9 Aug 2009 Red Bluff Bay 56º 52.29' N, 134º 47.06' W

AK is amazing; the vistas are so remarkable, that one runs out of adjectives -- beautiful, wild, majestic etc, etc. Last night we anchored in Red Bluff Bay which comes off Chatham Strait and runs 5 miles up a narrow valley to the head where there is a intricate waterfall (one of many within the bay). Fish jumping; eagles munching; something interesting every direction you turn.

We're crossing Chatham Strait now and will stop tonight in Halleck Harbor, Saginaw Bay, Kuiu Island 56º 54.60'N, 134º 12.36' W. It's just a couple of hours east from Red Bluff. Tomorrow we'll do 60 miles or so from Halleck to Petersburg.

Spent some time this morning rigging a connection between the salt-water deck wash pump and the water-maker. We're hearing from friends down the line, that the great weather in SE AK the past couple of weeks has reduced freshwater supplies in many of the small town and they're not sharing with transiting cruising vessels. The low pressure booster pump died recently and I've been cogitating on how to get the system going again and today with Dorothy's and Craig's help, I think we've got it - making water now into the stbd freshwater tank. I'll see if we can get some kind of Y-valve with the proper sized fittings in Petersburg, so that we can put the deck wash function back in operation as well as the water-maker.

Right now as we transit across the Chatham Stait, about 12 miles wide on an ebb flow of about 1.2 knots, we've got flat water with a bit of a swell in it and everything is shades of gray - the sky is low hanging fog a hundred feet above us; the water is gray to the horizon where there's just a hint of a blue line, that is maybe my imagination. It's like some kind of dream sequence in that there are all kinds of colors inside the pilothouse, but outside the windows there are only shades of gray...