July 7 to July 28, 2014
Petersburg to Hydaburg
We left Petersburg on Monday July 7th, headed for
Wrangell to pick up our new dinghy motor.
Our route took us down Wrangell Narrows, that partially manmade canal
that separated Mitkof from Kupreanov Islands.
The route was quite familiar to us, even though the first time we went
through here it seemed a little challenging.
Along the Narrows we saw was this logging operation, where the
helicopter delivered logs to the barge.
Although this wasn’t a common sight, we’ve seen it before.
Those logs must be worth quite a bit to use a
helicopter to bring them in.
You probably remember that we lost our dinghy motor several weeks
ago when we were out putting around with family visiting from West Virginia. As Jerry describes it, “We were running just
fine, then we heard a big bang and she quit!”
We ordered a new Honda 20 HP outboard, just like the one mounted on the
dinghy, from Buness Brothers in Wrangell, AK.
Amazingly enough, Wrangell has become a major boating center offering a
variety of marine services including a huge 300-ton Ascom mobile boatlift. Buness Brothers has a shop in downtown
Wrangell that sells everything from furniture to outboards and has a repair
shop that gets high marks.
Since we needed to have the new motor mounted on the dinghy after
the old one was removed, the simplest way to do that was to offload the dinghy
at the crane dock and load it onto a trailer that Terry Buness used. Of course that necessitated our tying up to
the very tall dock…you can see we’re very small in comparison.
The crane hoist came over the side and lifted
the dinghy right out of its cradle on the boat deck…easy as can be!
It did not take Terry long to have the swap completed and, as Jerry
had suspected, the old motor was dead.
Terry gave us a little money for parts he thought he could pull of the
old motor and we were back in business once again.
We left Wrangell on Wednesday, July 9. We were in a tight moorage
in Reliance Harbor, so Terry even came down about 0700 to help us cast
off. Talk about service! While we were topping off our diesel tanks at
the Wrangell Petro dock, I spotted this funny sign! Probably accurate, though.
Our destination was Point Baker on the northwest corner of Prince
of Wales Island. We had stopped here
many times before and found this little community very engaging. We were looking forward to a hamburger at the
café and checking out the new bar that Herb was working on 2 years ago. Imagine our surprise when we found the café
closed, the bar unfinished and no one around!
Apparently Point Baker had fallen on hard times.
The only living being to greet us was this
sea otter. I’m pretty sure he’s the same
one we saw two years ago! I think I
recognize his toothy grin.
Because Point Baker was so depressing, we only stayed one night and
departed on Thursday, July 10, to continue to make our way toward El Capitan
Passage. We met this troller in Sumner
Strait outside Point Baker. Because of
his bow wake, it was evident he was not fishing, but it gave us a good look at
a troller nonetheless.
*RWhile we were
cruising we saw all sorts of boats…even this sad one wrecked on the shore in
Shakaan Strait. I always wonder what the
story of the wreck was and whether the crew survived.
We made our way through the circuitous route of El Capitan Passage,
watching the depths and the channel markers closely. I don’t think this pretty route is a popular
one with summer cruisers. We have yet to
meet anyone as we make our way south…probably a good thing!
I don’t know if you can see all of them in the photo but there are
four red channel markers and 5 green channel markers. We took the red on port and the green on
starboard (contrary to the saying, “Red right returning”), but some of these
looked like they are lined up across the water!
Thank goodness for good charts and GPS.
From the photo of our Nobeltec navigation, at the right, you can see
that we were in 20.8 feet of water and we were cruising at 7.8 knots…our usual
slow pace! Since we had been through here before, we knew what to expect and weren’t too
surprised by the vagaries of the channel.
Soon we were in Sakar Cove, at the south end of the passage and
happily anchored for the night. This was
familiar territory, since we’d anchored here two years ago. In this cove is a lovely fishing lodge, El Capitan Lodge, which, according to
their website, offers “the relaxed atmosphere of our chalet-style lodge where
conversation, hospitality and delicious meals are served in abundance.”
