Trawler Blogs

**** Sorry, no photos yet to spice up the text I send via sat-phone. There is no public Wi-Fi at the docks in Juneau.

The morning of Wednesday, June 22, we headed out from our anchorage at the head of Gut Bay. We stopped along the way and pulled the prawn pots we had dropped the evening before as we headed in. We were very satisfied with the prawns, both spot and striped, that we brought up and anticipated fresh prawns for dinner that night.

Our destination for the night was another new to us anchorage, Rowan Bay on Kuiu Island on the east side of Chatham Strait. The weather was lovely and the seas in Chatham Strait were nearly flat as we crossed over to Rowan Bay. The bay was nice but the scenery wasn’t nearly as dramatic as that in Gut Bay. The hills were lower and softer as they were heavily timbered. We were a bit put off by a 2-story floating fishing lodge on the north shore of the bay. But it did not appear to be active as we saw no boats come and go or other sign of life.

The next day, Thursday, June 23, the weather forecast indicated that it would be the last of the good weather for a while. So rather than try another new anchorage on Kuiu Island, we crossed Frederick Sound to Chapin Bay on Admiralty Island, an anchorage we used last year.

The next morning, we traveled the relatively short distance along the south shore of Admiralty Island to Cannery Cove in Pybus Bay. Cannery Cove is a popular anchorage but the popularity is well deserved. It boasts beautiful scenery (at the head is a meadow often frequented by brown bears and beyond it, a stunning mountain-scape), and an ample anchoring area offering protection from most storms. When we pulled in, only one other boat was there. By nightfall, a total of 8 boats, including ourselves, were anchored in Cannery Cove.

We ended up spending 3 nights in Cannery Cove, using it as a base to service the prawn traps we dropped in the channels outside the cove and to try our hand at halibut fishing. The prawning was productive, the fishing was not. The weather for the first two days was poor, with regular rain showers and winds in the 10-15 knot range. By our last day, the winds were dying and the low marine clouds hinting at sunshine once the sun began heating the atmosphere.

On the morning of Monday, June 27, we continued up Stephens Passage to Gambier Bay. Marcia tried halibut fishing along a channel leading into the bay but again, no luck. We dropped three exploratory prawn traps in Gambier Bay since we had never prawned there before. The next morning, the prawn traps were productive but the bottom was muddy and the prawns and traps required extra cleaning to get the mud off.

On Tuesday, June 28, for our final night out before heading into Juneau, we tied up at the public dock in Taku Harbor. The year before we had sat up a storm in Taku before heading into Juneau. The weather was much better this year, with lots of sun and temperatures in the mid-60’s.

Based on suggestions from others, we are docking in a new location in Juneau this year than all our previous trips. The Intermediate Vessel Float (IVF) is on the waterfront in downtown Juneau, nestled between the cruise ship docks. It is a small dock, only 6 slips, and does allow reservations. The moorage fee is over twice that which is charged at other Port of Juneau facilities but we thought we’d splurge for a couple of nights and see what the “city life” is like in Juneau.

We’ll be renting a car in Juneau in order to provision for the next leg of our summer cruise into Glacier Bay National Park. There is a Costco in Juneau so we’ll also provision for the staples that will take us through until we get back to Puget Sound in September. Annie-cat continues to do well with her every other day subcutaneous infusions of lactated Ringer’s solution and Marcia will be stocking up on supplies for that as well.

We are nearing the half-way point of our trip and have traveled 1,865 nautical miles in the 65 days we’ve been out. I expect that we’ll get to 4,000 miles by the time we make it back to Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island.

Besides all of its other attractions, an additional plus to being in Sitka during June is the Sitka Music Festival. It is a month long classical chamber music event in which visiting musicians give symposia and concerts. While we were there we attended two outstanding evening events. In future years, we’ll try to include more events in our schedule.

We were also able to catch up with other cruisers who own boats from the same builder as ours. At various times Luck Dragon (Edward and Carlene Forcier), Shearwater (David Cohn) and Seaducktress (Peter and Glenda Geerlofs) were in Sitka while we were there.

After three days in town, on Thursday, June 16, we left Sitka heading towards Juneau. Based on a suggestion from Peter Geerlofs (Seaducktress), we made a reservation in downtown Juneau at the Intermediate Vessel Float (IVF) for the nights of June 29 and 30. The most direct route to Juneau is 162 miles which we could comfortably cover in 3 days. Since we had 13 days, we intended to take a more circuitous route and take shorter hops.

The first night was back Kalinin Bay, with the thought of perhaps fishing outside its entrance. Based on recent experience, Marcia decided to forgo the opportunity.

For the second night, it was back to Douglass Bay but not before dropping prawn pots nearby. The next morning, we harvested a sufficient number of prawns for a meal or two.

From there, it was onto Rodman Bay, a new anchorage for us, where we again dropped prawn pots on the way in. Alas, when we brought them up the next morning, they had just a few tiny striped prawns which we threw back.

On Sunday, June 19, we anchored in Point Moses Cove, in Hanus Bay. We arrived early enough that we had time to drop the kayaks and paddle over to the trail head for the Lake Eva. The US Forest Service has a well-maintained trail from the beach landing to Lake Eva, a 3+ mile round trip. It was wonderful hike paralleling the stream draining Lake Eva. We saw no bears only some relatively fresh scat. Based on the number eagles in the trees along the drainage, we’re confident that when the salmon return the bears and eagles will be eating well. After the hike, we paddled into the lagoon that separates the fresh water Lake Eva drainage and the salt water Hanus Bay. Both the hike and paddle were wonderful (the sunny weather helped as well).

The next morning, we headed south into Chatham Strait heading towards either Ell Cove or Takatz Bay. The winds began to pick up to 20-25 knots and soon we were pounding into short-period steep-sided waves. We were fighting both wind and current so our pace was a glacial 5+ knots. The motion was all pitching and not rolling so it wasn’t too uncomfortable for us but the cats thought otherwise and both threw up. Ultimately, we went to Ell Cove because it was about 5 miles closer which meant an hour less pounding, a unanimously approved decision.

The morning of Tuesday, June 21 was the opposite of the day before, winds were calm and the seas glassy. As we continued south along Chatham Strait, the low marine clouds dropped and became thick fog. Fortunately, between radar and AIS tracking, we felt comfortable traveling, although we remained alert for logs and debris in the water. Along the way, we passed going north the Nordhavn 46 Penguin owned by Doug and Cathlyn MacQuarrie who are members of our yacht club, Queen City.

Our destination for the night was Gut Bay on the east shore of Baranof Island. This was a new to us anchorage. We had heard it was a lovely setting but the electronic charting either erratic or poor. The fog had lifted before we entered so we were able to safely enter and enjoy the stunning views of steep cliffs dropping into the narrow bay. It is a deep bay and anchorages are few. We approached the recommended anchorage at the head of the bay and to the right of a stream carefully, looking for any shoaling ahead. We dropped anchor about 125 yards from shore in 50 feet of water (zero tide). The winds were light overnight and we did not move substantially overnight.