Rudyerd Bay, Punchbowl Cove, Upper & Lower Arms, Misty Fiord 08.06.2013

Having motored so long yesterday, Bruce was hoping for a short day today.  Alas that was not to be. 

By the time we spent all day going through Rudyerd Bay in Misty Fiords National Monument Wilderness it was already quite late. 

Rudyerd Bay is about 11 miles long and one of the main attractions in Misty Fiord. 

 

Punchbowl Cove is an arm in Rudyerd Bay and got its name because of its precipitous sides!  

 

We were blessed to have the weather clear up by early afternoon so we got an amazing tour through this fiord!  I found myself running from side to side on the boat trying to take in all the sites at one time.  I took our son-in-law Nick’s advice to heart and took over 700 photos of the fiords alone!  I love digital cameras!

 

 

 

We had to share the space with so many cruise ship excursion boats and float planes that we lost count!  The high granite cliffs made the float planes look like mosquitoes!

 

At lunchtime we anchored in the lower arm in about 10’ of water with a muddy bottom.  Since we were only going to be there for lunch we could stay, at low tide this area is dry.

 

So we sat in the bay on the back deck in the sun and cooked our “popcorn” shrimp & crab for lunch.  Popcorn is an appropriate name for this shrimp.  Each one was about bite size.  To have a real dinner of these shrimp you would have to have about 700 or so and several hours to clean them! LOL!           

I think next time we catch this type of shrimp we’re going to let them go free!  Next time we’re hoping for spot prawns!

We thought we might be able to anchor in Punchbowl Cove for the evening but there was a mega yacht from Queens Land South Africa anchored and they had multiple jet boats and ski-dos zipping around the bay making all kinds of noise.  There were also about 8 other boats in the bay so it was very busy.  Not really how we wanted to end our wonderful day.

Our plan “A” site was Shoalwater Pass which is south of Rudyerd Bay on the east side of Behm Canal, it separates Winstanley Island from the mainland.  You enter Shoalwater Pass from the north via Slag Point over an 8 foot bar.  You pass through the narrows here during high water due to the shallow depths.  We anchored in the northwest corner of the bay around the backside of a small island in front of a US Forest Service cabin.

 

There was a buoy in the bay but because the anchorage was only 50’ we left the buoy for another boat to use.  Around 7:00pm AK time a very small motor boat – around 19’ with 4 gas cans bungee corded on the bow putted into the bay and tied onto the buoy.  There were 3 big guys in this tiny tiny boat!  I don’t know where they all slept! LOL!