Preparing for Misty Fiord 07.30.2013

Since Misty Fiord has such deep waters Bruce thought it best that we add more line to our anchor line.  We currently have 40' of chain and 180'+ of line.  For a total of 220'.

Today we added 300' feet of line to our anchor.  Now our total is 340'.

 

We should be good for the Misty Fiord now!

Ketchikan Sunday, 07.28.2013

After two nights in Meyers Chuck it’s time to move on to have access to services for the work week.  So off to Ketchikan.

Traveling south down Clarence Strait, cross Behm Canal, and down Tongass Narrows into Ketchikan.

 

Our trip today was just the opposite of our last trip down Clearance Strait.  1’-2’ seas and smooth at the end.  A very pleasant crossing.

 

We should be here in Ketchikan until Tuesday or Wednesday and then hopefully moving on to the Misty Fiord area.

Meyers Chuck 07.27.2013

While we were having coffee & hot chocolate this morning one of the homeowner’s in the bay, named Greg, came out to visit us in his dinghy.  He too had a Stocklind Yard fish boat at one time!  His fish boat was built in 1966 which made it one year older than ours.  It was fun to find someone who had the same boat!

After having a crab scramble for breakfast, we rowed into the dock and gave our dinghy a good bath.  Once that chore was completed we decided to walk on the trail leading out to the point at the end of the harbor.  There are no roads here in Meyer’s Chuck & you can only access the homes located here by boat or by plane.  To get around in the bay there are walking paths from house to house & along the waterfront.

 

 

When we were out at the point we heard someone shouting for help.  We could hear other people in the bay responding and could see across the bay there were a bunch of people heading towards one home that was located right on the water.  We could hear the conversation and it appeared that the gentlemen had a broken ankle.  As Bruce was a volunteer EMT in New Jersey we started walking to the other side of the bay to see if they needed his help.

When we got there, Bruce was able to stabilize the leg and coordinate the neighbors assistance.  The Meyer’s Chuck community has some really great medical supplies which included one of those baskets that you put someone in for medical transport.  Once Ed was strapped into the basket, it took eight men to carry him down the rocks to the shore and get him into a small powerboat.  They took him over to the float plane dock and waited for the plane to come pick him up and transport him to the hospital in Ketchikan.  We heard later in the day that Ed had broken his leg in two places and had to have surgery to place a couple of pins.  It looks like he’ll be in the hospital at least overnight.  I was glad Bruce was able to assist them.

Meyer’s Chuck 07.26.2013

We continued our day by traveling south on Seward Passage, over Ernest Sound, onto the top of Clarence Strait and into Meyer’s Chuck.  This is a small bay located on the Cleveland Peninsula. 

We decided to anchor in the middle of the bay in 60’ of water, well protected from any weather.  It looks like a wonderful place & we can’t wait to walk on shore and visit tomorrow.

BEARS !! at Anan Bay Bear Observatory Friday, 07.26.2013

This morning we left Ryan’s Cove for Anan Bay Bear Observatory.  Because of all the fish in the river there are lots of bears!  This is one of the few places in the world where you can see black bears and brown bears together.  The bears tolerate each other because there are so many salmon.

We started by finding anchorage in the bay close to the US Park Service float cabin.  We were able to flag down the rangers as they were heading into shore and have the discussion about the fact that we only had 1 permit.  The rangers were very nice and said that because we had both made the trip they would let me in!  They did laugh and say, “Please don’t tell anyone that we are nice!  We don’t want everyone thinking that they can just show up!!”.

As we rowed in to the trail head we got to see two separate brown bears on the shore!  Once we arrived at the head of the boardwalk we got a prepared speech from the rangers on bear safety and then headed out on our 1 ½ mile hike out to the waterfalls and the bear observatory.

 

 

We spent about 3 hours at the waterfall and got to see a lot of black bears.  We saw two separate black mother bears with their cubs – one with two cubs and one with a single cub.  We also saw one large brown bear with her two cubs out in the valley on our way back to the trail head.

 

 

Just as we were rounding the last corner of the boardwalk trail, heading back to our dinghy, a big brown bear was coming at us!!  The bear was about 7 feet in front of us.  The brown bear looked as surprised to see us as we were to see him!  He was on all four legs and his shoulders reached Bruce at chest height!  All Bruce really saw was big black eyes looking at him!  Looking over the bear’s shoulder we could see the Park Ranger hand signaling us to STOP.  So we waited a moment to see what the bear would do & then waved our arms and yelled at the bear (like you would your dog) to go up the hill side – and low & behold he did! LOL!

 

While we were at the waterfalls viewing bears – there was a large brown bear visiting our dinghy!  He thought the inner tube on our dinghy was something to play with!  We’re sure glad he did not puncture the inner tube while bouncing up and down!  The bear also climbed into our dinghy and pulled out our life jackets and took one of my rain boots!  Lucky for us the park ranger chased him away and got him to drop my boot.  Boy was our dinghy full of mud and needed a serious bath!

