Thu Jun 23 2022
This morning we popped out like a piece of toast, albeit at around 0600 which is a bit late for us. As neither of us don’t function properly without at least our first cup of coffee, we followed our usual morning ritual before Isabel announced it was tie to don our togs and fetch the crab traps. That we did, and then we motored out to find each trap, dinghy motor sputtering and gasping for breath along the way. The first trap yielded nada, but the second had a small one and a male of legal size. As a reminder, females are off limits because their dads (and the state) will kick your ass if you mess with them. The males can be kept if their shells measure 6.5” across. That’s not from the little pokey tips on their sides but the solid shell bits. A little hard to describe here, but easy to understand when there’s a disgruntled crab in hand. Obviously in the interest of conservation females should be allowed to live and crank out as many crab babies as possible. Perhaps nobody has ever asked them if they feel exploited by that concept or maybe disenfranchised. Who knows? Why wouldn’t they have the same hopes and dreams as their male counterparts, to provide delight to our pallets in a fine crab dinner?
A few weeks ago the dinghy was running fine but had a problem with the accelerator pump, so I put Sea Foam in the fuel and it seemed to clear out the crude in the carburetor and all was well. Now it’s decided to run poorly and about the last thing we need is to be stranded out in a bay or find ourselves drifting out to one of the larger bodies of water. Paddling that darn thing wouldn’t be easy or efficient and the tidal currents would easily overcome our efforts. Hopefully it’s just a little water that’s gotten into the fuel so that’s now at the top of the “do” list.
We departed Appleton Cove around 0815 for Tenakee Springs, and while underway I left Isabel on the fly bridge to conduct an engine room inspection. I finally identified the source of a small salt water cooling loop leak as well, a drip at a rubber elbow coupling at the turbocharger after cooler. Should be easy to sort out, but in case the elbow gets damaged I better wait until we’re in Juneau where new parts can be sourced. For now, replacing and tightening the hose clamp will have to do. A small drip at the “dripless” shaft seal on the port engine has also developed and I’ll attack that at the same time. Another loose hose clamp no doubt. At least the salt water cooling loop is a low pressure system.
It’s a lot different running this boat than our sailboat JollyDogs. When we were underway on JollyDogs we had a loose watch schedule during the day and firmly established duty hours at night. On Sunset we don’t move at night because of the risk of collision with floating debris or even whales, and while underway during the day the scenery is magnificent and the chance of a whale or other creature sighting are high, so we both hang out in the fly bridge as we chug along. We generally run with the autopilot unless frequent maneuvering is required, so we’re left looking for debris in the water that we might need to avoid, and sea creatures or bears along the shoreline. Bald eagles occasionally make a close pass, and we recently had a near miss with one crossing our path just a few meters in front of us. She didn’t look at all worried about us causing her problems, matter of fact she looked like she’d kick our butts if we ran into her.
The chug from Appleton Cove up to Tenakee Springs was pleasant with flat water and a very light breeze. Upon closing on the small marina we hailed the harbor master on VHF Ch. 16 to request pontoon space for the night. Our pal Frank on Mae Marie responded to let us know he’d arranged for space for us and his pal Eric met us at the dock, handling our lines expertly. Good thing too, as the space we had to squeeze Sunset into offered only around 2 feet of clearance on the bow and stern. I think there was a squeaking sound as we settled into the space on a starboard tie. As usual, Isabel was magnificent on the wireless headset intercom system - something referred to as a “marriage saver” by cruisers. Nice to be able to whisper rather than shout, and she can keep me up to speed on how many feet the stern is from the pontoon or another boat, when she’s stepping off to secure the stern line, and when it’s made fast so I can react against it.Monday 20 Jun to Wednesday 22 Jun 22 - Tenakee Springs
Tenakee Springs was perhaps the most interesting Alaskan village we’ve visited yet. On the South side of Chichagof Island about 15 miles up and on the North side of Tenakee Inlet, the village has a population of around 60 year-round residents and a little more than double that in the Summer. To me it felt a bit like a countryside English village. There was a post office, a small but incredibly well stocked grocery store, a diesel generator plant and power distribution system for electrical power, and a nice little marina. The Alaskan Maritime Highway System ferries stop here so the state has built a big dock system for unloading cargo, vehicles and people. There’s a seaplane float and an elevated helipad near the ferry dock. The houses are all grouped along the shore for perhaps a mile and a bit, some on piles by the water’s edge, others on the hillside. A gravel single lane road extends from the marina along the waterfront, with waterfront homes on one side and the hillside homes on the other. We walked along the road until it narrowed down to a wide single track, but there were still dwellings out in the boonies.
