls yesterday afternoon was perfect….today was just a hot soak in one of the clean tubs!!!
And the adventure continues…..blowing stink in Chatham Strait…up to 35kts….even got 20kts wind inside Bay here…..we were supposed to go King salmon fishing today but will wait until weather calms down!!!
And…..to cap off the inverter story….as we are getting ready for bed after the BD dinner, I turn off the GEN and the inverters go out again….yep, we both said a few sailor words….I knew it was the switch….tested it and yep it’s bad again…..so I just took it out of circuit and fortunately the battery cable was long enough to reach the fuse holder.
June 4: Got up to….yep, more rain and fog/low clouds….yea:)))) But the inverters are working so LIG!!!!!
The Plan: Going fishin’ instead of wishin’…..hopefully, the weather will stay calm and we will fish for King Salmon around the Kasnyku hatchery today and tomorrow….GO JOHN-BOY GO!!!!
Critter Stats:
Whales: 31, (12 Orcas, 17 Humpback, 2 Sei)
– 1 in Chatham Strait doing full body breaches!!!
– 4 in Warm Springs Bay
Bears: 42 (30 Brown, 12 Black)
– no sightings on Day 1 in Cannery Cove, too foggy, but 6 nice viewings on Day 2
Wolves: 1 (big male Grey on the mud flat in Klu Bay)
Dungeness Crabs: 43 (5 in Manzanita, 0 Punchbowl, 8 Fitzgibbon, 11 in Yes Bay, limited 1st day, 2 in Klu, 3 in Marguerite, 0 Santa Anna; 0 Farragut, 8 West Gambier; 0 Snug, 6 Cannery Cove)
Prawns: 213, (209 Spotted: 7 Punchbowl, 36 Fitzgibbon, 50 Shrimp Bay, 56 Marguerite, 48 Santa Anna; 12 Snug), 4 Coon Stripes, small size (Fitzgibbon)
Marten: 1 (1 Punchbowl)
Stellar Sea Lions: ~30, (20 in Sucia Bay, 10 on buoys out of Wrangell)
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
Position: 57 11’55.06 N, 134 50’57.05 W
Course: Stopped.
Position: 21-06-04 10:30:50 -0800
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=57.19863,-134.8492&q=57.19863,-134.8492&z=16
