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.

July 26, 2009 Tracy Arm

As I left off the last update, on the 18th, my brother, Paul, had just left and my son Zach and daughter-in-law, Stephanie were on the way.


On the 19th, under cloudy skies and a bit of rain, we left Auke Bay for some fishing along the west coast of Douglas Island. We fished along right where Paul and I caught several king salmon the day before, but had no such luck this time. Puttered along in likely spots at 2 kts on the wing engine, (we can’t go quite slow enough to troll for salmon on the main engine), We did see several whales and some orca, at great distances, to Stephanie’s delight. We finished the day relatively early at Taku Horbor and I cooked up some of the salmon that Paul caught the day before. As usual, it was a big hit.

On the 20th, we made directly for Tracy Arm. It was foggy as we crossed the bar, but visibility improved after we got to the “elbow”. For most of the way, there was somewhat fewer “bergy bits”, but more substantive icebergs than last time.

This time we got almost to the glacier face before the icebergs and bergy bits got dense enough that I thought it was prudent to make our way out of there. We followed a mid-size cruise ship after it passed us at the “elbow”. As you can see, it kept going when I gave up. I wasn’t worried about the hull being damaged, but even the small pieces of ice are hard and sharp enough to do damage to the paint. We could see the glacier pretty well at that point and fog was beginning to form behind us.

Even so, for part of the passage back to the bar, Zach was bundled up in the bow, peering through the fog, and I was watching the FLIR for black things on the screen, (ice shows up black). We did make it out without incident, but it was later than I’d planned by the time we reached Stephens Passage and turned south. We made a late anchorage in Gambier Bay.

On the 21st, we left Gambier Bay for the next good anchorage to the South, Pybus Bay. (That’s where I had intended to stay the night before). On the way in, we fished a while for halibut, (no luck), trolled for salmon, (Zach got one undersized king), and set the crab and shrimp pots, (using some really foul bait that we’d collected).

The view where we anchored was spectacular, rain and fog notwithstanding. We saw another humpback lazing around just before we anchored.

On the 22nd, the weather turned even windier, wetter and colder. The weather report called for worsening conditions for the next couple of days, with the next good weather not due until next weekend. As we left Pybus Bay, headed South, we were facing 25-30 knot winds, (true), over the bow. Zach and I set the paravanes, so the ride was actually pretty good. Nonetheless, I haven’t had anyone get seasick, so far, so I decided to push on to Petersburg, rather than go all the way back to Juneau. Staying where we were would have been another option, except that Stephanie’s flight home is on Saturday and both Thursday and Friday promised even worse weather. By the time we got to Petersburg, we were glad to be in a quiet harbor, although no one was seasick.

On the 23rd, we lazed around Petersburg, seeing the sights on foot. I talked to my kind of mechanic about the fact that I’m dripping out of the rear seal on the transmission. The oil quantity isn’t very much, (it just leaks down to the level of the seal and stops), but it’s making a real mess of the bilge. Fixing the seal means pulling the transmission. His advice, after learning that we rarely run at full throttle, was to put less oil in. I’m going to try that for a while. In the meantime, I built a diaper under the seal to divert the leakage into the pan under the engine, rather than the bilge. That way, I can catch it and dispose of it in waste oil tanks that all the harbors here seem to have.

On the 24th, Zach and Stephanie caught the fast ferry back to Juneau so Stephanie can catch her flight early Saturday morning. Zach’s going to take the slow ferry back, through Sitka for a 24 hour boat ride that should bring him back to Petersburg on Monday.

On the 25th while doing laundry, I met a nice couple from New Zealand and invited them to dinner. Nice dinner, decent wine and good conversation. Overall, a pretty nice day.

The 26th, I did a bit of reading and several small “to-dos”. The boat’s ready to go when Zach gets back tomorrow. First thing, we’ll go back to Pybus Bay to pick up the crab and shrimp pots. After that . . .?

July 18, 2009 Petersburg to Tracy Arm

I just bought a new position/condition reporting device that enables me to report Arcadia1’s position on a Google Earth shared website via satellite. It’s a pretty neat little device called “Spot”, you can check it out at findmespot.com.

