Portage Bay to Sitka
The next morning June 6th we had a -3ft tide. So we sat tight for awhile before
leaving. The ride over to Red Bluff Bay
seemed to take forever! It was 0nly 57
miles! Nice smooth water, sunny and
warm. It felt like we were coming
home. Red Bluff Bay is our most favorite
place. As we approached, we picked up 3
AIS signals. They were big boats too. 65
and 70 footers. I started to get a
little panicked. Would there be room for
us at the inn? Kay told me to calm down,
there would be enough room.
As we rounded the last point, the Admiral was
right. Plenty of room. She helped me position ASD for
anchorage. She picked an excellent spot. She has an eye for this stuff, so I will rely
on her a little more for anchorages. If there
is a draw back to this place, it is the “dirty water.” The water has a lot of moss and jellies. More later on that.
The next day everyone left and Kay and I had the
anchorage to ourselves!! What a treat
this was. I took advantage and put down
a shrimp pot in 360 feet and a crab pot at 45 feet. A 24-hour soak should do just fine. When I got back to the boat, Kay had scoped
out some bears on shore and they were big ones!
I suggested some halibut fishing and she got an ear to ear smile. She love “butt” fishing. We loaded little ASD with rods, bait and a
spear, being careful not to let any of the pointy ends touch the boat. The seas were smooth and warm and we had a great
time. We did catch a few “butts” but
they were small, 15lbs or less, so we released them.
The next day we tried some rock bass fishing. We had “secret” rock that would always
produce. We were not disappointed. We kept 6 and released around 20-30 fish. Blackened sea bass to night for dinner!! Yum
Yum. I went back to pull the shrimp pot and try my new pot puller. Skunked again! What????
This was my honey hole; it always produces at least 60-100 shrimp. Well I will move it away down the bay a bit.
Rebaited the trap, closed it and threw it overboard. I heard a snap and there when my shrimp pot
to the bottom, without a line connected to it!
It would appear the metal clip failed.
Crap Kay isn’t going to like this news.
She didn’t and this a is a PG rated blog. I did have 3 large Dungeness crabs all males
and 8 inches wide. So not totally
snucked.
Later that afternoon, some new friends showed up at
the anchorage. Kevin and Bonnie of the
“Ocean Dream” a 55ft Ocean Alexander (OA) and Curt and Tracy of the “Red Raven”
a 31ft Ranger Tug. There will be a party
tonight.
Everyone showed up for cocktail hour and dinner. Kay fixed blackened Rock Bass and fresh
brownies with a bottle of wine and scotch.
Kevin and Kay hit it right off as they both are wine snobs!! LOL It was all about wine. We found out that Curt and Bonnie had never
fished for black bass. It was set. Tomorrow at noon we would go to the rock to
see how lucky they are.
Noon arrive with low clouds and rain! Oh well can’t have sunny days every day. After the attack of the blood sucking Alaskan
nats, Bonnie and Curt limited out in about an hour. Nice big ones too. We tried our luck for Halibut, but the seas
were starting to build and we gave it up.
I did get to ride on a new Ranger Tug.
Nice boats. We had some happy
friends and that was all that mattered. Bonnie
pulled her 2 shrimp pots and it only produced 6 shrimp. They were all leaving the next day for Warm
Springs, then Sitka. We would be one day
behind.
Well you can’t stay long in this bay and run your
generator without it sucking up something.
About 9 PM the genny stopped running.
Crap. The genny shutdown due to
overheating on the exhaust. No water draining out the exhaust. I worked on it for about 2 hours with no luck
clearing the moss or jelly. I would try
again in the morning. If I couldn’t get
it cleared, we would have to back track to Wrangell for a diver. I installed a new impeller and cleared all
the lines. No water. So, Kay and I
pulled the anchor and started back toward Wrangell. It was going to be a long long day. Then I remembered my friend John from the “MY
Pairadice” had the same problem so he ran his boat at a fast speed. It cleared the blockage. We were already in Chatham Strait, so we shut
down the engines after running about 14 kts for about 3 miles. Started the Genny and we had a waterfall
coming out the exhaust!!! Success. We returned back to Red Bluff bay in the fog
with the anchorage all to ourselves.
It was time to move on. The tiny town of Barinof/Warm Hot Springs was
next, a short 17 miles North. There are some nice natural springs hot
tubs. Nice and hot. The problem is this is a popular space and
getting dock space hard to get. But
folks rotate in and out so we might get lucky. One boat on the dock Yee
Haw!!!! We will spend a few days here as
the weather was turning bad and the next run to Sitka is a long 97-mile run.
We left Warm Spring with a full dock. Some of the boats were folks from Juneau
chartering their boats out to tourists.
4-5 days of vacation then the next group. Good way to pay for your boat, I guess.
The water in Chatham Strait was like a tea cup, no
wind, flat seas. The trip today,
although long, is all about adventure as we have never been to Sitka. Peril Straits and the famous Sergius Narrows.
Then Kay jump out of her chair “WHALES!!!” About a half-mile to starboard a huge
humpback. Wait a smaller spout. I stopped and turned off the engines and it
was dead quiet. POWWWW!!! The whale takes a breath as it pushes its
calf to the top of the water. We spent
an hour just floating listening to the whales.
We also had some porpoises come along side. We could spend all day here but onward to
Sitka.
The country side was cloudy by smooth. We saw a few places to anchor on the way
back. Problem is the commercial crabbing
season will be on and many of these bays will be choked with crab traps. Peril Strait ended with a small channel at
the end that leads to the open Pacific.
I had timed it just right and we would arrive at Sergius Narrows about
10 minutes before slack. On bay, called
Annie’s Pocket had bears all over the place!
But no time to stop.
