May 27 Punch Bowl to Walker Bay

 

 

May 27 – Punch Bowl to Walker Bay

 

First thing – check those pots.  Pete was excited as he got 9 prawn and 0 crab (he has been the loser in most pulls).  Diane got some Prawn and 2 crab (I think she is still overall in the lead).  Steve pulled his and Glen’s pots and between them we had another couple dozen Prawn and 6 crab.  Those coupled with the harvest of last night will be great.  Prawn something tonight.   The crab went into the crab hotel and hung over the side to keep them alive.

 

Some of the boys all hiked up to the waterfall and lake.   The trail was reported to be quite muddy and really more of a scramble in places.  This is the lake that in 2013 Glen and Nat hiked to and they found a small shelter/cabin of sorts and a small boat and canoe.  The guys said that the lake was much the same – Beautiful.  While there, Glen tried to carve a plug for the boat that he and Nat had tried to sink on the last trip.  Glen got the plug in and that leak was solved but there was now a bigger leak on one of the seams so …. No dinghy ride across the lake.   Brian tried his hand at fly fishing – no luck.   Willard and Steve explored.  They all reported that the waterfall was amazing as was the lake.   The trail was in their opinions not horrible, but quite wet and slippery.  Haven’t watched it yet but Glen apparently videoed while hiking down.  Oh bear scat on the trail so yep there are bear in the area.

 

Meanwhile back at the flotilla Pete, Gary, Robert, and Jim helped Jim practice his drone flying.  He has been doing fly overs in several locations on this trip learning more about drone flying each time. He is getting pretty good and the videos are quite amazing.  The ladies - Janie, Cheryl, Linda, Lenore, Diane, Michelle, and I all did boat based stuff:  Reading, cooking, cleaning, etc..   I gave Michelle her first lesson in bread making – French Bread today.  Four loafs of yummy bread were produced.  I tried to make Willard a loaf of Gluten Free French …. It didn’t work.  Looked more like a very large cracker.  Hardtack came to my mind.  Humm, it might make good breadcrumbs. Back to the drawing board for Gluten Free Bread making.  

 

The cruise between Punch Bowl and Walker is about 2 hrs.  Nice smooth water all the way.  There was water falling everywhere – the waterfalls that had been dry on our way in were spilling large amounts of water.   Oh it rained quite a bit yesterday and all night. 

 

On arriving in Walker Bay, there were two boats on the buoys on the grassy meadow side.  Prime Bear country.   Before even anchoring the first boat (Magic) I spotted Bear on the beach.   A momma and three cubs.   Down the beach further was another Mom and cub.    The plan ‘had been’ to get anchored up, and everyone report to Sea Jay for ‘Happy Hour’ before a big group dinner to be held on Nelsea.  So that we could have dinner somewhere close to the dinner hour like normal people.  This was preempted by getting dinghies down and a bear viewing adventure. 

 

 

 

The bear family at the end of the bay had moved on.   But on the closer shoreline there was momma and her 3 cubs, and down the beach a ways was another momma and her cub.  

The mom of 1, had a good sized cut on her tail, almost looked like part of the tail was missing.   Looks like she got in a fight with someone.   Gary and Jim said that when they were here last week that she kept going to the water and sitting in it ‘soaking’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of the bears were eating grass.  Two of the sibling cubs were playing – wrestling, rolling around on the ground, then standing to stand wrestle and just plain having fun.  Their sibling watched for a bit and then moved over near mom and chomped on grass, but kept looking over as if to say either: “I want to play too!” or  “You two, are so silly – someone could get hurt”.     

 

 

 

 

I love you bro!

 

 

 

We had a great show.  Time to go back to the boats.  

 

Preparations for dinner was followed by a group dinner for 15 on Nelsea.   Grilled Prawn Kabobs (with mushrooms, tomatoes, onion etc), Salad, Beef Tri-Tip, Rice, Broccoli, and fresh bread, all followed by Lenore’s dessert.  She is the dessert queen as she can make anything into something.  This time it was some kind of bar cookie made with ‘crackers’, brown sugar, peanut butter, chocolate, and walnuts.  I don’t think anyone (other than Willard and I) ate less than 2-3 pieces each.  Once again our dinner was fashionably late, finishing about 9:15pm.      After dinner everyone went ‘home’ and did whatever they did.  I was looking over my bear photos and Glen started a movie.  He promptly fell asleep. 