There’s geothermal energy here, and some homes are built with natural hot springs water heating systems, plumbing built into the floor. There are homes with solar panels and perhaps storage batteries to supplement the local power grid. Some homes have wells and others get their water from a couple of streams way uphill. Apparently the well water has high levels of some rather unsavory minerals. I learned interesting details from a local fellow during a soak, and he noted that he used the stream water then ran it through a reverse osmosis system for purification, then had a device to insert adequate amounts of trace minerals. Apparently before he added the device he was having cramping problems. I thought back to all the RO water we produced on JollyDogs over the years and the occasional leg cramps that interrupted my sleep. Perhaps the cause?
The actual hot spring soaking facility is in the middle of the village near the ferry terminal, a small building that includes a large changing room and a separate stone walled room that has the soaking pool area, a rectangular stone and concrete well that’s maybe 5’ x 12’. The rules are that prior to entering the pool one must shower and wash with soap, and on the side where the hot water spills out of the pool there’s an area with a cold water hose and attached sprinkler head like one might water plants with. There are also a few large plastic containers, former detergent jugs that have been cut out so make giant scoops, so one can scoop hot water from the pool for bathing then once rinsed off enter the pool for a nice long soak. We found the pool water temperature wonderful for about a 30 minute soak.
Many of the homes in the village were constructed by a cannery operation, generally without any bath plumbing. The hot spring facility served as the local bathhouse for many over the years and still does for some. There are hours for men and for women, so Isabel and I couldn’t enjoy a soak together. We were puzzled about that aspect but along with serving as a bathhouse Isabel learned from a local woman that it’s also a social center where the two genders exchange information, i.e. gossip, that they might not want to share with their spouses or other opposite gender individuals. Oh, and another detail of interest is that no clothing of any sort is allowed in the soaking room. That might be another reason to segregate the sexes.
We met and interacted with some really interesting people at Tenakee Springs. Learning their stories about how they ended up there and why the like it so much was a lot of fun and quite inspirational. There is an enormous sense of community among the residents, evidenced in part by a small community kitchen / restaurant building where one can cook a meal to share. There are snack items there that one can take and leave a donation, and there is free wifi available there. Folks will come in and create a meal or treat and leave it out for anyone to consume and hopefully donate to the cost. While we were there a visiting Canadian lady made a batch of cinnamon buns that she portioned and left for anyone to take. This is the kind of thing we can get behind, and had we stayed longer I would have been inspired to make a big pan of focaccia bread or a big batch of peanut butter cookies to share. Many homes had small vegetable gardens, and of course most everyone fishes and hunts to gather their protein.
Across Tenakee Inlet and just outside and East of Crab Bay, there’s an area that’s off limits to commercial fishermen. Frank and Poppy on Mae Marie invited us along to bring our crab pots as they chugged over to check and re-bait their own pots, and they harvested at least ten enormous Dungeness beasties, so we set our two pots with high hopes. It was mostly cool and rainy during our visit to Tenakee Springs, perfect conditions for soaking and we each enjoyed three visits to the bathhouse. The weather did clear a bit here and there which made exploring pleasant and we had in impromptu dock party for the Summer Solstice which was cut a little short by a chilling rain, but not before a good time was had by all. Our friends Michael and Heidi on MV Sea Esta had arrived after our first night, so the eight of us which included Eric and his wife Tracy, friends visiting on MV Mae Marie, had a grand time. Michael and Heidi regaled us with tales of their recent adventures which included observing a pod of whales bubble feeding up at Pavlov Bay the previous day. Heidi whipped out her iPhone and showed us some amazing photos, proving how close they had been to the action. Turns out they had anchored up in Pavlov Harbor and gone out into the inlet to set their prawn traps when they spied the action. Isabel and I had intended to press on to Hoonah the following day but we immediately decided we needed to experience whales doing their bubble feeding thing, so we changed plans. The crew of Mae Marie had a firm schedule so they decided to make a short detour up into the inlet then continue on to Hoonah.
Isabel and I detest schedules as do most cruisers. We prefer to let our more immediate needs and desires drive our decisions, and naturally we observe the weather forecasts and plan shelter and movements accordingly. Our schedules are more loosely aligned with seasonal weather patterns. Alaska is a good place for cruising between May and early September. Crossing the Pacific is best done when there’s no threat of winter storms or hurricanes. Our only schedule for this entire voyage is to be in Juneau to collect friends traveling from the UK in late July, a ten day adventure we’re really looking forward to. We’d be happy to have other visitors as well but they’d have to be really flexible about where they arrive and depart.
It doesn’t make us bad people, does it?
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