Recap #9 of our Stink Pot Journey 30th May - 2nd June ’22

Sun Jun 12 2022

Monday May 30th we enjoyed a leisurely morning and after our coffee and a last visit with Pat, Camille and Millie the 3 of us stink pots proceeded up Ernest Sound then Seward Passage to Santa Anna Inlet, an easy 22 mile journey. Santa Anna Inlet was reputed to have good crabbing so upon arrival we deployed our crab traps and crossed our fingers. It was a pretty place and the weather spectacular as it was in Meyer’s Chuck with sunny skies and flip flop temperatures. Apparently a high pressure system was dominating, a welcome relief after many days of mostly rainy or gray skies. Michael and Heidi wandered off in their dinghy to deeper water and deployed their shrimp trap. They have a hoist system on their dinghy to haul the traps up, and as shrimp seem to like hanging out in 300 - 500 feet of water, that’s a key piece of kit. With both crab and shrimp traps we used “leaded line” for tethering the traps to a buoy on the surface, and hauling up that much line with a trap full of shrimp at the far end isn’t something we want to attempt. We reckon we can trade freshly baked cookies or brownies to fishermen for shrimp, and if that doesn’t work out we can buy some.

Michael and Heidi hosted a happy hour aboard Sea Esta in the late afternoon. We along with Joe and Nancy from Harborlark joined them. We used to call them sundowners in French Polynesia, but here where the sun doesn’t set until 2100 or so it’s technically incorrect so happy hour will have to do. In either case everyone brings a light dish to share and everyone brings their own beverage. Provisions aren’t as hard to come by here as they were in French Polynesia or the remote parts of Mexico, nevertheless we’re all a thrifty bunch and feel responsible for ourselves, so the only expectation when visiting another boat is a bunch of friendly people and maybe a dog to play with. We’re rarely disappointed.

Santa Anna Inlet turned out not to be the crab and shrimp cornucopia that we had heard about. Michael and Heidi didn’t get any shrimp, and the two poxy crabs we caught weren’t large enough to keep, so back in the drink they went. Still, the weather was spectacular, the anchor didn’t drag, and we had a great social visit. On Tuesday morning we all hoisted our anchors and chugged along the Seward Passage then Blake Channel about 24 miles up to Berg Bay, a lovely protected spot where we once again deployed our traps in the hopes of catching our dinner. The weather was spectacular and warm but the water was cold, fed by melting snow from the surrounding mountains. At Berg Bay we caught 5 nice size male crabs so our self esteem began to improve. Michael and Heidi must have become demoralized because they didn’t even try shrimping, and then later in Wrangell heard from another cruiser the shrimp there were enormous. Never give up.

Berg Bay was a nice stop and it was really good to have another short leg. We’d had so many days of 40 - 60 miles and even a 95 mile day, so a few short legs felt like a holiday. Fortunately Wrangell was only about 21 miles travel through a narrows and up the Eastern Passage, and we found ourselves tied to the pontoon in the City Harbor about 1100. Wrangell has a nice work yard with both 75 ton and 300 ton travel lifts, along with a good bit of talent to work on boats. The shipwrights mainly service fishing boats, but they also provide maintenance services to pleasure yachts. Storage on the hard stand is limited to vessels under around 38 feet or so, but Winter moorage on the pontoons is available at rock bottom prices and there are a couple of folks in town who will provide shrink wrapping services or security/inspection services while a boat is in storage. We’ve considered leaving Sunset somewhere in Alaska to get a longer season in 2023, and with the price of diesel right now even with shrink wrapping that might be the “value proposition”.

Wrangell had a nice public library not far from the marina, not as nice and large as Ketchikan, but Wrangell is also a much smaller town. Their economy is centered around the fishing fleet and maintenance services and it seems business is pretty good. It must be said, however, that many fishing boats from Alaska travel all the way to Port Townsend in Washington to do their heavy maintenance, perhaps due to the small size of the Wrangell yard, perhaps due to the small size or the Wrangell work force, or perhaps because the logistics of materials, parts and services is just cheaper down at Port Townsend. Port Townsend allows owners to work on their vessels unlike most yards in the Puget Sound, but Wrangell must also. Anyway, we investigated the possibility of storing Sunset there with the knowledge that she’ll likely need fresh bottom paint in 2023. Wrangell was a decent little town with plenty of friendly people, but we wouldn’t choose to live there.

Funnily enough while we were there a small expedition size cruise ship pulled in with an old work associate, Jim Dawson and his wife aboard. Jimmy had seen a Facebook post of mine while we were in Ketchikan, and after he checked in I wandered into town and found him in a bar waiting for a glacier tour boat to get going. We had good fun catching up before he had to blast off and I wandered on to NAPA to purchase oil and a filter for the dinghy outboard.

One of the horrors of boat life is sewage. By the time we had arrived in Wrangell I had concluded that the forward (guest) head holding tank / macerator pump was having a malfunction. My first line of attack was to replace the macerator pump with a spare, but that didn’t change anything. On Thursday the next and truly awful task was to remove the top cap of the holding tank, a 10 inch round plate stainless steel assembly with all the plumbing fittings for the in and out and vent lines. Recall this boat has been in service since 1988. This was a horrible job, and after about an hour of hosing and scrubbing and wire brushing I found that the assembly was badly corroded with holes venting to the outside as well as a gaping hole in the standpipe that allows the macerator pump to empty the tank. The hole was right up by the cap, so after a couple gallons of “product” all the macerator could do was suck putrid air. Ye gads!