 

 

 

Punch Bowl

 

May 26 – Punch Bowl

 

 

Entering Punch Bowl --- turn right at the point.

 

 

 

 

The trail to the waterfall and lake start to the right of this stream, and then heads up to the left thru the draw.  The hillside on the left is the very bottom of that huge wall seen in the previous photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sailboat in this photo is Salpare

 

 

Punch Bowl is a gorgeous place.  Huge high rock walls around a very deep bay. The end of the bay is shallow which make for long sand/muddy ‘beach’ at low tide.   Evidence of lots of clams but we did not dig any.  Uplands of the beach is very grassy with a creek; looks like a likely spot to see bear.  

 

 

 

We all piled into 2 dinghies and Nellie (the shore/fishing boat towed by Nelsea) and went for a short exploration cruise.  Whomever said ‘short’ cruise was mistaken 3 ¼ hrs later we were back.   Amazing views of high rock walls, meadows, snowcapped mountains – some right above us, and yep we found snow within walking distance on the shoreline.   Dirty snow but still snow (ok at this point more like ice).  This was in the same spot that we found snow three years ago.  

 

 

 

There are a lot of float planes in the area bringing people off the cruise ships out for some adventure and viewing.   One came in, landed, and went to shore a couple 100 feet to the right of the snow.  They off loaded their guests and all walked around a bit.  But none of them even headed in the direction of the snow.   I don’t think they knew it was snow, as it looked like a couple large light colored rocks at the bottom of a huge wall.   They missed a great photo opportunity.   We took a couple photos of our shore scouting party up by the snow.  Let’s just say that they looked like midgets walking under a huge bridge.  In the photo below the midget Glen is in the peach colored shirt.

 

    

 

 

Other photos to show the area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diane and her catch. 

 

 

 

 

Magic’s Harvest – one pull – 57 prawn, most quite large.

 

 

 

The Roche Rovers flotilla grew while we were out.  Noon Balloon and Sea Jay joined the group.

 

Oh today Sea Life got word that they did get a permit into Glacier Bay for 7/25-7/28; so at least they are in.  We’ll play the game to try to get more days. 

 

 

 

 

 

May 25 - Ketchikan to Punch Bowl

 

 

May 25 – Ketchikan to Punch Bowl

 

 

Tom and Chris are headed home today (flying) so that they can move Tom’s folks to a new assisted living facility in Gig Harbor from San Juan Island.  They will be back about the 4^th.

We are dropping them off at the airport dock on our way out of town this morning.

 

We are headed to the area of Misty Fjord, with the first stop being Punch Bowl.   It has been Misty all day so they named the Fjord appropriately.  We’ll also be going to Walker Bay where there have been quite a few Grizzly (mom with cubs) sighting in the last couple weeks.

 

We stopped out in the middle by the ‘special island’ for about an hour.   Glen and Diane were trying to get some internet access from Nelsea’s Satellite system.   We’ve been playing the game with Glacier Bay trying to get our permits.  It’s a pain in the back side.   You have no way to know when they have openings, and you have to do all requests on the official form by email just after midnight no more than 60 days before you want to enter the Bay.   We have been submitting nightly at 12:01am trying to get a permit.   First for July 21-25, then July 22-26, then July 23-27 ….. all denied.  We tried again early this morning and got Magic approved for July 24-17 but Sea Life was denied again – no room in the inn.   They only allow some relatively small number of boats in the bay at any one time.  And that includes the commercial tour boats and cruise ships.  They also only allow 13 recreational boats to pre-sign up per date.   Which means if someone signs up for say the 18-22th, then that boat counts as 1 for each of those dates.  But they also hold a few extra slots for last minute sign ups.  So that means that they allow people to call in 48 hours before they want to go in and see if there are any open permits for the date 48 hours later.   So here is the game plan now, since we don’t have any internet access for a few days.   We emailed the Thomas’ request form to Diane’s brother Paul, with the request that he send it in at 12:01am tonight (1:01am Seattle time) – now asking for the 25-28^th.  Then later in the trip when that 48 hour window opens we will start calling early in the morning to see if we can get in for additional days prior to our current permit.   We will do this for Willard and Diane as well.  Glen also called the folks at Glacier Bay today to see if there was some other problem.   Nope, just a popular time for people to go.  Keep your fingers crossed.    I say if we can’t get both boats in we should put all four couples on Magic and turn it into a boat slumber party.

