The Petersburg Harbor Master is so friendly and helpful. Once again, they gave us an option of the same slip or a new place. We decided to stay in the same slip, making this our 3rd visit to Petersburg with access to the same slip, which we really enjoyed (714).
In the afternoon we did a couple of loads of laundry and Brad later chatted with local fisherman, cleaning many super large halibut {hugh}. Our dinner consisted of some of that halibut, crab and a salad. All yummy. Being well fed and exhausted, having started crusing at 5am, we turned in early.
Here are a few highlights from this leg of the cruise:
July 12th - Sitka to Baby Bear (29 nm)
Before departing, Jeff from "Daybreak" came over for a visit and brought us a lovely gift box of chocolate. Like a boat card made of chocolate. They own "Totally Chocolate", which specializes in an unique engraving process of chocolate bars. Beautiful and delicious. www.totallychocolate.com
This is a photo of the beautiful harbor in Sitka:
July 13th - Baby Bear to Appleton (22 nm)
While we've been seeing humpback whales daily, we came very close to one in Peril Strait. Also saw a few sea otters and some deer. Brad caught some nice sale crabs in Appleton, which made for another yummy dinner.
We were one of the first boats in Appleton and we ended up taking advantage of a single buoy to tie up to. It allowed us great visibility to a cabin that can be rented via the Alaska Dept of Forestry. Actually, they have wonderful cabins all over Alaska you can rent. This one was quite close to a little meadow and a nice stream.
Later in the day, Northern Ranger anchored nearby. We previously met them in Ketchikan. About an hour later, Sea Spirit II came in, whom we initially met in Meyers Chuck and have crossed paths with several times. It was nice to chat with both of them and we left the VHF on on 16/68, with the understanding we'd check in again before bedtime.
While the radio was left on we heard a call from a boat named The Other Office, from a nearby cove (Rodman). The initial radio call was looking for a doctor or nurse on anchor in Rodman. As there was no response they made a radio call seeking same to anyone in Appleton. A woman on a sailboat in Appleton responded saying she was a nurse. We then hear that The Other Office has an 8 year old boy with their toe that was severed to the bone when a hatch cover fell. They were seeking assistance for medical treatment before trying to make the journey back to Sitka.
The Other Office was going to bring their boat to Appleton to where the nurse could assist, but after sometime, when we could just see The Other Office entering Appleton, they made a call saying that they had been able to "attach" the skin, were able to stop the bleeding, and concluded they'd go ahead and make the run to Sitka. The nurse gave advice for further care of the toe and we thought that would be the last we heard of this saga. But an hour or so passes and we hear that the boat had arranged for a floatplane to take the boy to Sitka. Another hour goes by and we hear the float plan and shortly afterwards The Other Office comes back to Appleton. Hymm. We do hope the kid is ok. But later several of us all questioned why the skipper didn't make an initial call to the Coast Guard. Still, it made us all thing about having painkillers and quality First Aid kits on board.
July 14th - Appleton to Warm Springs (39 nm)
It was to our good luck that we had come across Sea Spirit in Appleton, as they had said if they found a spot on the docks in Warm Springs we could sidetie to them. And they fortunately found a spot on the docks. From my perspective it looked quite tricky to side tie as there were 4 seiners, all side tied in front, and another 4 in back of Sea Spirit. Brad did a great job "parallel parking" our boat, along side of Sea Spirit, with the currents from the falls and all the seiners around us. And would you believe more seiners came in after we had tied up!
It was truly a pleasure to be on the docks with Sea Spirit and all the seiners. We heard many delightful stories from all the fisherman, who were very friendly and pleasant on the docks.
Here we are on the docks in Warm Springs, but this photo doesn't show all the seiners that are around us.
Here is a view of the seiners, from inside our boat.
July 15th - Warm Springs to Petersburg (72 nm)
This time our cruise thru Chatham Strait and Frederick Sound was very smooth and for the most part "the sun was out". We saw salmon jumping in Chatham Strait, but no signs of salmon in Frederick Sound. But throughout the day we saw whales and at one point had one surprise us, surfacing right in front of our boat. Brad quickly steered around the whale, as well as slowed our boat down, and fortunately we didn't hit it!
Oh, we saw another black bear on Kupenoff Island shortly before pulling into Petersburg.
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