24-25May10 Neka Bay (58'03.089N, 135'39.833W)

We left Auke Bay and headed to a favorite spot of ours in the back of Port Frederick, or as some call it, Hoonah Sound. Weather was absolutely calm and clear, and the crabbing was extraordinary. I put down one pot and came up with twice my allowable daily limit of huge male Dungeness crabs. Four of them were monsters.

We set up a propane burner out on the swim platform and a huge pot to steam the crab without steaming up the boat. Worked great, and we ate freshly caught and steamed crab in butter until it came out our ears, but we barely made a dent in the pile. So we spent the next hour or so busily cracking and picking the meat out of the rest so we could freeze it. We have three more meals worth. An embarrassment of riches.

One other boat came in tonight, the 25th, a sailboat from Palmer, AK, otherwise we've been alone back here with a grizzly sow and her two cubs, one of them almost grown (last year's cub I presume) and a new one from this Spring. Not sure how common that is, but the big cub stayed right with mom while the baby kept wandering off.

The griz, of course, appeared on the same beach that I take Kermodei ashore on for his daily exercise, but that's manageable. The bears are out in the morning and evening, and I take Kermodei ashore on the rising tide in late morning to noon while the bears are snoozing (or so I hope). So far, so good. You don't mess with a momma grizzly and two cubs.

I carry a shotgun loaded with slugs when ashore, along with an air horn that I honk once in a while just to let the bears know I'm there. Debbie sits on the flybridge on bear watch. If she sees any bears approaching us, she will honk the boat horn and Kermodei and I will skedaddle back to the dink and take off. At least that's the plan. The shotgun is strictly a last resort, as I don't want to shoot anything, but if its the bear or Kermodei or me, the bear gets it. Top of the food chain, baby.

22May10 Auke Bay

We had an easy run up to Auke Bay north of Juneau today, and all four boats tied up and found 50 amp power, which is a wonder at Auke Bay. But very few lower-48 boats are up here yet, so the place is pretty empty.

We ran some errands, bought a few more groceries and got ready to head out again. I'm going to be in Auke Bay from 28May to 11June, so I didn't want to spend time there now.

The Three Clowns and the Midget are splitting up now, with Crossroads and Cloudy Bay heading up to Skagway, SKIE staying put waiting for guests before heading to Glacier Bay, and Deb and I heading out to Icy Bay on Monday, the 24th.

Not much to say about Juneau... its a beautiful setting but its still a town and I'd rather be at sea. Kermodei liked running at the elementary school, which was the only flat place around that I could run him.

21May10 Taku Harbor

We motored about 20 miles north to Taku Harbor the next day and tied to the dock to let jittery nerves settle. Turns out that the folks at the dock had their own wild stories. What we'd assumed was a Williwaw wind in Tracy Arm turned out to have swept up the length of Stephens Passage, putting many boats in peril. The old hands at the dock said they'd never seen anything so strong come up so suddenly. The folks in Taku spent the night helping people tie up as they came in to shelter (it was blowing a steady 30+ knots at the dock, fortunately without the Tracy Arm whirlwinds), but out in the channel it was blowing 40+ with huge waves that most boats couldn't handle. One long-liner lost his entire rig as the wind hit him without warning during a set. We had quiet night hanging out with the Juneau locals (Taku is actually managed by Juneau Port Authority) and swapping lies. We had some good ones to share this time.