May 25 – 27
Hi All,
We made Petersburg in some heavy rain!! But, timed it pretty well and had very little current here on North Harbor at slack!!! In 2019 it took me 4 tries to dock in some strong current in the South harbor….yep, I was a bit puckered coming in but got it right the 1st try!! The run was 40nm and 20nm was through the Wrangell Narrows….50 channel markers, 30′ depth at high tide…would have been 15′ at low tide…highest speed was 11.5kts, +3.5kt current….yikes!!! And it rained the whole time so not much scenery to report…ugh!!! But no barges or big ships to pass!!!
We did make it to the “otter pelt” store…..the Cedar Box, Will & Christy. This is the store Kathy bought two sea otter pillows in 2019 which she has loved and wished she had bought more. Unfortunately Will was in Juneau, he is chief project manager for the local SE tribes, but his wife was here and we had a delightful chat. It turns out Will is now the Chief of his local tribe out of Kake. He lives here, works in Juneau and Chief out of Kake….hmmmm!!! The whole family is involved in the “pelt” business. Will’s sons do the hunting and send all the pelts to the Uncle in Kake who is the tanner. Then they ship pelts all over with 60-70 coming to this shop where lots of relatives do the sewing!!! Most of their business is online. Otter hunting is down, not sure why…demand maybe, but she thought they had enough for a pillow but not sure about the vest. We will keep in contact and probably order from Will as it all gets sorted!!
Here is what the their webpage says about Will: William Ware, “Lgeiki’eesh” & “Juni Li’xetl”, is a Tlingit Raven from the Taakdeintaan Clan of the Big Sockeye House (Glacier Bay). Growing up in Petersburg, AK Will was taught and lived his Tlingit Culture from the harvesting of traditional foods, learning the stories of his ancestors to learning the proper Tlingit protocols. He is very proud of his Tlingit heritage. The Taakdeintaan peoples were renowned Sea Otter hunters and artists. Generations later Will continues this tradition and proud to offer you beautiful products made from Seal, Sea Otter and Sea Lion. Will harvests these animals himself, along with his four sons. As he harvests these animals, not only does it provide fur for his art but it also provides Seal meat and Seal oil for the elders and the homebound who cannot hunt for themselves. He also provides other parts of the animals for the use of traditional indigenous art. For Will it is not only impor
tant to keep living his culture but it is very important for him to pass on his knowledge to his sons as well as his many nieces and nephews.”
The town is anxiously waiting for the small cruise ships to arrive starting in June. We have just learned Biden signed the bill that will allow large cruise ships to come direct from Seattle to Alaska starting sometime in July. Petersburg does not have a large cruise ship port so can only handle around 300 people size ships. Christy indicated tourism is down from 17k/year to last year 8k. The economy desperately needs a boost as both fishing and logging are down as well.
We then had pizza at Papa Bears….still about the only restaurant in town open, although Beachcomber Lodge (10 miles out of town, take a cab) just opened!!! We also looked for more prawn bait pellets but no joy….Little Friskies it is for the next few weeks!!
May 26: Up early, finished internet use for the last time for a while, and off the dock by 8:00am. We are going to Farragut Bay, a new anchorage for us and one where another Selene owner went aground recently…..yep, Kathy was nervous!!! Along the way in Frederick Sound we saw 2 eagles hunting…..swoop down and maybe catch a fish….wow, what a treat, got a few good pics as well. Kathy also saw one Humpback whale but just briefly. Farragut Bay has a huge mud flat in Francis Anchorage but the charts have not been updated in over 40 years and the mudflat has silted in maybe 1/2 mile from where the charts indicate. We were very careful but actually never found the wall….the area was just too exposed and the meadow above the mudflat for bear watching was too far away….the area gave Kathy a headache, so we went over to a small finger called Farragut Bay to anchor. We did find the wall in this channel, and anchored in 105′, fell back to 45’……dinghy down, passage beers ope
n, 2 crab pots set…all by 1:30pm!!!
Tides: ODG….we got some tides now….22’+ tidal exchange today, -4′ at low tide this am….we had 3′ under the keel when we left the Petersburg dock…wow!!!
Days: Sunrise is now 4:14am and sunset 9:28pm, 17+hours of sun and 19+ hours of daylight….whoa!!!