You should be able to look at “tacks” in the map as I move around by selecting this web address: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0E5ilbEqkJDipgqG8ctzZlWJqEgXqesdZ I’ll try to send a position report each noon and each evening that we travel. Right now, the map should show you that we’re OK and located at Auke Bay, just North of Juneau.

To quickly update all:

On the 16th, Paul and I left Petersburg mid-morning. We sorta dawdled around, trolling a bit and sightseeing a lot more. By about 5 pm, we were across Stephens Passage from Holkham Bay. I had heard that there were too many bergy bits floating around to attempt crossing the bar into Tracy Arm, but we thought we’d look for ourselves. When we got there, there were about a half-dozen boats anchored at a little bay just inside the bar and, while there was quite a lot of ice floating around, it wasn’t difficult to dodge among them. We crossed the bar and went up to the “elbow”, where Tracy Arm turns sharply to the East. By that time, there was only the occasional bergy bit. We could have kept going, but we didn’t want to have to come back down in the dark. (We do have FLIR, Forward Looking InfraRed, that makes ice look very visible in the dark, but I thought we should wait for another day. We’ll probably do that next week, while Zach and Stephanie are here.

We made a late mooring in Taku Harbor, (the first time, so far that we’ve anchored in the same place twice), so we could troll our way by Point Hilda on the way back to Auke Bay marina.

On the 17th, we caught 5 king salmon. Three of them were somewhat less than the requisite 28” length. The first was at the mouth of Taku Inlet. The other four were exactly where we caught the 33” one a few days earlier, (between Hilda Point and Middle Point on Douglas Island). We’re pretty sure we could have filled the boat with them, but we had plenty so we went on to Auke Bay.

On the 18th, Paul caught his 6:15 am flight home. (His picture, above). I did laundry and shopping. Tonight, at 9:49 pm, my son Zach and his wife Stephanie will arrive and we’ll continue the adventure with some new eyes to behold God’s creation with me.

July 14, 2009 Stevens Passage and Gambier

The wonders of Southeast Alaska continue to amaze us!

My brother, Paul, joined ships company on the 8th of July. Phyl & Will, Sam Floyd, Paul and I spent the remainder of the 8th re-provisioning and fixing a couple of little things. Knowing we had to be back in Juneau by 3 pm on the 10th, (To meet Al Locey, Sam’s long time friend and Alaska fishing buddy), but unwilling to simply lay about in Auke Bay, we decided to make a short overnight trip. On the 9th, we took off for Taku harbor, just South of Juneau. Since we were in Auke Bay, that meant going around Douglas Island.

At about 10:30 we noticed whale spouts in fair number and diverted our course to get a better look. There were something like a dozen humpbacks moving around in one area. For a while, we just watched them doing all the things you probably have seen on TV, most of which we didn’t get a picture of.

At one point, the whales all essentially disappeared for a while and we moved back on our original course. As it turned out, that put us in position to observe all the whales working together in a cooperative feeding effort. Apparently, they use a ring of air bubbles to concentrate plankton, then all close in together. It was truly amazing to see a dozen humpbacks all break the surface together in a tight circle to feed. The picture below, (cropped and zoomed), doesn’t really do justice to the sight.

After we left the whales, (or they left us), we put the trolling gear out. It wasn’t long before Paul brought a nice king salmon aboard.

Shortly after that, lest the wonder of the day wear off, we were entertained by a small pod of Orcas for a while. One cow and calf stayed with us for quite a while, just rolling around seemingly as interested in us as we were in them.

We ended the day, as planned, in Taku Harbor. We tied up, all alone once again, to a public float in a beautiful little cove. Paul, Will and Sam soon caught a mess of small flounder for another wonderful dinner.

On the 10th, we returned to Juneau, although we chose not to go to Auke Bay this time. Instead, we got a guest slip in Harris Harbor, right downtown, so we could avoid the long trip around Douglas Island when we leave for Petersburg on the 12th.

On the afternoon of the 10th, Al Locey joined our little group. As that more than filled the boat, Phyl and I went ashore to a motel, leaving Will with Grandpa Paul, Sam and Al.

On the 11th, Paul and I sent everyone ashore so we could take up the floorboards in the salon for better access to the engineroom while we changed the oil in all three engines, replacing all the oil and primary fuel filters, as well. Phyl got the laundry done and Al and Sam went to see the world famous Red Dog Saloon and other wonders of Juneau only seen by about 5,000 cruise ship passengers every day in the summer.