 

 

We pulled into Punch Bowl and found Fran and Jeff – Salpare anchored there.   They were on a hike to the waterfall but came by on their way back to their boat for a brief chat.   It started raining about the time we dropped anchor.   Once anchored the guys went out to put the pots down.   Michelle has been baking cookies and the bay smells like a bakery ….  Maybe that will attract a bear or two down to the waters edge tonight.   Spirit Bear caught up and joined the raft about 6:30pm.   Linda had to go see a doctor this morning and now has an arsenal of antibiotics. 

 

It’s Mexican night, so Taco’s and Margarita’s are on the menu.  Chicken, Beef, Shrimp, and Crab Taco’s or Taco Salads.  

 

 

Still Ketchikan

May 24 – Ketchikan

 

We spent the day in Ketchikan, walking the town, visiting the yacht club, taking in the tourist sites, Creek street etc…  I managed to not buy anything this trip.  The Nelson’s bought a beautiful piece of artwork for their Whistler Condo.

 

Had lunch at the Artic Bar – home of the Happy Bears.  The photo below shows the street side view of the place.   They don’t serve food so you order burgers etc… in the bar, they run they send the orders across the street to the “Burger Queen” and they deliver back to the customers in the bar.  Burger Queen has great burgers. 

 

 

Back to the boat in the afternoon for some work.   I had two conference calls.  Glen made a tent over the dinghy, put a heater up there and he and Willard tried to do the repair work.  Time will tell if the new glue holds but we are not going to use the dinghy for a few days to give the glue a chance to work.   In the mean time we’ll look like the Clampets with a tarp tent over our dinghy to keep it warm and dry, well dry anyway.

 

Dinner was on Sea Life --- fresh crab cakes, salad, and bourbon crab bisque. Another meal that was just hard to deal with …. All that fresh crab, what’s a person to do?  

 

May 23 - Ketchikan

 

 

May 23 – Ketchikan

 

 

I woke up at my normal 5am, and came upstairs to read and write a bit.  Wait, it’s Alaska time, so it was really 4am.  Hum, might need a nap this afternoon.  The morning started out misty and gray.  There are Eagles all over the marina this morning.  Perched atop boats watching, and a few times when one would make the call, and 8-10 would fly in a semi orderly frenzy, each swooping down to pull a small fish out of the water.  When they all had their catch they were back on a perch having a bit of breakfast. 

 

There appears to be more wind this morning.  I think we made a good decision in crossing yesterday. We have decided to stay two nights in Ketchikan.  Time for a bit or provisioning with things like fruit and vegetables that we could not bring from Canada.  We will also do the tourist things, like visiting Creek Street etc…  Willard and Diane are first timers so they need to experience the town and its history.   Hopefully we can time it so we aren’t in the heart of town when 4-5 cruise ships worth the people are also walking the streets.   But the first thing for Glen this morning will be to head off to arrange dinghy repair.  Hopefully this just means finding the correct kind of glue. 

 

The Matheson’s – Sea Jay  and the Timm’s – Noon Balloon  came into port today.  So we now have 7 boats together.  That made for a nice dinner out for 14 good friends. 

 

 

 

Back in the USA! Welcome to Alaska

 

 

 

May 22 -   Welcome to Alaska     Back in the USA!    

 

 

Cruise Ships --- it must be Ketchikan.

 

Morning in Prince Rupert.   The weather forecast still sounds iffy at best.  Reports say 30 knot winds and up to 11 foot seas.  That does not make for a good crossing.

 

About 8am the guys all talked and decided that they thought the forecast was wrong or that we should go out see what we find.   Are you guys nuts?!!!!!    So off we went.

 

 

 

 

We made the crossing fine with just rollers and not a lot of wind.  I prepared for the worst and did my thing for hunkering down and sleeping thru as much as possible.  The rollers and I don’t get along all that well so sleeping is a good thing, I also watched a movie.  When I woke from my second nap, I found cookies next to me.  I guess Glen was celebrating that I made it thru another crossing and giving me a reward.  What a nice guy.    Apparently the weather forecasters were confused again. 

