Our visitor from Boston! Friday, 07.19.2013

Today we went to the Wrangell airport to pick up our friend Rose who flew out from Boston to visit for the day!  Rose and I went to high school together on Long Island NY and have kept in touch since then. 

 

We spent a really nice day together.  Strolled through town to the beach at the north end where there are petroglyphs dating back thousands of years. 

Then came back to the boat and hung out on the back deck until Rose had to catch a taxi back to the airport.

 

We spent a quiet evening on the boat in preparation for projects and chores over the weekend.

Wrangell, Wrangell Island 07.18.2013

Wrangell is 89 miles north of Ketchikan and 148 miles south of Juneau. 

After a quiet morning in Woodpecker cove we raised anchor and motored into Wrangell where  we were able to tie up to the dock in the same spot as we did on 06/15/2013 when we were here last!  Don from Pacific Storm is across the dock from us again – it’s nice to see him.  This week the gill netters fish from Sunday noon 07/21/2013 until Thursday 07/25/2013 noon.  So the harbor is full of gill netters and seiners getting ready to fish. 

The weather has changed a little – to partly cloudy and mid-60’s.  And we expect some chances of rain.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the sun will be back before too long. 

After settling in we headed up to the library to use their internet and were introduced to the HS Math teacher by the librarian.  We  are trying to calculate just how much fuel our new diesel tanks hold and also how much fuel we actually have left in the tanks today.  The tanks were built to fit into the side of the boat on either side of the engine – so there are several different angles which complicates the math.  They have "sight glasses" so we can see the level of the fuel in each tank, but I'm not sure how many gallons that is.  We were thinking a high school or college student would be able to help us with the math.  We had calculated what we thought was right but wanted to confirm that our math was right.  You know how it is - - if you don’t use the math equations over time you forget them! LOL!   

The math teacher was very nice and enjoyed the challenge!  The tanks hold 125 gallons each and we had about 40 gallons of fuel left when we arrived this afternoon.  Definitely we will need more fuel to make it to Ketchikan!  

The math teacher also invited us to come out to his summer camping site to join him and his friends for a Friday night potluck.  If we can figure a way to get out there we just might take him up on the invitation

Woodpecker Cove, Mitkof Island 07.17.2013

After spending a few days in Petersburg it's time to continue south.  This morning we headed into the Fish Net Café for breakfast.   

Catching the end of the flood and start of the ebb we headed south through Wrangell Narrows.  Traveling the Narrows was a bit harrowing because of commercial boat traffic.  The Coast Guard had their maintenance ship working on several channel markers, we had both a north AND a south bound Alaskan Ferry, as well as, a small charter boats all transiting the narrows with us during the narrowest spots in the crossing.  Fortunately there was just enough depth for us to pull out of the narrows and wait for the commercial traffic to pass, then get back on track.

 

After going through the Wrangell Narrows we stopped at Deception Point to see if Bruce could catch a halibut and to have lunch on the back deck.  The halibut are still elusive (darnit!), but we did enjoy our lunch in the sunshine! 

Heading east through Sumner Strait we stopped at Woodpecker Cove to anchor out for the evening.  This cove is about 24 miles away from Petersburg and 14 miles from Wrangell.  Ronnie was the operating “Captain” and Bruce was “Crew” as we set the hook in 50’ of water. 

 

We met two gentlemen who were camping on shore next to the boat ramp, they are visiting from Pennsylvania.  When we told them we planned to drop our crab pot in the cove they said to go ahead and pull their crab pot and take what we want because they had caught so many crab already they were getting tired of them!  So we did!  Pulling their pot we found they had 12 keepers, we choose two and dropped their pot back in the water.  I cleaned and cooked the crab on the back deck of Second Chance.  It was a perfect day and nice to be back out traveling.

F/V Time Bandit in Petersburg!!

While Bruce was visiting the Harbormasters Office he noticed on the camera feed that F/V Time Bandit from Dutch Harbor was here in the Petersburg Harbor!

For those of you that may not be familiar with this vessel, there is a reality TV show called “Deadliest Catch” that Bruce loves to watch and Time Bandit is one of the fish boats that is featured catching crab!!

Bruce was able to visit with Eddie at the Time Bandit.

 

Eddie and his crew were all super nice and spent quite a bit of time visiting with Bruce & I.  It was a lot of fun and it made Bruce's day!  LOL!

Return to Petersburg, AK Sunday 07.14.2013

We have been working our way to return to Petersburg to spend a few days getting provisions and using the internet service.

We pulled anchor at Portage Bay at 9:30am AK time for the 20 mile run to our home for the next few days. 

 

The seals are still enjoying the sun on the mid-channel marker!

As we came into the harbor we were surprised to see Ron & Lynn from Contessa just leaving!

 

 

Apparently they had an engine issue that kept them in Petersburg an extra day. 

Their fuel filter had worked its way loose, let air into the engine, which caused the engine to quit running.  After they were towed in by a fish boat they were able to bleed the air out of the line and begin their journey again.

 

One thing we noticed right away – most of the fish boats are out fishing so the Petersburg Harbors seem so empty!

 

vs. last time we visited Petersburg!

 

 

 

We were able to do some chores so we will be ready to work first thing tomorrow morning.

Had a salmon BBQ on the back deck while we enjoyed the sun.

A very nice evening!

Portage Bay,Kupreanof Island 07.13.2013

Portage Bay is on the north side of Kupreanof Island and 17 miles northwest of Petersburg.  The entrance is very narrow, has a depth of 21’ and is constricted by shoals to a width of 150 yards.  Sticking to a mid-channel course we made our way into the bay and anchored just off of East Point in 45’ of water.

 

There were three other boats anchored in the bay. 

 

We rowed our dinghy into a dock used by a sawmill that is located at the head of the bay.  We walked on the gavel road but didn’t see anyone.  We did see bear droppings but thankfully no bear.

We again were able to eat our dinner on the back deck and enjoy the sunshine. 

 

I’m starting to get used to seeing the sun again!

Fishing and Otters in Frederick Sound 07.14.2013

When we were coming into Kake, Bruce found a spot on his fish finder that he wanted to stop and see if he could catch a halibut.  He saw two separate charter fishing boats fishing on this spot yesterday.   So this morning we started the morning back tracking about an hour outside of Kake on Frederick Sound.    

On the way out we ran into tons of otters!

 

 

After leaving the otters behind we arrived at Bruce’s fishing spot and stopped the motor so he could fish.  The halibut are still elusive but Bruce did catch a Coho salmon – enough for two meals.

 

 

Continuing on our way down Frederick Sound heading to Portage Bay for the night we had a humpback whale pop up out of the water about 5’ away from the bow of our boat!  We were going about 8 knots!  I was down below doing dishes when Bruce started yelling to hurry and come up top.  Bruce showed me where he had seen the whale and just then the whale came back up about another 5’ away from the stern of the boat and dived down - showing us his tail which was bigger than the stern of the boat!  The whale was huge! 

It all happened so fast!  Really makes you feel small and insignificant!