Petersburg to Craig

Petersburg to Craig

We left Petersburg on Monday, July 9, and proceeded south down Wrangell Narrows.  It was a rainy, overcast morning, but not windy…fortunately.  I don’t think we’ve ever transited Wrangell Narrows in bright sunshine.  We left at 0510 (thanks to Smokey, who thought an early departure was a great idea!) and caught the tide on ebb all the way to Point Baker.  Out in Sumner Strait we were cruising at 11+ knots, and not nearly at full power.  Yay!  Well never turn down a boost from Neptune and save a little fuel.

This was our third stay at Point Baker and we’re always tickled at this quirky little outpost on the NW side of Prince of Wales Island.  I think this settlement exists because the State of Alaska put in a dock for the fishermen to come in out of the heavy seas in the strait.  About 25 people live here and the unofficial “first couple” is Herb and Judy who run the restaurant, the power generator, and the fuel pumps.  They also maintain a Laundromat, water supply (lovely rainwater), and have a few rooms to rent to transient fishermen.  Across the cove are two very busy fish camps, although they don’t seem to interact much with the “Herb and Judy” side of the cove.  There’s even a US Post Office here that sends and receives mail by floatplane.

When we arrived, there was another cruiser tied to the dock, a 48’ Bayliner, and for a moment we thought “Wanderer” had beat us to Point Baker!  Yikes!  Same boat, different owners:  Jerry and Tanya on board “Jericho”.  They were from Puyallup, WA, and have been coming to SE for many years.  They were a wealth of information about the west side of Prince of Wales Island, where we’ll cruise with Jim and Chris Munch.  They were also fabulous fishermen and knew all the salmon and halibut spots outside of Point Baker.  Jerry and Jerry went out one morning for salmon, and halibut the next day. I didn’t weigh the salmon before it went in the freezer, but Jerry caught 

five salmon so had 9 lovely filets.  I put 21# of halibut in the freezer, and that wasn’t the entire catch!  Smokey was very excited.  She loves halibut!

One day while we were there, Jerry and Tanya took us over to Port Protection in the Boston Whaler that they tow along side their Bayliner.  They use the smaller boat for fishing and as a “get around” boat.  Although we’d been to Port Protection last year, we had not walked the boardwalks.  In fact, I’m not sure we knew they existed.  It was fascinating to walk though the forest on these very well maintained wooden sidewalks which were every bit as good as those we’d seen in Pelican and Elfin Cove.  As you might expect there were houses sprinkled along this “highway” in the trees, and we even came across the community garden.  It looked to me like the community was losing the battle with the weeds, though.

At the end of the “road” we met Hans, who lived with his family in the middle of a blueberry meadow.  The blueberries occurred naturally, but he was trying to increase the production and sell them online.  What a job.  They weren’t quite ripe, but it looked like he had a bumper crop.  What a lot of work the harvesting of the blueberries will be for Hans and his family.

On our way back to Point Baker, we spotted these two eagles in the top of a tree.  Of course, I couldn’t resist the photo!  I’m sure they were a mated pair and were probably looking for lunch.  You are probably sick of eagle pictures!  They are so plentiful here and so amazing to watch that I cannot resist another photo.

Eventually a third boat came in, “Puget Lady” from Port Angeles, a classy old wooden boat.  Tom and Marge were on their way to Juneau, where Marge will fly home to return to work.  The six of us “hung out” for several days, visiting back and forth on the little state dock.  We had afternoon sunshine and it finally felt like summer.  Herb and Judy opened the restaurant, so on our last night there we went to dinner.  Not a bad group shot!

We left Point Baker on Friday, 7/13, in drizzly overcast…of course!  No complaints, though!  We had had two glorious days of sunshine while we were moored at Point Baker.  We proceeded south down the west side of Prince of Wales Island, into Shakan Bay and through Shakan Strait.  We cruised by a marble quarry, where marble from this site was used for the Post Office in Bellingham, McCormick Hotel in Seattle, the State Capitol in Boise, among many others (according to my chart).  It looked like the quarry was still in operation, although I certainly would not say it was booming.

We spent the night in Calder Bay, the next niche beyond the quarry and were totally surprised to awaken to beautiful sunshine the next morning.  We were in a lovely bay and the peaks around us were beautiful.  Again, we could see the handiwork of glaciers as they had carved out these hills and valleys.

After carefully checking the tides and currents for El Capitan Passage, we left about noon on Saturday, July 14.  We had been through this passage last year and knew that it was narrow, twisty and we would want plenty of water under us.  We also knew it would be beautiful with another amazing panorama around the next bend.

El Capitan Passage was great!  We had sunshine, a high of 65 (best of the summer so far!) and we saw lots of wildlife.  We saw a total of 6 black bears along the shore, including this sow and her two cubs.  We watched a pair of deer grazing until they spotted us gliding by and bolted.  It was even more surprising to see them since we haven’t seen many deer at all.  

There are lots of cute little sea otters in the water that show us their surprised furry faces as we go by.

Sarkar Cove was a new anchorage for us.  We researched it in our cruising guide and it sounded like the perfect spot..well-protected, good depths, and even a stream to explore in the dinghy.  We followed the stream until we reached a bridge, crossing the channel but were afraid to go any further.  (We desperately need a depth-sounder for the dinghy.)  We’re just not brave enough to proceed when we can see the rocky bottom looming below us.  So, we turned around and explored the shoreline toward the mouth of the cove. 

