Heading to the fishing grounds

Tuesday, May 15, 18

Haines Harbor

We left Haines and headed to Juneau to provision for our trip to Sitka. Finally on our way to the fishing grounds! We saw our first humpback whale south of town at the Katzahen River mouth. We also passed Sea Lion Rock, a haul out spot since I lived here in the early 1990s but the population has increased from about 300 then to over 1000 on the official count this year! Maybe that is part of the reason the king salmon run is low in the upper Lynn Canal- those guys can eat a lot of fish! Doug, who is amazing at seeing both sea and land mammals, spotted a black bear cruising the beach so our first bear sighting as well! 

Eagles on Mab Island where we anchored

We anchored in Bridgit Cove behind Mab Island. Pretty little cove with literally hundreds of eagles there, as well as sea lions and even a whale came in close to the boat in the evening!

Wednesday, May 16, 18

Wednesday awoke to fabulous sunshine before 5am. We ran to Juneau in beautiful weather. We saw small orca whales at Yankee Cove and several humpbacks throughout the islands on the way to Juneau. Nice weather and fair seas all the way!

Friday, May 18, 18

We spent Wednesday afternoon and Thursday in Juneau provisioning for the next 2-3 weeks of fishing. This means we spent 24 hours and big money shopping at Costco, Fred Meyer, Safeway and the fuel dock. We also were fortunate enough to get to use our good friend Christy’s washer and dryer – thank goodness for friends!

We left Juneau bright and early this morning beginning our trip to the open fishing area around Sitka. Again, another lovely day! Several in a row in SE is a pleasant and welcome event. We saw several humpbacks and a big male orca with two smaller ones. We had blue sky and calm waters in the morning. However, Chatham Strait never is predictable and the wind built to 25 knots with 4’ short interval seas. Not horrible exactly, but certainly not my favorite way to travel.

Whale near Herbert Glacier on the way to Juneau

We anchored in Freshwater Bay at Pavlof Harbor for the night. Doug spotted a grizzly bear directly across from us on the beach. He would be 6’ standing on hind legs but he was still spring skinny – maybe 300lbs. He was eating beach grass all along the sunny coastline 70 yards away from where we are anchored. He was cinnamon with dark boots and shoulders. I also attempted to do some birding but I’m not a birder so the only ones I could ID were the Bald Eagles and the Hooded Mergansers with their distinct black stripes and bright white patches. There was a seal in the harbor as well.

Saturday, May 19, 18

Another beautiful day with whales and blue sky! Started with strawberries and yogurt on pancakes and then headed back out into Chatham Strait before the wind kicked back up. The forecast calls for today to be the last day of sunshine so we stopped mid afternoon and enjoyed every moment! We went into Peril Strait and anchored at Appleton cove in Rodman Bay. There are lots of birds in this pretty cove - mostly Canada geese but lots of ducks as well. We had a feast for dinner eating the two Dungeness crab caught in our pot Friday night – so yummy!

Sunday, May 20, 18

Rainy day but started ok. Seas were pretty calm thru Peril Strait. Peril is interesting as we spent hours motoring thru the narrow channel with the land fairly close on both sides. The land is really close thru Rapids Point, Sergius Narrows and Kakul Narrows. Sergius was squirrelly with lots of water running on a flooding tide so we anchored in Launch Cove for lunch and an hour nap before pushing our way thru Canoe Pass (local choice over Sergius). We continued on thru Neva Strait as we need internet service to see if Salisbury is open for fishing tomorrow. If not, we’ll fish Sitka Sound instead. We will anchor in Krestof Sound to get the connection we need and decide where tomorrows open will be for us.