 

We are about 16 miles from Ketchikan.  The sun is out and the water is quite nice.  I’m a happy camper.    

 

We cleared customs at the fuel dock in Ketchikan at 5 pm Alaska time.  There was quite a line at the fuel dock.  The Mother Goose boats and a tour boat from Seattle that was repositioning for the summer.  J  

 

There were 4 cruise ships in port when we arrived, but by the time we finished fueling and were headed for our moorage, they all had departed. Three headed north and one south.

 

All are mooring in Barr Harbor tonight – 4 of us in the North Basin and 1 (Spirit Bear) in the South Basin.  In order to get Spirit power, they had to go to the South Basin for a slip.  We are positioned all over the marina as the transient moorage is in the slips where the permanent moorage customers are out fishing or the like.  Glen and I spoke to a really nice couple on the dock who had just gotten into port with their ‘new to them’ boat – a 49’ CHB.  They had just purchased it in Petersburg and were moving it to Ketchikan their home.  They apparently spent the weekend picking up the boat, and figuring out what it had and didn’t have, making lists and plans for making it their own and getting ready for some great adventures.  Glen told them about our summer plans and it got them excited to start their adventures.  Our last boat got docked at about 6:30 pm (7:30 by our body clocks).  Everyone is tired, well except me as I’d had a few naps. We had a quick dinner at a local eatery and then back to the boats and for some shut eye. 

 

First photo of Sea Life in Alaska

 

 

 

May 21 - part 2 Prince Rupert

 

May 21 – part 2

 

 

 

Little shop in Prince Rupert that sold purses, bags, ladies specialty clothes and a lot more.  Very cute place.

 

Prince Rupert is located in ‘Cow Bay’, which was named after a cow farm there a Century or more ago.   There are lots of ‘cow’ motif things in town.

 

 

 

 

At the top of a sailboat mast in the harbor standing watch.

 

 

Diane and I went to a couple cute shops in Prince Rupert on the way up the hill to the big store.  She found some really cute native made slippers for Ronan her grandson.  Glen and I didn’t need anything but the walk was nice.  Prince Rupert is a cute town.  It was sunny and warm and being a Saturday there were lots of locals out and about in the parks etc…   Diane and I ducked into a couple more stores and a gallery of local artists work on the way down the hill.    Back to the boats, then up to the Pub for dinner.  Diane must have been feeling lucky; she played the pull tabs while waiting for dinner investing $5.  Her first pull she casually said oh I won $75.   In the end she won $76.  Lucky girl that Diane.  Diane is also the ‘queen of the crab killers’ on this trip so far. 

 

 

The weather forecast does not look good for crossing tomorrow or for the next few days for that matter.  Reports are for high winds and seas.

 

Oh the Nelson’s reported that this was the weekend of the opening of their son’s new restaurant in Maple Valley.   S’Wiched I think is the name of it.   They had a soft opening on Friday where they invited a large number of people and put the staff thru their paces.  Apparently about 400 people came thru during their ‘open period’ and all went very well.  Saturday they would be open to the public for their grand opening.  This is a new business for the Nelson’s, and is being run by their two sons.   It is basically a sandwich and soup restaurant with all fresh and healthy choices.   The boys are excited about this and have been trained in food services their entire lives working and managing in the families Taco Time restaurants.   Congratulations to the boys and we wish them much success.

 

After dinner we went back to the boats and had dessert on Spirit Bear, then it was a movie night on Magic.   Great show – ‘Now you see me’. 

 

 

Photos from Kumealon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Pete just being Pete

 

 

 

 

 

May 21 = day 21 Prince Rupert

May 21  =  Day 21 - Headed to Prince Rupert

 

Another sunny day (with a low haze or smog layer) with smooth water.  We are definitely headed to Prince Rupert today.   Early this morning Steve and Michelle went out to check their pots and for a little tour.  They went out into the main channel and got to see a family of Orca headed south.  A Dad, Mom, small baby, and a juvenile.   They were headed south at a good clip, but Michelle was able to get some great photos.

 

The Mother Goose group is cruising up the channel with us again today.  They heard us talking yesterday about Baker inlet vs Kumealon Bay and they chose Baker.  One of their boats called us today to thank us for the recommendation and said that they had a great time in Baker and had a good bear viewing this morning.  They also were out in the channel in time for the whales this morning.  