We were surprised to see several summer cabins dotting the shore.  Toward the cove entrance, we came upon a particuarly striking log home with a huge wrap around deck.  A lady was standing on the deck…we waved…she waved…and I hollered to her, “You have a beautiful home!”  She responded, “Tie up next to the sailboat and I’ll give you a tour!”  Yay!  It turned out that she and her husband and their son and daughter-in-law own and operate a beautiful fishing lodge in this cove, “El Capitan Lodge”.  Nancy and her husband, Glen, had purchased the property from a mining company in 1987 and had developed it into this amazing lodge.  Twenty guests, 20 employees, 6 snazzy fishing boats, etc., etc.  They had created beautiful boardwalks lined with flower boxes to connect the various cabins, lodge, dock, and bar.  If you know anyone looking for a beautiful place to stay and fish, this is it!  They even have their own fleet of float planes to ferry guests from Ketchikan airport. 

After we returned to the  boat, we sat outside and grilled salmon for dinner.  Another first for this year!  Although we didn’t see any more bears, we did watch the eagles soar and dive, and had an altogether lovely evening.

By the time we left the next morning, Sunday, July 15, we could see high clouds moving in from the south and the wind was picking up, but we couldn’t get any weather info on the VHF.  Rats!   We had a short cruise to Kaguk Bay and anchored easily, and then sat and watched the wind and waves pick up in this exposed and not very pretty spot.  Guess we cannot have a spectacular anchorage every evening.

Monday, 7/16, we could pick up the weather on the VHF radio and decided we would travel further south.  Although the weather on the ocean-side of the islands was calling for gale warnings, the passage to Craig, our next destination, sounded ok.  Our route would take us through Tonowek Narrows, between Prince of Wales and Hecata Islands.  In big spring tides, this narrows can run 6-8 knots so we did our usual tide and current planning and had a smooth, easy passage.  We passed this colony of seals on the way.

Our anchorage on Monday night, 7/16 was another poor choice.  We stayed in Garcia Cove on San Fernando Island.  This anchorage, although prettier than the night before, was totally exposed to the north and the waves rolled in all night.  For some reason Cosmo Place likes to sit with the beam to the waves, rather than bow into them.  You can imagine how rolly this was!  The cat and I didn’t sleep very well.

Tuesday, July 17, we hauled anchor and headed for Craig.  This town of about 1200 people is another fishing town. According to Wikipedia:  The commercial fishing industry was responsible for Craig's relatively large population compared to neighboring communities.  In the 1930s, record pink salmon runs brought many new settlers.  The 1950s saw a collapse of the fishing industry because of depleted salmon populations.  In 1972, a large sawmill was established nearby providing a steady source of year-round employment.  Today, Craig relies on commercial fishing, fish processing, and the timber industry.

“JT Brown” was a pretty cool mercantile to explore.  Apparently it’s a well-known place to pick up just about anything.  These buildings are in the “downtown” area, near where the original cannery stood.  We visited with a young lady who was working there for the summer.  Originally from Craig, she attended college at Portland State U., Joy’s alma mater.  A small world indeed!

Across the street are two of the original hotels.  Jerry is standing in front of the more colorful one!  Although no longer open, The Craig Inn, must have been quite a place in its day.  The pink exterior with a salmon motif and a whale skull below a set of antlers suggested this hotel must have had a rather eclectic clientele!

Craig’s “downtown” was one of the few we’ve visited where we could see what it could have looked like in its heydey.  The street this hotel sits on ends at the old cannery site, a block or so to the east.  We walked through the old cannery site, and found many of the builidngs still intact although closed up tight.  A large building with a multi-windowed front facing the pier had a display of items washed up on the beaches in the area from the Japanese tsunami.  One of the more remarkable finds was of a basket ball from Japan.  Here’s the story from an Anchorage paper:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A basketball that was washed away in last year's tsunami has been reunited with students at a middle school in Japan.  A beachcombing student found the basketball in March on a beach near Craig, Alaska.  It had the words  "Kesen chu," short for Kesennuma Chugakko or Kesennuma Middle School in Rikuzentakata, printed on it.  Students in Alaska sent back the ball with words of encouragement for the Japanese students, half of whom remain in temporary housing.  Students and school officials in Japan opened the cardboard box and immediately began playing ball. They called the basketball's return a miracle and said it brings back memories.  A soccer ball, volleyball and a buoy, all found in Alaska, also are being returned this week to their owners in Japan by FedEx.

What a sweet story!  Anyway, it was quite interesting to look at the window display.  As you might guess, most of the debris were floats of some kind.  We did see two bright red gas cans with Japanese lettering…my “western” brain had to process that a moment!

Jim and Chris Munch arrived safe and sound via two planes and a taxi to our dock in Craig on Saturday, July 21, about 6 pm.  It was great to see them!  Since Jim needed a fishing license and some gear, we chose to stay in Craig until Monday morning, July 23.  Doing so gave us all day Sunday to further explore Craig and show this little town to Jim and Chris.  On the evening of their arrival we had one of the prettiest sunsets of the summer.   Chris has become an amazing watercolorist, so she painted a picture of Cosmo Place from this photo.  A signed “Chris Munch” original!

Monday morning, July 23, we were scheduled to depart for our tour of the west side of Prince of Wales...but that's a story for the next blog installment.

Wish you could join us for the adventure.