The afternoon of the 12th, Phyl and Will caught a flight back to California and Paul, Sam, Al and I started South for Petersburg. We anchored that night in Snug Harbor inside Gambier Bay. Once again, stunningly beautiful location. There were other boats in other coves in Gambier Bay, including “Time for Us”, (a megayacht that we’d seen in Auke Bay), but we had our own cove all to ourselves without sight or sound of anyone else.

On the 13th, we motored along at a stately 7.5 knots on a gorgeous, warm and nearly still day down the rest of Stephens Passage to Frederick Sound, then into the North end of Wrangell narrows to Petersburg, (the picture of Al, Sam and I below is underway that afternoon).

At the end of a glorious day, we tied up at a guest slip in a picturesque marina in Petersburg. You know, by the sights and smells that this in a fisherman’s town. Sam and Al stayed the night at their friends’ home, George and Nancy. Paul and I shared dinner there, then returned to the boat for the night

On the 14th, (today), we went fishing on George and Nancy’s boat in Wrangell Narrows. Paul and I each caught a small, (by Alaska standards), halibut which we vacuum packed for later consumption. The new Cabela’s vacuum food saver works really well. Paul and I had dinner with George, Nancy, Sam and Al, then bid them all farewell. We’ll be off again tomorrow morning, although as I write this, I don’t know exactly where we’ll go. The next commitment is to be back in Juneau by the afternoon of the 18th. Paul will head back to California. My son, Zach, and his new wife, Stephanie, will arrive on the same plane he’ll leave on. We’ll continue the adventure from there.

July 6th, 2009 Auke Bay and Tenakee

We’re on our way back to Juneau as I write this. We got a late start this afternoon, (more about that later), so we won’t get to Auke Bay Marina until the wee hours of July 6.

We, (Sam Floyd, Phyllis, Will and I), left there on the afternoon of the 2nd, planning to return to Juneau for the fireworks at Midnite of the 3rd. We motored about 5 hours South, down Chatham Strait to Tenakee Inlet, up that inlet to Saltery Cove, as recommended by someone we met in the Marina. Without that recommendation, just looking at the charts, it probably wouldn’t have occurred to us to give it a second look. Anyway, we got in there by 9:30 pm, and found it to be one of those truly beautiful places that we know are all over SE Alaska, but are just learning to find. The cove was about 1 ½ miles long by ½ mile wide. Totally sheltered with good holding sand/mud bottom and, most important, totally uninhabited by all but a few bears. On the 3rd, we thought about going back to Juneau for about 5 minutes, then decided to stay for a couple more days.

On the afternoon of the 3rd, we did leave our little cove for a couple of hours to try our hand at salmon fishing. The reason it was only a couple of hours, is that it only took that long to catch dinner. (Downriggers at ~100ft, running 2 kts on the Yanmar wing engine, with a flasher and a hootchie). We wanted to get this one cleaned and in the oven without delay. It made a bountiful, wonderful, dinner! As you can see, Willy wasn't so sure. The head tail and entrails went into the crab trap, and although clearly picked over, the pot came up empty.

The 4th, we just exercised our dinghy around the cove. There was a pretty interesting trout stream feeding it and we went quite a ways up it, until the dinghy outboard began dragging its skeg. Beautiful scenery, but none of us wanted to find out if the mosqutios and noseeums were as bad as expected to try flyfishing. Maybe later. Frankly, we just wanted to take the day off and enjoy, which we did.

The 5th, today, we are nearly out of good coffeemaking water, (we'd chlorinated the freshwater tanks before we left and it tasted awful), the dinghy is nearly out of gas and there is some sort of cross between a horsefly and a bee that has found us in considerable number, (later learned to be blackflys). Accordingly, we thought we’d leave for Juneau in the early afternoon after cleaning up a couple of projects Phyl and I had started.

About 3, we weighed the anchor and in a remarkable example of maladroit seamanship, promptly fouled the prop with the dinghy tow line. (We’re towing it because we’ve got some minor rigging changes to make to enable us to get it aboard gracefully). I had optimistically set it up on a long bridle, planning to weigh the anchor and move out smartly forward. Unfortunately, tide and current conspired to require me to back away from the shoals and . . . I quickly wished I’d tied the dinghy up short until we were really underway.