We enjoyed this beautiful sunset, a quiet night, and we ready to
continue on our way the next morning, Friday, July 11. We changed our travel plans due to severe
weather predictions and planned to arrive in Craig this afternoon instead of
tomorrow.
Our passage through Tuxekan Narrows was a non-event, just as we
like it! You can see by the channel
marker that we had little current. As we
travelled through Sea Otter Sound, just as the name implies, we saw lots of sea
otters, whales and birds, but few other boats.
No summer cruisers here…except us!
Two years ago when we moored in Craig we stayed in the North
Harbor, among the commercial fishing boats.
This year, that transient dock was full of fishing boats and had no room
for us, so we took us a chance that there would be moorage in the South Harbor,
which has a much smaller marina.
Look at the lovely spot we found! We had a beautiful view of Bucarelli Bay and the islands. As you can see we arrived in bright sunshine and warm temperatures…in the 60’s…warm enough for shirtsleeves. Yay! From this vantage point we could watch the sport fishermen come and go, watch the activity at the fishing lodge just up the inlet, and have the peace and quiet of South harbor.
Craig is the largest town on Prince of Wales Island, about 1200
people, and has an adequate grocery store, Laundromat, sporting goods store,
and a restaurant. We enjoyed them
all! It felt good to get off the boat
and do a little walking. There was always
something to see, such as this “federal rust project”! You might think
that this little truck didn’t run, but we looked for it a couple of morning later
and it was gone!
On Saturday, July 12, we awoke to more warm sunny skies and decided
to get the dinghy down and put some hours on our new motor. We had not been to Klawock, an Indian town
about 10 miles north of Craig. Klawock
has a totem park, and the only airport on the island. Even though these two claims to fame might
seem in conflict with each other, the residents make it all work. The totem park is a short walk from the
marina and was well worth a stop. We
were surprised to see how different these totems were from the ones we had seen
in Hydaburg two years ago. Later we
learned that Klawock is a Tlinget village where Hydaburg is a Haida
village…totally different artistic styles.
The Klawock totems were all in remarkable good condition and some seemed
new. As is done in Hydaburg, the park is
placed near the K-12 campus.
I am illiterate when it comes to reading totems, and can amuse
myself by making up stories to fit what I see.
I am certain I am absolutely wrong in my interpretations! That being said, I found this one quite
entertaining and thought the message was something like, “My pet sea otter had
too many babies”! What do you think?
By the time we made our way back to Craig, the wind had picked up
and it was a wet ride. Jerry scared me
to death at one point when I heard the Honda sputter and quit…oh no, not again! Well, this time we had run out of gas! Out in the middle of the channel! He handily hooked up the second tank of gas
and we were soon under way again. Gee, I
hadn’t heard that line in a very long time!
July 13, Sunday, we went to church at the Craig Presbyterian Church
and found another warm, welcoming little congregation. They even served lunch after church! What a treat!
Their stained glass windows, behind the altar were some of the best I’ve
seen anywhere:
The pastor told me that they have one more window to complete, but
the artist who did these is no longer around.
They haven’t found another person who is brave enough to create
something comparable to these gorgeous pieces.
Later in the afternoon we walked out to Cemetery Island, which is
connected to the mainland by a causeway.
Interestingly, the baseball diamonds are here along with a lovely walk
through the forest, in addition to the cemetery. I think exploring old cemeteries is fascinating
and fortunately Jerry put up with me!
The grave in the photo is covered in shells and has a yellow aqualung. 
Beth Bream arrived on Monday, July 14, by floatplane into
Craig. We thought she’d land in Klawock
and arrive by taxi a couple of hours later!
She said the floatplane ride from Ketchikan was quite an adventure, since
she sat up front next to the pilot. She
will take a float plane out of Hydaburg, to go back to Ketchikan in two weeks,
and wasn’t quite as excited about the prospect of a second ride!
Tuesday, July 15, we stayed in Craig to get Beth outfitted for fishing
and visited with Tony and Shawn Ogimachi.