May 27: ODG….what is that light….yep, bright yellow light at 4:30ish coming in the bathroom porthole….blinding….got up about 5ish and had to wear sunglasses in the PH….BUT, scan the low tide shorelines for critters….see a bunch of Eagles on the beach…..hmmmm…..then one jumps close to another and I can tell they are squawking at each other….hmmmm, eagle fight????….then one jumps on top of the other….yep, John-boy was treated to a sight…eagle porn….well, mating…..I swear, they both did the happy dance after and the male looking straight at Mystic and took a bow….I took some pictures of the blissful couple but it was really too far away…best viewed with binocs and now locked in my memory!!!!
Weather: OK…today was DDG, lots of sun, just perfect crossing Frederick Sound with glass seas …but Mr Weather says that’s all you get….a storm is coming in early Friday…10-25G40kts South winds, with rain Friday night into Saturday. We might get blown out of this West anchorage in Gambier and have to move to Snug anchorage about 5 miles away……we shall see!!
Picked up crab traps….nada again with no bait left…..just small ones again….ugh!!! We left the anchorage around 8am with a -4′ tide again….hmmm….you could smell the mudflat which was a lot closer than we would like. Left Farragut and rounded corner to Frederick Sound going west and after about 30 min winds picked up 10-15kts…wth…whitecaps…it’s supposed to be 5kts….hmmm….but in an hour the wind died as we entered Stephens Passage and it was a milk pond the rest of the way, 41nm to Gambier. This is an area full of whales but all we saw was whale blows in the distance….pretty disappointed…to be considered a whale sighting for our critter count you have to actually see the body/tail…which we saw none, except a small juvenile when we entered Gambier, but never saw the mom but…..drum roll please!!!! Kathy has her MEDICARE #!!!! She called on our Iridium GO in the middle of Frederick Sound/Stephens Passage…on hold for 30+ min….amazed the GO stay conne
cted….and a woman answers and gives her the #!!!! A quick email/text to our broker friend Matthew and he is submitting her forms for Plan D & G tonight!!!! In the nick of time!!!!
When we were in Gambier Bay in 2019 we always went to Snug Cove…..that is where we witnessed the hunters senselessly killing a grazing Brown bear, skin it and left the white fat covered carcass….yep, still irritates us. This year we are trying the West Basin anchorage….it’s not named so we just call it the West anchorage….maybe we should call it JK’s anchorage:))) Anchor down, dinghy down, crab pots set all by 2:30pm!!!
What a wonderful anchorage, sun all day, warm, gorgeous scenery….Kathy was in Critter heaven…..40-50 eagles, lots of ducks,, many Sitka (black tail) deer and 4 large Brown (Grizzlies) bears. On the north shore it looked like a school of young salmon (fry to yearlings that have not gone to sea yet but have come down the stream to salt water to grow and prepare to leave)….there were lots of jumping fish, 10-15 seals hunting/splashing, 30+ eagles swooping down trying to catch a fish and 1 large Brown bear jumping, plopping, swooping…basically doing anything he could to catch a small fish…..but no joy for the guy….he tried for over an hour….but his reward was more skunk cabbage!!!!
The Plan: Not sure, stay here in West anchorage for Friday and then….not sure, depends on the storm, stay here, go to Snug or even go to Cannery Cove in Pybus…..stay tuned!!!
Critter Stats:
Whales: 23, 12 Killer Orcas, 11 Humpback
– 1 briefly in Frederick Sound outside of Wrangell
– lots of whale blow near Five Finger Islands in Stephens Passage, but no bodies so no official sightings.
– one juvenile Humpback in the middle of Gambier Bay
Bears: 20 (8 Brown, 12 Black)
– 3 Black bear in Farragut Bay
– 4 very large Brown in West Gambier eating grass and trying to catch small salmon with no joy
Wolves: 1 (big male Grey on the mud flat in Klu Bay)
Dungeness Crabs: 29 (5 in Manzanita, 0 Punchbowl, 8 Fitzgibbon, 11 in Yes Bay, limited 1st day, 2 in Klu, 3 in Marguerite, 0 in Santa Anna; 0 in Farragut)
Prawns: 201, 197 Spotted (7 Punchbowl, 36 Fitzgibbon, 50 Shrimp Bay, 56 Marguerite, 48 Santa Anna), 4 Reds, 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
West Basin in Gambier Bay
Position: 57 28’12.26 N, 134 04’48.49 W
Course: Stopped.
Position: 21-05-28 08:47:54 -0800
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=57.47007,-134.0801&q=57.47007,-134.0801&z=16
