July 6, 2009
A month since my last entry????!!! Let me see if I can get you caught up to date. We did go to Warm Springs on Baranoff Island. We met some new folks and some folks we already knew. We walked up to the hot springs and the lake. It was quite a hike! I took some pictures of the trail…….sometimes it was a boardwalk, or snow covered, rocks or tree roots. Normally, there is not any cell service in the anchorages but somehow I got the call about my nephews passing. It was not possible for me to leave Jerry and the boat and try to fly to Baltimore. It was a terrible shock to us all. Jerry and I spent a quiet few days remembering a young man who had his life ahead of him. And Dolly, my sister in law, has endured more than her share of tragedies.
We made our way to Juneau in preparation for Bill and Judy Lord to join us. We shopped and shopped and shopped. Jerry wanted to be sure he was fully equipped for fishing and did not want to have to worry about groceries while we were cruising and I don’t know where we could have bought anything anyway. Suffice it to say that the boat moved a little slower after our trips to the Costco and the Fred Meyer (grocery store).
Jerry and Bill fished and fished. Jerry caught a King Salmon and Bill caught some Soho. Unfortunately, Bill never did catch a Halibut, maybe next year! We did get some King Crabs which were delicious. We anchored in a little cove outside of Tracy Arms Glacier and were a little dismayed when we got up the next morning to see a heavy fog. BUT, we headed out carefully and eventually the sun came out in time for us to miss the floating ice burgs. We traversed as far as we could until the burgs were just too numerous. We took a lot of pictures and had a fun day. In fact we had a fun week with Judy and Bill and reconfirmed our ability to travel together.
Kevin and Jeanne came into Juneau and we all went to see the Mendenhall Glacier, and then downtown Juneau with all those ‘cruise ship’ people. Judy and Bill caught the ‘Red Eye’ home. The next morning we headed out of Auke Bay, which is north of downtown Juneau. We then headed west. After just a little trolling, we had dinner, Halibut. Kevin was also efficient at driving the boat and knew more about some of the controls of the GPS/Radar than we did.
We continued west to Funter Bay and then Hoonah. We saw many whales, Orcas and Humpback. The town of Hoonah has been very aggressive about their tourist business. They have a cruise ship that comes in nearly every day and the local Indian Tribe built a beautiful park, shopping, restaurant, museum and the world’s longest Zip Ride.
Next stop, Red Bluff Bay. We left out early and were the only boat in the bay until late in the afternoon. We dropped our prawn trap and anchored at the top of the bay. Kevin and Jeanne took the dinghy (Lil’ Jade) out and were very excited to have seen a Brown Bear and her cubs. Well we also got to see several Brown Bear and cubs right from the boat. Even Misty noticed and growled. We spent 2 days there with the best weather we have had. Sun all day and very warm temperatures. We even got to wear shorts.
Time to leave! We turned into Peril Strait passing what must have been 100 fishing boats all along the shore line. We were headed for Appleton Cove. We got settled, put out the crab pot and Kevin, Jeanne and Jerry left on the dinghy to do more fishing. Still searching for the BIG Halibut. Well I had just gotten comfortable with my book when “Lil Jade calling Jade Princess”. It seems that trolling took more fuel than expected and they ran out on the way back to the boat. Then did have oars on the dinghy and took turns rowing, but after an hour then were still a long way off. Finally, Lil’ Jade wanted Big Jade to come and pick them up. At least the caught a King Salmon on their adventure and once again the crab pot was lucrative.