August 7, 2009 Red Bluff and Tracy

As this adventure continues to unfold, I seem to write these a bit less often. I hope any of you that might be concerned about our safety are getting the “Spot” messages. I’m sending them each day that we move. I try to send one about noon and again when we shut down for the night. On the rare day that we stay in the same location all day, you probably won’t see one, (that would just put two “thumbtacks” on the map in the same place. I know that doesn’t say “I’m OK” on those days, However, the last mark was usually in a secure anchorage or harbor, so you can assume all is still well.

As I left this chronicle off, I was in Petersburg awaiting Zach’s return on the “slow ferry”. As it turns out, that particular ferry was really slow. Upon hearing that its departure was going to be considerably delayed, Zach decided to fly down from Juneau. He actually arrived a bit earlier than expected on the 27th. However, the ferry he was supposed to take didn’t actually leave Auke Bay until after we got back to Juneau. I cooked up some really excellent, (if I do say so, myselt) crab cakes before we left. I wish I could tell you I caught the crabs, but they were sort of barter payment from a fisherman in the next slip that borrowed movies to watch.

Shortly after Zach got back to Petersburg, early the afternoon of the 27th, we got underway. We stopped to catch about 30 herring by the cannery so we’d have some bait, then made for Portage Bay. We fished in 50-100 feet of water over the shelf that forms the bar at the mouth of Portage Bay, where Zach caught a couple of nice halibut of manageable size. I caught a couple of really ugly rockfish that we let go. We anchored for the evening in Portage Bay and ate 1 of the 4 filets, (halibut are like tuna, you get a 2 nice filets on each side). The rest we put in the freezer.

On the 28th, we fished for a short while as we left Portage Bay, but the tide conditions were different and all we caught was a sculpin, so we moved on up, across Frederick Sound, to Pybus Bay, where we’d left our crab and shrimp pots. We located the crab pot without difficulty. The bait was gone, totally cleaned out, but no crabs. I’m glad we’re not trying to feed ourselves on crab we catch ourselves. We went to where we’d set the shrimp pot, but the tide was running pretty strong, pulling the float under. We stayed, once again, in Cannery Cove.

On the morning of the 29th, with a flat sea and at slack tide, we had no difficulty finding the shrimp pot. Our luck with it was exactly the same as with the crab pot. No bait and no catch. After stowing it aboard, we set course for a new anchorage. We went SW on Frederick Sound, rounding the southern end of Admiralty Island, then turned North on Chatham Strait. Since our intended anchorage was a short day’s trip, we fished a lot along the way. Zach caught several small fish, but we didn’t think they’d be an improvement on the halibut and salmon we already had in the refrigerator, so we let all but the little ones, (bait), go. That evening we anchored in Cosmos Cove on Baranof Island. Nice quiet and secure anchorage with, as usual, a great background of snow capped mountains.

On the 30th, we made the day traveling up the east coast of Baranoff Island. At one point, we saw the spouts of as many as 30 whales at once. The were just feeding along. As we got to the entrance to Tenakee Inlet, we stopped to fish a bit. Zach caught another halibut. I’d harpooned it and we’d left it over the side to bleed out. Unfortunately, I miscalculated how well the harpoon head would hold a dead fish. The harpoon head worked its way through the fish and it sank to the bottom. The crabs got the benefit of that one.

On the 31st, we got up early and made for Auke Bay. Just before we got there, we again encountered a large group of whales engaged in the cooperative feeding activity the locals call “bubble feeding”, that we saw not far from this same location when Sam Floyd, Phyl and Will were aboard. This time, visibility was reduced by the large number of whale watching tour boats, so we went on our way.

On the 1st, Zach caught an early morning flight home. Lat that evening, my daughter, Stephanie, her husband Jason and their boys, James, Jackson and Jonathan joined “ships company”.

On the 2nd, Arcadia 1 set off again with new eyes aboard to see the wonders of Alaska. We had originally planned to leave the next day, but decided late that we’d rather spend the night in Taku harbor to get an early start for Tracy arm on the 3rd. We made a relatively late mooring to the Taku Harbor public float. The transit was marked only by a number of whales at a distance.

On the 3rd, we got up relatively early and made for Tracy Arm. This time, the weather was glorious and we made it right up to as close as I would have hoped to the glacier. Larry Asmus, please note the ALYC burgee, properly displayed, with Sawyer glacier in the background.

We had a wonderful trip up and down Tracy Arm, admiring God’s own sculptures in ice and stone.

We stayed a bit longer than intended, so made a late anchorage, once again, at Snug Harbor in Gambier Bay. There must be a number of forest fires somewhere, there’s a lot of smoke haze in the air. The result was a beautiful red moon that evening. We tried to take pictures of it, but they came out as nothing but an inexplicable orange dot in an otherwise perfectly black background.

On the 4th, we made a relatively early start. Just to get the day started right, Jason caught a nice halibut, his first. Our course was set for Red Bluff Bay, new to us but well recommended by some folks I met in Auke Bay. The transit was across perfectly glassy seas. The smoke, while still present, was much reduced from the day before. Along the way, we diverted for a very close encounter with perhaps 15 large humpbacks.

We shut down the engine and generator, and just sat quietly as they swam toward us, then watched as they fed seemingly unconcerned that we were there. We had whales within 100 yds of us for more than an hour, showing only the broad expanse of their back and their flukes as they fed quietly. We watched one whale make a circle of bubbles right off our stern, then swim up the center of it to feed. It all seemed so effortless to these big old boys. The seas were so flat that at one point a single engine float plane landed about ½ mile from us to watch, too, (This is a large expanse of open water that is normally too rough for them).

We made anchorage in Red Bluff Bay in the early evening. It is, indeed a beautiful place. We deployed the dinghy in preparation for the next day’s explorations, and set the shrimp pot in hopes of better luck.

On the 5th, we made fairly constant dinghy forays, including one with my grandson, James, in which he got to drive the dinghy for the first time.

 There is a nice little trout stream at the head of the bay. I was tempted, but didn’t try my flyfishing techniques, since this is, seriously, big brown bear country. Mostly, we simply enjoyed this, the prettiest place yet. There are huge mountains all around, many small waterfalls and one very large and tall cascade.

On the 6th, (today), we hoisted the anchor and made for the shrimp pot. Ah! Success at last. We had 15 nice shrimp in it this time. We’d put a lot of bait in and much of it was still there. If we could have left it another day, I’m sure we’d have caught even more.

As I write this, we’ve just past Peril Strait, travelling up Chatham Straits.(It’s amazing to me, but we have cell coverage and I may actually get this sent out as we travel). We’re on our way back to Juneau to put Steph, Jason and the boys on their plane home early day after tomorrow. We plan to stay tonight in Tenakee Inlet, since we haven’t found another place from which to get back to Auke Bay tomorrow in time to hope for a decent slip.

So long, for now.