Four nights in Sitka (10th-13th Aug), checking out the town with guidance from Shirley and Wade. Shirley has lived in Sitka during the winters for many years, and Wade lived here part-time a couple of years, and also captained tour boats here a couple of summers.

Sitka is a great place and is definitely in contention for the title of our favorite town in Alaska - the soda bar at the pharmacy (great milkshakes!); a local chocolate manufacturer; Baraonoff Island Brewery; the Bear Fortress; the old Russian Orthodox church; the setting and the people.

On the harbor floats the fishing fleet was doing R&R for a 1 week closure and getting ready for re-opening on 14 Aug Saturday. Lots of people around.

We lucked out and the drizzly, cold, foggy weather we'd experienced most of our time at Elfin Cove, turned into brilliant blue skies, shorts, t-shirts and sandals weather. Friday night (13th - Dorothy's mom's birthday: Happy Birthday Jean!) we caught a performance by a blue grass band out of W.Virginia - the Half-Time String Band. The performance was held in a beautifully decorated tribal community house.

Saturday mid-morning, under brilliant blue skies, we departed Eliason Harbor, Sitka and proceeded south down Sitka Sound to Pirate Cove N56º59.36' W135º22.26' and Samsing Cove N56º59.32' W135º21.75'. To get there it was necessary to 'run the gauntlet' of dozens of gill-netting fish boats. With all the great 'local knowledge' we had aboard, we easily made our way to an anchorage. Inside Pirate Cove and around a corner, there's a lovely sandy beach - the shallow white sand bottom had warmed the water to the point where wading and a little swimming were quite comfortable. Hard to believe but Rusty even did some swimming; not quite voluntary, but not panicked either.

Sunday we upped anchor and cruised north, back across Sitka Sound to St Lazarius Island, which is a bird sanctuary with puffins and other large bird populations. It was again a beautiful blue sky day, and the view of Mt. Edgecomb - an extinct volcano - were majestic. After a slow circumnavigation of St Lazarius, we rounded Cape Edgecomb heading north up the coast of Kruzof Island to our next anchorage, Goleta Cove N57º10.11' W135º47.82'. Entry is made over an area the e-chart is showing as drying at low tide (not the case). After anchoring, we again dinghy-ed in to a sandy beach - this time much larger than Pirate Cove, but not so conducive to swimming. It's a steeper shore, and dark bottom, so the water there was significantly colder than the previous day, but we did some wading, a lot of dog-watching, some treasure hunting, some hole-digging and driftwood standing all on a lazy, sunny afternoon. Chili for dinner, sea otters feeding near the boats at sunset and a movie rounded out a fairly perfect day.

Overnight was not so perfect as the wind and sea shifted towards morning, coming into Goleta Cove, causing a lot of movement and noise between DavidEllis and Alpenglow which were rafted up together. Rather than take a dinghy ride to a another cove likely to have numbers of sea otters, we got underway enroute back to Sitka via Cape Edgecomb and Sitka Sound. The first half of Monday's transit was in the fog - with trollers working all around us as the king salmon season had opened - but after rounding the cape, the fog cleared and we made the rest of the way into harbor, surrounded 360º by wonderful Alaskan scenery.

Late afternoon, after tying up back in Eliason Harbor, the wind came up and Tuesday morning the rain came as well. Now Wednesday and the rain and wind has gotten serious. We spent the late morning visiting with Don & Reanne Douglass - authors of a whole series of Pacific Northwest cruising guides - aboard DE. Later we toured the Seafood Producers Cooperative processing plant, where Wade's friends John & Michelle on FV Deep Sea were unloading their king salmon take. The operation appeared to be first class, giving me a real appreciation for what's involved in putting quality seafood into the grocery stores.

It looks like we'll be underway again this Friday 20 Aug, southbound towards Ketchikan via Chatham Strait and the west side of Prince of Wales Island, including Sea Otter Sound. Mac has to be in Ketchikan 1 September to catch the ferry to Bellingham. This way he can spend some time with friends in Seattle before flying home to OZ around the 10th. It looks like Wade will also leave us in Ketchikan, and Dorothy and I will make our way down to Seattle in the 2-3 weeks following.