Our friend from Texas, Frank, a former Navy guy, knew what the message on DanCin Dreams was. Sorry Frank, we don’t have a prize though!
Happy 4th
After the Nord2AK anchorage in Portage Bay, our plan was to anchor in Chapin Bay but while making our way we changed our plans and instead opted to drop anchor in Honeydew Cove. That’s how we roll folks.
13 JUL Honeydew Cove. A a small, one boat cove on Kuiu Island. (Active Captain calls this Sandman Bight). We both really liked this little cove. It was pretty, with very interesting surroundings, different, not what we normally see. There were islands around the cove with deep cutouts in the rock edges. This would have been a great place to get the kayaks out and explore the islands, except we didn’t stay long, just overnight, because while it was pretty and interesting, it was also full of kelp, seaweed, jellyfish, and millions of some kind of little “bugs” or baby jellyfish in the water. All of this “stuff” made running the generator the first night a “no-go” and running the water maker was entirely out of the question. But maybe we can visit this anchorage again. Who knows, maybe a different time of year the water will be different. Or not.
COOL LITTLE ISLAND
A LITTLE FOG PASSING THROUGH
Just as we were leaving this cove a whale waved good-bye. Maybe we can stop here on our way back to Petersburg in the fall.
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY – COME AGAIN!
14 JUL Red Bluff Bay. A very “popular” anchorage. Translated, you won’t be alone! When we arrived two fellow Nordhavns were anchored, including Sweet T’s former owner on M/S N56 Lolani, along with another trawler. Before the night was over three more boats arrived. While the two other Nordhavn owners where pulled up to Sweet T in their dinghy’s, chatting, a large black tail deer with a nice rack swam up to Lolani, and tried to board her! Unsuccessful in his attempt he swam over towards us…very close to us but decided against trying to board Sweet T.
PERMISSION TO BOARD? BARB GOT SOME GREAT SHOTS!
HELLO, JUST PASSING THROUGH, CAN’T STOP!
The next day all the boats left but Sweet T and new boats arrived. While the crew on Sweet T napped, I worked on sorting pics on the computer. I glanced up in time to see a boat really close to us, which startled me and “Oh my gosh!” came out, immediately followed by “It’s Lynn and Neal!!” Our friends from Seattle on their KK48, Navigator, who are also cruising in Alaska. We had hoped we would eventually cross paths.
We had them over for dinner and shared stories and anchorages with them. We seem to have similar taste in anchorages so it’s always fun to exchange info with them. Lynn always gives me chocolate and beautiful bead bracelets she makes! We loved catching up and it was such a treat to see them again!!
BYE LYNN AND NEIL – GREAT TO SEE YOU GUYS!!
As you can see Red Bluff is a pretty anchorage with a stunning waterfall, clearly this is why it’s a popular anchorage.
FALLS IN RED BLUFF
ENTERING RED BLUFF
16 JUL Gut Bay. At Neal and Lynn’s suggestion we made this our next stop. The little freshwater tidal cove they anchored in already had two boats anchored in it which didn’t leave a lot of room left for a third. (Side note: In this little shallow freshwater tidal cove many years ago a couple spent the winter iced in – on purpose!) We went to the head of the bay and found a very nice anchorage. The only wild life we saw in Gut Bay were horseflies. Lots of horseflies.
GUT BAY – WONDER HOW IT CAME TO BE NAMED GUT BAY?
ENTERING GUT BAY
18 JUL Thetis Bay. From Gut Bay we crossed Chatham Strait to Tebenkof Bay. There are several anchorages in Tebenkof, we picked Thetis Bay to hole up and wait out weather.
Nothing special about the crossing, calm seas, uneventful; our kind of crossing. That is UNTIL we were in Tebenkof Bay. Right before we made our last turn in to Thetis Bay we got to witness a humpback BREACHING less than 100 feet off our starboard!!
For those of you that don’t know breaching is when the whale comes completely out of the water. This whale came out and flipped and landed on it’s side. This was so exciting to see and so close!! No I don’t have a picture. We didn’t even know there were two whales next to us. Since we’ve been in Alaska I’ve been waiting and hoping to see a whale breach. It was THRILLING!!
While I didn’t get a pic of the breaching I did get a pic of these two guys.
TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE. THE TAIL IS ONE WHALE, THE HUMP IS ANOTHER.
Now that the excitement was over, on to our anchorage. Thetis Bay is a big shallow bay that reminded me of the Broughtons in BC. Our second day we saw two black bears on shore and we saw them everyday until the rain came. Apparently they don’t come down to the beach in the rain. To avoid the seaweed in this bay we went further out from shore which made it too far to get pics of our bear friends, but they were pretty and big!
In Thetis Bay we heard a big pack of wolves howling several times. Loud and clear! One full moon night we stood out on the Portuguese Bridge at nearly dark, with low clouds hanging in the mountains and listed to them howl, with the howls echoing in the mountains. It was something right out of a classic horror flick and so very erie.
THETIS BAY – WOLVES HOWLING! NO, NOT CREEPY AT ALL.
So here we sat for a week waiting for a weather window which would allow us to cross back over Chatham Strait and go around the southern tip of Baranof Island and take the outside route to Sitka (outside means exposed to the Gulf of Alaska).
THETIS BAY
What do we do while waiting out weather? Russell and I both like to read. I like to knit. He putters on maintenance stuff. I baked and made bread (twice). FYI, setting the bread on the generator after it’s run is a great place for the bread to rise. We watched a movie or two. I work on our blog, even though I don’t have internet service to post. And, last but not least the entire crew likes to nap.
Whether we make our way south and around to the west side of Baranof Island, or go back north to Peril Strait, to get to Sitka is still to be determined.
All is well.
"Sweet T" - Voyages of a Nordhavn 40 