We had seen them here two years ago and it was a delight to renew our
acquaintance. They are both educators
from California who come to Craig every summer to commercially hand troll for salmon. They explained that the salmon trolling helped
them to afford taking summers off here in Alaska. Their boat is small, but even so, Tony bring
a ¾ size harp! Quite a dedicated
musician. Shawn shared some “halibut
holes” with us so we were primed to catch lots and lots of halibut!
On Wednesday, July 16, we cast off from the South
Harbor dock and made our way out into Bucarelli Bay in search of fabulous
fish. We tried all three of Shawn’s
halibut holes and Beth caught a lovely 25” coho salmon at one of them! We were so ready to catch many of this fish’s
siblings and offspring but could not find a one! We did catch several rock fish, which we
decided to keep. The fish cleaning job
fell to me…I don’t really mind…but those rock fish were a chore to clean! The creepy part about the process was that as
I was filleting the second side, the fish was still flopping around. Yikes!
It took almost all four fish to have enough for dinner…”Ritz
Rockfish”. That’s a fancy name for fish
pieces dipped in butter, rolled in crushed ritz crackers, and baked.
Our anchorage that night was the south arm of Port
San Antonio. We knew that 20 knot winds
were predicted but we thought we would have good protection in this spot. Nope!
The wind came right down the valley and blew us around all night. Fortunately, Jerry and I are pretty good at
anchoring to we were in no danger, but it did make for a very noisy night! Beth slept in the salon and I slept with my
earbuds in, listening to music on my old iPod all night. Jerry just slept!
Thursday, July 17, we gladly departed that noise
anchorage and were off on our halibut hunt once again. This time we did a little better. At the south end of Port Mayoral I caught a
15-lb halibut! My first halibut catch
and I was thrilled! All right, he wasn’t
huge but he was mine…all mine! Halibut
are so easy to fillet and we were excited to have grilled halibut for
dinner. Do you notice that I was wearing
my slippers in this photo? I had shoes
on while I was fishing, of course, but had changed to slippers to go
inside. Yep, life on the boat is really
hard!
Thursday and Friday night’s anchorages were both
at Port Refugio, one of those spots we had anchored with Jim and Chris Munch in
2012. We made this our base of operations
as we continued to explore halibut holes and search for the elusive
salmon. We caught a zillion rockfish,
which we threw back. Yes, theyr’e good
to eat, but did I say they are a CHORE to clean???
Port Refugio anchorage, although a little exposed,
was a lovely spot. It provided us with
our one bear sighting of Beth’s visit…a sow and three cubs! These were black bears, not grizzlies, and
were foraging along the shore at the tide line.
As you can imagine, we were quite excited.
Our fishing plan so far had failed us miserably,
so on Saturday, July 19, we continued south through Tlevek Narrows and fished
all the likely spots we saw. Again we
caught those annoying rockfish but no salmon or halibut. Transitting the narrows was interesting in
that the current/tide predictions seemed to be an approximation. We expected slack water but had about 0.5 k
of current with us. This night we
anchored in a deep granite basin called W. Arm of Reed Islands Inlet. I don’t think we have anchored in a spookier
place! Once again, it was windy and
rainy, and although we had a well-set anchor, we swung in the wind. The photo should tell you that the place just
was not all that photogenic! When we
pulled the anchor the next morning, we had absolutely no mud on the anchor and
the anchor was wrapped around a rock!
Although our windlass had to work a little to pull up the anchor, we
departed none the worse.
July 20, Sunday, brought another day of
frustrating fishing. We had decided at
this point that we were great at fishing but really bad at catching! We tried all day but caught only those
miserable rockfish! Our anchorage this
night was in Dunbar Inlet. This was
another rather exposed anchorage, although a pretty one, and both Beth and I
had to deal with the noise of the waves against the hull of the boat. We saw lots of birds here, including these
engaging little surf scoters with their orange bills.
Monday, July 21, we decided to return to
Craig. We were out of bait (herring) and
I need a new fishing pole. I was certain
that my 50-year-old rod and reel were the entire reason I was having such
miserable luck! Once again, we moored in
the South Harbor…in the same spot we’d parked before. We resupplied and walked to the Dockside
Restaurant for hamburgers! This little restaurant,
in downtown Craig, was across the street from the old pink, Craig Inn and the
only place that served food. We visited
with a Canadian couple for White Horse.
