We had a quick trip home. It was not the hot and smoky that I was dreading. Although it does look like a raging forest fire broke out nearby just soon after we left. John and Julie rented a car and took us on a tour of the sights in Ketchikan. Next year we won’t feel a need to come this far south as we feel like we have done this area some justice.
My sister and husband are visiting. We took them to Misty Fjords, but added a few more stops.
We decided that we would skip Shoalwater Pass and head straight to Punchbowl Cove and get the mooring ball. A big wind storm was expected along with 1-3 inches of rain. I can’t think of a prettier place to hang out! (maybe Princess Louisa) We saw not only one but 2 breaching whales in the distance while we were underway. If we didn’t get the mooring ball, Plan B was to head back an hour to the anchorage. About 45 minutes out, we hailed a tour boat that was just in the area and asked the Captain if he happened to notice someone on the mooring ball – he confirmed that it was free. Woot!
The forecasted rains came and then some! We got a few bouts of wind but otherwise pretty calm. The rain had a silver lining – the waterfalls were POPPING! We got all decked out in our raingear and took a dinghy ride around the cove to admire them. We fished, prawned, and played games and whiled away the time. It was very relaxing! No prawns yet, so far we caught a bunch of squat lobsters (which we did not keep) and a small bottom fish (also did not keep). We did get a couple of pink salmon which were delicious.
We spent two nights at Punchbowl, toured the arm and then headed to Walker Cove. We were able to score the mooring buoy there as well. Spectacular! We are next to (we are sure) a fantastic bear beach. Now we just need to have the tides and time of day cooperate. The salmon are spawning, so we have lots of eagles and seals to keep us entertained in the meantime. We did have some prawns on the way out! Score.
We stayed for 3 nights at Walker Cove, small craft advisories out there. It was still and gorgeous inside our anchorage. We did a lot of relaxing, we also caught some more prawns.
We headed out of Walker Cove and up to Fitzgibbon Cove. Jim seems to have caught a cold. (grocery store? flights? Grandkids?) I’m sure we are going to all be commiserating with him soon.
We headed over to Yes Bay, in the fog and rain. It is going to be foggy and rainy tomorrow, so we are going to throw in the towel and head to Ketchikan. We had a fantastic week even though we had a lot of weather. I think it was more about the visiting anyways.
P.S. Yep, we all shared the cold.
Talk Soon.