Had a great visit with (daughter) Kate! Only a week but we managed to get her out underway on DE – Kate’s been on the boat before, but never underway. The weather was great, so we jumped on it and cruised down to St Lazaria Island, a bird preserve SW of Sitka, with Mt Edgecumbe in the background (if you scroll back to 8/18/2010 in the blog, there’s an applicable pic).

It was breezier out at Lazaria this trip than last, and fewer birds, so we didn’t stay long, but headed directly east to Cape Burunoff which has Samsing Cove and Pirate Cove. As with last year, we had to run the gauntlet of seiners to get inside Samsing and anchor. After a skiff trip to a small beach with the dogs, we tried running up to Pirate Cove (which is not such a great place for anchoring a boat our size, but has a really great sandy beach).

Breezy and choppy running up there, and once we got inside and to the beach we had a bit of a social disaster: I could see there were a couple of young women on the beach, and we landed down away from them, but the minute we were in shallow water, the boys – Rusty & Rascal – leaped off the boat into the water then onto the beach headed for the girls… and their life-size 3D mermaid in the sand, which although they did not totally destroy it, the dogs did do a fair amount of damage, then charged back behind the beach into their camp, ran through there – no damage, but as I was corralling one dog, I’m pretty sure the other pooped in close proximity to the camp. I got both Rs back into the skiff and apologized repeatedly to the girls, but I’m pretty sure they thought we were the rudest people on the face of the earth, and I don’t blame them. Girls, if you happen to be reading this, once again I apologize, and really Rusty & Rascal are great guys, just a little enthusiastic at times.

Beautiful golden sunlit morning in Samsing Cove the next day, and underway again, north (stopping briefly at the transient dock in Sitka so Dorothy and Kate could run into town and get Kate a pair of proper size Xtra Tufs, the official SE AK footgear). Then northbound again, this time up to Beehive and Nakwasina Passage, dropping anchor at Allen Point. On the beach again, we found a camp just off the beach, and a well-maintained trail running from one side of the point to the other where there was a mooring and a cabin. Proof that when one’s life is easy, one will find a way to make it more difficult: rather than take the aforementioned well-developed trail back to the original side of the peninsula, we bush-wacked thinking we’d cross the trail, which did not happen – good thing there are no ticks up here… are there?

The following day was looking like rain so we headed for town. Lots to do in / around Sitka: Totem pole trail (National Park), Fortress of the Bear (five bears there now), Raptor Center (Dorothy and Kate said it was great), the soda fountain at the drugstore, Native American singing/dancing at the tribal house and lots of great shopping. While Dot and Kate shopped, I spent some time with the guys at Precision Boatworks seeing about some stainless steel work on the swimstep rail to mount a sailing winch for lifting the outboard engines between DE and the skiff.

After a day and night in town, there was sun once again so we headed back out, this time up to Magoun Island. Immediately after dropping anchor, we headed for a long beach we’d spotted south of Magoun. It turned out to be perfect with trails inside the trees, a really long beach for running dogs, and a long shelf of shallow water just off the beach. Some of you may know that Rusty is no waterdog – he’ll do just about anything to avoid getting his feet, or any other part wet. Last summer, our Gilligan-for-the-summer Mac, carried Rusty out into chest high water (at Pirates Cove actually, scene of the previously described beach atrocity) on a nice sunny day with warm water, and the boy tolerated it, but definitely did not like it. Rascal on the other hand, is oblivioso and will launch himself off the bow of the dinghy well before we’re ashore plunging over his head and just head for the beach (several times I’ve had to grab him out of the water as he walked right off the dock in Petersburg and other times missed his jump back onto DE from the skiff). But this day, 23 July 2011, Rusty the Tong Gau walked out into the water off this unnamed beach and swam for sticks, repeatedly. Dorothy and I jumped up and down, cheering, yahooing, clapping and generally making a celebratory nuisance of ourselves, joined by Kate who may have not entirely understood the monumental-ness of the situation, and Rusty gives me a look saying “what’s the big deal dad?” Kids!

On the way back to DE, we scouted out a couple of the other coves on Magoun and found our boat buddies from last year, Alpenglow. A quick visit and back to DE for a freshwater rinse for a couple of wet & sandy dogs… but wait, there’s more fun: the freshwater pump decided to crap out (well, it has been running continuously for 5-6 years – I think I may have replaced the original not too long after taking delivery) and it took a couple of hours to sort that out (a good part of that finding the spare… how can things get lost on a 50’ boat, it doesn’t seem reasonable).

The following morning, the sky was grey and breezy, we were out at the end of our anchor rode and it was time to go. A bumpy ride was had on the way back to Sitka; the wind was really ripping, creating a significant chop on sections where there was some fetch for it to work on; fortunately inside the breakwater, the wind was much mitigated and we were able to pull into a slip with no drama. But waiting for us on the float…

Were Charlie and Lynda, whose names I did not remember, but whose persons I did. They visited us on DE, in Hong Kong late 2008. Have I mentioned it’s a small world? They’ve been cruising up here for many years, in fact have just sold their boat of 30 years and will deliver it to Seattle next month. Very nice folks, we look forward to spending more time with them, and picking their brains for the good cruising spots.

And speaking of great people: while still in Wrangell, we met Jeff and two of his three boys, aboard Myrtle C. Jeff works up on the North Slope two weeks on / two off, lives in Anchorage and keeps his boat in Hoonah. This summer (and last too, I think) on his two weeks off, Jeff and the boys fly down SE AK and cruise, then back to Anchorage for the boys and work for Jeff, and two weeks later, cruising again. Making great memories…

Kate flew out this morning (0600) and it’s raining as it has been the last couple days. The area needs it, as the lake which feeds one of the local hot springs (Goddard) is so low, there’s no (or maybe not enough) lake water flowing into the springs and the temp there is said to be 145degF! That’ll hard-boil your eggs! We took today off from everything; just reading, watching some flicks, quick (wet) walks with the boys. Craig and Anne will fly in Friday and we’ll start a new adventure, headed for Skagway. Stay tuned kids…