 

Prince Rupert is in sight.  We are passing the coal loading area south of town at about 12:30pm. 

 

Willard did a ‘crazy Willard’. Thinking he was headed in the wrong direction just after passing the large red buoy, he did an 90 degree turn to the right.  Glen called him and said ‘what are you doing’?   We think he was headed into the Coal port.  He is now following us.

 

2:22pm we are all now tied to the dock at the Prince Rupert Yacht Club.   We will likely be headed into town very soon. 

 

Later!

May 20 - Lowe to Kumealon

 

May 20  Lowe to Prince Rupert  Kumealon

 

I was up early, by 6:15am both of the large yachts had headed out.   We suspected from the activities we saw last night that neither of these vessels had their owners on board.  Likely just the crew positioning them for a summer of yachting (with owners or charters) in SE Alaska, as is very common for these large yachts.

 

By 9am all boats in Lowe were on the move north in Grenville Channel, well actually by compass west but ultimately north).  Since we all left about the same time there was a traffic jam of sorts.  Since Magic was the center anchor and shore tie boat last night we were the last to leave Lowe, and thus were bringing up the rear of the Armada.  Looking up the channel it looked like rush hour on the water highway; 12 boats in all.   I hope no one does any ‘crazy Ivan’s’.  Within a couple miles everyone had spread out and found their own lanes. 

 

We are headed to Prince Rupert today then the big water crossing at Dixon Entrance tomorrow.

 

Well maybe not.  About 10 am Tom called the group to ask the group just how bad they wanted to get to Prince Rupert today.  He was listening to the weather and it does not sound like a good window to be crossing Dixon Entrance for a few days.   High winds, means high waves, and not a pleasant trip for anyone.  So it looks like we will be dunkholing for a day or two to wait out this weather front.  

 

Stopped in Kumealon Bay.  Spent the afternoon exploring by dinghy, up in the lagoon/lake.  This is the place we watched them doing helicopter logging in 2008.  The area is all green again with alders filling in the logged areas.  Alders are the first trees to come back, eventually the evergreens will grow tall enough to choke out the Alders.  We went up a couple stream/inlets to the lagoon.  No bear seen but we saw tracks where large animals (likely bear) had crossed the streams.

 

I cooked a large pork roast with cranberry/raspberry sauce for everyone, the others brought the side dishes. 

 

 

It was a very warm afternoon, in a very large bay with snowcapped mountains around.  Again a very beautiful spot.

 

 

May 19 - Bishop to Lowe

 

May 19   Bishop to Lowe

 

I was up at 5:30am and the sky was blue, so it looks like the weather is drying out a bit.   Based on the talk last night we are only going to go about 30-40 miles today before reaching our next stop (one of two places – yet to be determined).  My vote is for Lowe Inlet which has a roaring waterfall, a place to go ashore for a short hike, and based on our last two trips up here is a good place to see black bear. 

 

We traveled along Grenville Channel along with the ‘Mother Goose’ group headed along with us.  They tend to travel in a single file follow the leader mode, while our group tends to spread out each taking their own track.  

 

Within about 10 minutes of arrival Chris spotted a bear on the beach behind us.   We spent much of the next hour or so watching this big boy (assumed it was a boy) walk the beach and grassy area just off the beach eating grass and other yummy to bears things.   He wandered into the woods so we also did other things.  

 

 

 

Crab and Prawn pots went down.  Some wandered over to view the waterfall.  And we all went ashore (not too far from where the bear was) to walk to the ‘Lowe Budget Inn’.   The ‘Inn’ has had some improvements since 2013.  New bunk beds, log chairs for the table, and a new improved heavy door.  The Canadian Department of Fisheries owns this cabin and uses it when in the area.  Several of us signed the guest book.    Back out to the boats, which were anchored just off shore and spent the afternoon and evening in the sun relaxing.   The bear came back out and we got more photos of this big quite healthy looking black bear.

 

 

 

 

There were two big rafts of boats ours 5 and 6 with the Goose group in the bay.  By night fall we’d seen one small cruise ship ‘Safari Explorer’ come in show the waterfall and leave, 2 other boats came in and anchored, and 2 large private yachts (115 ft and one larger) come in and anchor for then night.

 

We’ve seen bear here every time we’ve been here.   Beautiful spot for sure.