We decided that we would have lunch on the back deck before we continued onto Meyer’s Chuck for the evening.  While enjoying our lunch we were able to watch a brown bear walking along the shore. 

All in all a very cool way to send the day!

Ryan’s Cove, Etolin Island 07.25.2013

After working most of the morning we took a lunch break and decided to enjoy our lunch on the back deck while there was a sun break – a rare treat the past few days!

This time we decided to head south from Wrangell down Zimovia Strait.  Plan “A” today was Frosty Bay which is close to the Anan Bay Bear Observatory.  On the way we spotted a “no named” bay.  Unable to find any written material about this bight, we relied on the charts which indicated it might have a couple of nice spots to drop the hook.  We are in the SW corner in 40’ of water.  Quiet and NO BUGS – another pleasant break!  So in fun we have decided to call this bay "Ryan Cove".

Just before bed, we had two tender boats pull into the head of our bight and there are now 2 seiners off loading their catch to the tenders.  Hopefully this bay will still be a quiet anchoring spot!  We’ll see!

Well our quiet little bight was full of activity throughout the night.  At one time I counted 14 seiners waiting to off load their catch to the tenders!  And each seiner had it’s lights on – so the bay was lit up like it was daylight!

 

As we were anchored very close to the head of the bay in shallow water – compared to what the seiners would anchor in – it was ok where we were anchored.  A little NE in the bay we did have a seiner anchor up while he was waiting to off load and he had numerous other seiners come visit his anchorage throughout the night.  In the morning when we got up, the seiner had two other commercial boats rafted up on either side of him.

 

 

 

 

 

But all-in-all, with so much commercial traffic in the bay it still was a nice spot to anchor.

 

Wrangell, AK 07.22-07/24/2013

Originally we planned to leave Wrangell on Tuesday morning, however, Tuesday morning while working we took a break and tried to get a permit to the Anan Bear Observatory to see the bears in the river.  This is the place we stopped by on June 14^th but didn’t get to see any bears as the salmon were not in the rivers yet.  Between July 5^th and August 30^th the US Park Service requires a permit to see the bears ($10 each).  So at promptly 8:00am AK time we were each at our computers trying to get a permit.  We were successful in getting 1 permit (no, not 2 – just 1!) for Friday 07.26.2013.  So our plans have changed and we will be staying in Wrangell until Thursday 07.25.2013.

Getting a bear permit is like having the “Golden Ticket” from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!  There are only 60 permits issued each day.  30 of these permits go to the tour/cruise operators, 18 permits are issued in advance by computer reservation, and the last 12 permits are issued 3 days in advance for last minute visitors.  You are competing for these permits with people all over the world, as well as, tour/cruise operators who have their staff sitting at their computers pretending to be private visitors!  It’s crazy competitive!

When we tried to get 2 permits we kept getting a response of try again with a smaller party – so Bruce put in for 1 permit and got one!  It was kind of a weird feeling – we should have been excited to get a permit but with only 1 permit it was kind of a let down.  So we walked up to the Park Ranger Station and tried to get a 2^nd permit from Ranger Jeff – but he said – “Oh, YOU are the one who got the permit for Friday!  I was trying to get a permit myself and was unable to!!”  He explained what a really big deal it was to get even 1 permit and we could go out to the Observatory on Friday morning and hope that someone was unable to show up that morning (so that I could get in) – but that would be rare.  Anyway, that is the plan.  We will go out on Friday morning with our fingers crossed.  Worse case, Bruce will use the permit and see the bears at the waterfall and Ronnie will stay with the boat and hope to see bears on the shore.

While staying in Wrangell we were able to take in Bear Fest.  This is a town celebration of everything bear. 

We went to a few classes on photography, took in the local museum, visited totem park
 

 

and were able to go to a salmon dinner on Shakes Island and see the native dancers there.

We also got to catch-up with some of the fishermen we met last time we were in Wrangell.

 

Wrangell, Alaska Monday 07.22.2013

Over the weekend we caught up with the usual items you take care of while in port, laundry, groceries, "house cleaning" (that doesn't take very long on the boat). 

While in Petersburg Bruce went to an boat electronics store and found a "heading sensor" for the Furuno VX2 system that we have, the PG-500 model sensor and was able to purchases it at a fair discount.  He spent time installing the unit then we went out in the bay and circled the boat three times in "2 minutes circles" to calibrate it.  Lo and behold it worked!  Now we can overlay the radar onto the chart plotter rather than have them as two separate pages side by side on the screen and the magnetic heading of the boat will always show in the upper right hand corner of the page.  Pretty cool!! (from the captains point of view).

We visited the local Clan Long House on Shake Island, a beautiful building just dedicated a few years ago.

 

 

 

Our plans are to leave tomorrow and continue south to Ketchikan, weather permitting arriving next Sunday evening.  The next blog update will be approximately a week away.