Sun Jul 03 2022
Another good night’s sleep and we popped up like a piece of toast, enjoying our morning coffee and looking for the elusive bear. None to be had, so we worked on our Backgammon skills for a bit then darned if Isabel didn’t spot a large black bear wandering the beach. It was just trundling along and we almost didn’t need binoculars to enjoy the sight, but it’s always more fun to get up close and personal with a bear (that’s called an allusion I think) so we donned the big eyes and enjoyed a few minutes of bear viewing. Finally, Shag Cove had provided us with a great wildlife event. The folks on Alpenglow saw the bear too, but the Canadian boat had already left. Their loss.
A couple more games of Backgammon actually playing by the rules while the weather forecast downloaded and we decided that despite the stunning scenery and cool bear action Shag Cove was probably the buggiest place we’d ever been. We elected to chug South a bit and have a look at Fingers Bay, so here we are for either a few hours or overnight, depending upon how the spirit moves. We have to pass through the Sitakaday Narrows to get back down towards Bartlett Cove, so we either need to catch the outgoing tidal flow after 1600 this afternoon or get up early and have at it in the morning. It’ll take around 2 hours to get down to the anchorage by the National Park Service float, so either way will work out just fine. They offer evening programs and it might be nice to enjoy 1 or 2 of those, and there’s a road to Gustavus so we might try to hitch a ride over there to check out that village. We met a boat broker from there recently, and he seems to like the place pretty well.
No rest for the weary, so around 1600 we weighed anchor and enjoyed about 4 knots on the stern plus lots of swirlies as we made our way through the Sitakaday Narrows and then turned towards the Bartlett Cove National Park Service float and anchorage. We must have gotten a little out of the channel because big brother hailed us on VHF to remind us of the rules about remaining 1 mile from the shoreline OR center channel at all times when underway due to the risk of whale collision. I muttered an apology over the radio and made a hard turn to starboard to clean up our spacing, and we continued on towards the anchorage. There was a Westerly day wind blowing and it was pretty lumpy as we came in, so I asked Isabel to rig the port side for docking and we tied to the float to take on fresh water and wait for the conditions to settle. There was a big Ocean Alexander moored behind us and the lovely couple on that vessel invited us over for drinks and dinner. Seems they, like us had a lot of surplus halibut. We had a lovely evening with them and by the time it was all said and done we concluded we might as well wait until morning to clear off the float, as the limit was 3 hours and the park office was closed until 0700. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, and in our minds that must be 3 business hours. Sometime in the night a rather large boutique cruise ship moored in front of us for about 2 hours, likely to take on fresh water. I awakened to the propulsion noise and was surprised to see an enormous stern about 4 stories high just in front of us.
We maneuvered to the anchorage a bit after 0700 Friday morning then launched the dinghy for a shore excursion, which included exploiting the awesome fast and free WIFI at the NPS office, and a lovely walk in the woods. At 1500 our new best friend (and boat broker) Mike McVey arrived to give us the grand tour of Gustavus. It’s a second class city. I’m not making that up, that’s how the town is designated, so they’re not required to assess property taxes from the residents, but they do have a guest house bed tax so that they provide revenue to the state, and in return the state maintains their mostly gravel roads, even including snow removal. Pretty good deal, if you want to live in a community of about 450 people spread out over quite a few square miles. We saw the airport and the community float where Mike’s grandpa was launching a sailboat project that had been in his yard for about 10 years. Great fun.
After our rather rowdy night on Thursday we had an early night on Friday, playing just a few games of backgammon before retiring. It was too rough to hoist the dinghy onto the upper platform so that was our task before getting underway for Haines this morning. Not an easy thing to do, something as complex as that before the first cup of coffee, but we powered through. We weighed anchor and got underway about 0600 and it’s now nearly 1600. We’re chugging along on flat water, virtually no wind, sunny blue skies, marveling at the big snow capped peaks on both sides of the Lynn Canal as we ply our way towards Haines. I just rang up the harbormaster and we’ve got a float assignment with 30 amp power for the next few days, so life is good and we should be moored by 1900 or so. I promised Isabel a wild night on the town or a cold beer, her choice.
We’ve been looking forward to visiting Haines and expect to spend 3 -4 nights before proceeding back South towards Juneau. The Lynn Canal can get really nasty when the wind pipes up, and it looks like late in the week this big high pressure system may finally give way to a rather strong looking low. We’ll need to be moored in Juneau before that shows up or we may not get there for a long time, and we’ve got guests coming on July 22nd. Gotta plan ahead.
Isabel has been a bit disgruntled about her wildlife viewing checklist, as even though she’s enjoyed several bear sightings and we’ve seen amazing humpback whale activity, there have been no orcas in our life. Until today, when I spotted a pod coming up the Lynn Canal and that tickled her pink, then to add icing to the cake we had a pod of Pacific Whitesided Dolphins join us for a swim on our bow wave. Sometimes when it rains, it pours.
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