They trailered their small boat to Skagway and were cruising SE Alaska
for three weeks. Wow! Very adventurous.
Tuesday, July 22, reprovisioned and reinspired, we
left Craig to once again search for the very shy salmon and halibut. The guys at the sporting goods store where I
bought my fancy new rod and reel told us the locals were catching salmon at
“Pineapple, Tranquility, and Steamboat”.
We did a little asking around to figure out where these places were
(never did figure out “pineapple”!) and headed for Noyes Island, out toward the
ocean. You will notice I have not posted
any beautiful fish photos…skunked once again!
We gave up about 1600 and went in search of that night’s anchorage. We made our way between Noyes and Lulu
Islands down St Nicholas Channel and into Port Real Marina. Athough this route was rockier it was beautiful. We saw two whales having a whale-slapping
contest in Siketi Sound! I wish I could
show you a photo, but they were too far away.
We passed more seals resting on the rocks and I did get this shot. You might think they were resting on the top
of the water, but there really was a rock underneath them.
We found a lovely anchorage just behind Muerta
Island…that’s Dead Island” in Spanish!
Yikes! We found a perfect muddy
bottom in about 40’ of water and dropped the hook. This turned out to be one of our quieter and
prettier anchorages, and watched the seals and otters as evening
descended.
Wednesday, July 23, Beth’s and my fishing licenses
expired at 1400 so we were on our last fishing excursion. We stopped at an earlier spot and joined two
other sport fishermen who were also looking for halibut. In fact, one of them had just caught a 63-lb
halibut! We were inspired…and skunked
once again. It just was not meant to
be. However, we were out on the water in
the warm sunshine, watching the whales spout and the birds dive…not all that
bad!
Wednesday afternoon we pulled in to Hyudaburg and
kept our fingers crossed that the rumors of new docks were true. (When we arrived here in 2012, we found
sinking docks and boat sitting on the bottom of the slips!). We were delighted to see a lovely new
marina! We were the only boat on B
dock, except for “Haida Maid” who had obviously seen better days! Although the docks aren’t compelted…no power
or water…we were happy to be there.
We gave Beth the grand tour of this 400-person
Indian town, chuckling at the quirky things we saw, such as this unique way to
store trucks, and several houses with their own house totem poles.
The next stop was the carving shed where the four
poles for Friday’s ceremony were being completed. The carving shed, at the far end of town, was
an impressive building full of activity.
The scent of cedar was in the air and the master carvers were hard at
work completing their tasks. We were
warmly welcomed and they patiently explained what was going on.
We saw that the two bear mortuary poles were far
from completion. Fortunately, the two
house poles were done and ready to be placed in the totem park on Friday. These poles were at least 12 feet tall and
weighed about 500 pounds. They were made
out of old red cedar and were absolutely gorgeous. House poles were used to support the roof of
a long house and depicted the history of the chief whose house was supported. These house poles were from Kasaan.
The carving of the bear poles was just being
completed and rather than being painted, the bear mortunary poles would be
stained to preserve the red cedar.
Hmmmm, maybe they would get it all done!
You can see one of the master carvers, sitting by the unfinished bear
pole. Pay attention to him…he’s
important later in my story.
Thursday, July 24, Culture Camp for the kids was
wrapping up. The camp felt sort of like
Vacation Bible School, with lots of crafts and activities for the kids. Rather than having Bible-oriented themes,
though, the crafts were centered around Haida culture. The kids made talking sticks, wove baskets
and headbands out of reeds, painted T-shirts in Haida motiffs, and learned
about edible forrest plants. At the
carving shed, anyone who wanted could “carve” a Haida paddle. We arrived entirely too late to do get ours
done, but we did begin the shaping process.
Beth arrived at the shed before we did (Jerry and I stopped at the city
clerk’s office to pay our moorage). Beth
and Jerry were intent in their discussion about Beth’s paddle.
The finished red cedar is beautiful in itself, but
the colors of the Haida symbols are elegant on this life-sized paddle.
