Friday 27 Aug we cruised into the town of Craig AK (Prince of Wales Island) N55º28.42' W133º08.70' Craig is a logging and fishing town with plenty of services and friendly people. We spent one night, went to dinner and also replaced genset battery. The genset and I are now much happier.

Saturday 28 Aug underway at 0530, to catch the slack tide at Tlevak Narrows (aka "The Skookum Chuck") N55º16.02' W133º07.59 0800, some whirlpools and eddies but not enough to create any drama. We'd thought to make a long run around the bottom of POW (Cape Chacon) but the weather forecast for the next couple days turned more benign than anticipated and we decided to slow down and check the area out a bit.

We picked Kassa Inlet N54º55.62' W132º32.32' for our Saturday anchorage; going back in and toward the north we came upon what must have been 100 sea otters. Although we never got closer than a quarter mile to them, while we slowly motored into the bay, the whole bunch stampeded - porpoising frantically - a behavior I've never seen before in otters. Once inside the bay, we settled on a little, well-protected pocket cove.

In the morning (Sunday 29 Aug), we idled out at low tide checking out other anchorage areas. This again is the kind of area one could come back to and explore by dinghy and kayak for a week or so.

Turning south out of Kassa Inlet into Cordova Bay, we transited through small passages - Ship Island Passage; Little Passage and Eureka Channel. These are in the Barrier Island group west of the southmost peninsula of POW I. Between the exit from Ship Island Passage and the entrance to Little Passage is a marker at Wallace Rock. In that area, gliding along glass-flat water, we saw humpbacks feeding as well as another whale type - maybe sei or fin - an orca which had taken a seal and lots more sea otters. A spectacular area, which we will definitely come back to.

Rounding Cape Chacon west to east, at the top of Dixon Entrance (staying just above the US / Canadian border) we entered Clarence Strait and anchored in Gardner Bay N54º49.44' W131º57.37'. Once inside a little one-boat cove caught our fancy, as a place to try a shore-tie anchorage (our first attempt at this). Unfortunately after 3 attempts we still hadn't been able to set our anchor on the bottom, and moved farther down into Gardner to raft up with Alpenglow. The sun came out and we had a very pleasant afternoon / evening including stars and moon.

Monday 30 August, Dorothy took the helm, motored out of Gardner Bay and set a NE course, up and across Clarence Strait to Nichols Passage and into Ketchikan. We docked in a stiff breeze at Bar Harbor. Since this was Wade's last night with us, and Mac's next to last, we had dinner in town, along with Kurt & Marcia to celebrate a successful summer in SE Alaska. Shortly after getting back to the boats, it began to rain in earnest, which continued all night and through the morning.

It's now lunchtime Tuesday 31 Aug, and the sun has finally broken through - false alarm, back to raining. Wade has departed for the Ketchikan airport for his flight to Seattle; Mac is doing some last chance gift-buying downtown and Dot is doing laundry. Rusty knows his crew is whittling down and is moping a bit. But we might have a surprise for him in about a week. We expect to be here in Ketchikan til the end of the week. Then, weather permitting, along with Alpenglow, we'll cross Dixon entrance, starting the passage down the BC coast towards Seattle.

PS You may recall my mention of Hoonah, a Tlingit-tribe village west of Juneau, on the way to Elfin Cove. We've been into there twice in the past two summers. The town reminded me a lot of my time as a resident deputy sheriff in the northwest corner of Sonoma County back in the mid-late 70s. In the past couple days, while we've been enjoying the spectacular sights on Prince of Wales Island, two of the three police officers working in Hoonah were murdered by a local. One of the officers mother was visiting him from Florida and riding along, only to witness her son's murder; the other officer was off-duty with his wife and two small children and was executed (in front of his family) going to the aid of the first officer... To my many law enforcement friends still working: stay safe.