The good news is that my brother Paul had donated an oil-less air compressor and a wet suit, (way too tight for this fat man, by the way). We’d bought all the rest of the parts for a hookah diving rig and had it all aboard, although it had never been assembled and tested. Hooray! It worked like a charm. I wore the “farmer john” bottom half of the wet suit, fins and a helmet and over the side I went. (water cold, but not as bad as I’d feared). If I’d had to free dive it, it would have taken many,many, trips down to unsnarl the mess. As it was, it took an hour to put the hookah rig together, (and for Phyl to help me squeeze into the suit). It took only about 5 minutes to cut away and unwind the poly rope. No damage done, otherwise. Thanks, Paul!!!

Tonight, we’re motoring along in a calm sea, with a gorgeous full moon on our stern and a huge cruise ship ahead of us.

We’re feeling pretty blessed.

July 2, 2009 Skagway to Juneau

This is the first of what I intend to be regular updates on our travels on our little ship, Arcadia 1. I promise! I will remember to take pictures and attach some as we go along.

The purchase of Arcadia 1 was completed, on schedule on 20Jun09. Last Monday, 22Jun09, I picked up Sam Floyd at LAX, with my Land Cruiser loaded to the gills with tools, fishing gear, clothes and 2 months supply of Nutrisystem grub. (A great way to provision a boat, by the way). We made it to Shasta City, just short of the Oregon border that night. On Tuesday, we stopped to see Phyllis’ brother and sister-in-law in Omak, Wa. On Wednesday, (after a long checkout by Canadian border folks, who couldn’t believe that we really didn’t have any guns on board), we drove on to Prince George, BC. On Thursday, we took the road less travelled up and joined the Alaska Highway just West of Watson Lake. On Friday, we got to Whitehorse, where our new friend and the seller of Arcadia 1 had a turnover party at his home that went on until dark. (It never got dark, by the way. At 1:30 am, we were fumbling around in dim light). On Saturday, we finally got aboard in Skagway.

We found the boat cleaned up and empty of all the “stuff”, it takes to live aboard. (As we had asked for it to be). Sam and I spent the day checking her out and buying enough paper plates and stuff to get us to Juneau. That evening, we went to the ferry terminal and imposed upon 4 perfect strangers, (They're now friends. You've gotta love Alaska), to drive the Land Cruiser onto the ferry on Sunday morning and park it in Juneau.

Sunday, after a short handling checkout with Dean in Skagway harbor, Sam and I left for Juneau on our own. The trip was uneventful, although the Lynn Canal provided, once again, 25-30 knot, (true, not apparent), winds right on our bow. It got pretty choppy, which gave us some salt water on the windshield, but since it was right in our teeth we didn’t need the paravane stabilizers for roll.

Monday, Phyllis and Willy flew into Juneau to join Sam and I on the boat. We spent part of that day and all day Tuesday and Wednesday buying bedding, kitchen stuff, crab and shrimp pots and doing a bunch of little projects on the boat. Tomorrow, we plan to take our first jaunt to see if we can’t catch a king salmon or pick up some crabs or shrimp. The planned destination is Tenakee, about 8 hours away, which has been recommended to us a great place for such endeavor. We plan to anchor in one of two or three nearby coves that people have told us about. The plan is to be back on th 3rd, so we won’t miss the fireworks (at 12:01 am on the 4th).

Future plans now committed:

My brother Paul will arrive on the 8th.

Sam’s Friend, Al Locy will arrive on the 10th.

Phyl and Will will return to CA on the 12th. The rest of us will leave for Petersburg then.

Paul and I will leave Petersburg in time for Paul’s flight home on the 18th. Sam and Al will stay in Petersburg and return home from there.

Son Zach and bride, Stephanie arrive about an hour before Paul leaves on the 18th. They plan to stay until the end of July.

Right now, I don’t know of anything that demands my return to the lower 48, (haven’t read all my email, yet), although I could do so anytime after the 18th. The cell phone works well in Juneau. It didn’t work in Skagway, and I don’t know, yet, about the other towns we’ll stop in or pass by.