This last day of culture camp we were served
lunch: halibut burgers, halibut spread on crackers, and macaroni salad. Yum!! We were toward the back of the serving line and visiting with the folks around us when a young man came up to me and handed me a filled plate. Wow! Pretty soon he returned with plates for Beth and Jerry! We later learned that it is a Haida custom to servce the elders first! Hmmmm, I guess that’s a good idea….
Friday, July 25, was the day to move all four
poles. Yep, they had finished to two
bear mortuary poles! Since Culture Camp
is oriented toward exposing the kids to Haida culture, everyone thought the
kids should help move the poles! You can
see their straining faces as they walked by me.
It is also common for the little kids to ride on top of the poles as
they are moved from the carving shed to the totem park, and little Joss is
dressed for the event.
This young lady below came dressed
appropriately. It was chilly, windy, and
rainy. Many who came to watch the poles
be moved wore traditional Haida regalia, or wore Haida motiffs on their
clothes…a very colorful parade route!
Well, you can imagine how hard it was for the kids
to carry these poles and soon the adults were recruited.
Jerry stepped up to the plate, of
course. The route from the carving shed
to the totem park is about ¾ of a mile and up one serious hill.
Periodically the pole carriers were able to
take a break and set the poles on sawhorses that followed along behind. We guessed that each person probably carried
50 – 60 pounds of weight, and maybe more, because not many of the kids carried
much weight.
In the photo at right, they’re just getting the
house pole that Jerry helped carry put into place. At this point it was raining steadily and we
walked back to the boat for lunch and a nap!
The photo shows Jerry standing by the pole
he helped carry.
Friday evening was the festival and the feast, held in the high school gym. Traditional Indian dancers came from all over
SE Alaska to participate. Everyone in
town and all the guests and out-of-towners were first invited to enjoy Haida
hospitality and cooking. We were served
salmon, halibut, venison, turkey, ham, shrimp, clams, and quite a variety of
salads. The most interesting one was
made of sea asparagus. I cannot say it
was my favorite, but it certainlly had an interesting texture and taste.
Following the feast, the various dancers in their
traditional regalia entertained us. When
we get together, I wish I could show you the videos I took so that you can hear the music. The photo gives you a good idea, though. The only "accompaniment to the dancing were hand held drums.
Saturday July 26 was scheduled to be a day of
games and contests for the Haida kids.
It turned out to be rainy and windy and we stayed on the boat, or, as I
like to call it, “a day at sea!” We
read, and worked on photos, and played cards.
It was nice to have a quiet day.
Jerry took a walk in the rain and stopped to admire a fisherman’s
halibut catch as he was cleaning fish at the new cleaning station. Apparently Jerry said the right words because
the fisherman gave us about 5 pounds of fresh halibut! Of course we had halibut for dinner that
night!
On Sunday July 27, we had decided to go to church
in Hydaburg. Although we were told
service started at 1000, church really didn’t begin until 1100. Rather than walk back to the boat in the
rain, we visited with the pastor, Willie, and his brother Frank. They had both grown up in rural Mississippi
and had the “twang” to prove it.
Attendance was small, about 20, and turned out to be a gospel-sing and
sermon. I thought I knew a lot of gospel
songs, but they introduced some new ones!
The song book was new to me, too!
The church was nominally Presbyterian, and had
been here for quite some time. The
sanctuary was all wood and stained glass and felt similar to the church in
Craig. Once again, we were so glad we
had made the effort to visit this congregation and met more delightful Hydadurb
residents. We were even invited to stay
for a lunch of soup and sandwiches!
After church, it was back to the boat in the rain
(Jerry and Beth going down the road in the photo at left says it all!) for
naps, writing, reading and playing cards.
Yep, it’s a tough life! On our
way back to the boat we stopped to admire one of the master (remember that guy
several pages ago?) totem carvers his clean salmon catch and he gave us two
lovely fillets! We need to hang out at
the cleaning station more often!
Monday, July 28, Beth departed…by car instead of a
float plan as she had expected…to catch a float plane in Hollis to go to
Ketchikan. We will leave tomorrow to make
our way back to Craig where we meet Jim Munch on August 2.
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