July 1 - Kalinin Bay to Sitka to Bart Island

July 1 – Kalinin Bay to Sitka to Bart Island

It was a windy and somewhat bouncy night.  The sky is gray this morning and the wind is still blowing 5-13 knots steady with an occasional gust of 18-24 knots here in the protected anchorage.  I don’t think I want to be out in the ocean today.    Some of the boats in the bay left early this morning, others are still here but their tow behind fishing boats went out. They are all after the Kings that should be running in this area.   No fish.

 

We pulled anchor about noon and headed into Sitka.  Sea Jay and Noon Balloon stayed put for another day.  In route to Sitka stopped in a wide spot in the channel to allow the Fairweather (Alaska fast ferry) to go past.  Willard had thought he could get to the next wide spot before meeting up with the ferry, but he did not realize the speed that the ferry travels.   He moved over to let the ferry pass at 14 knots (they had slowed down for 19 to make the pass); yep there was nice wave.   Three years ago we had to sit in the channel (wide spot) while I was finishing up a conference call and the same ferry passed us going 20 knots – that was a big wave.  After the ferry passed Nelsea and Magic today it started to speed up.  When it was about ½ mile behind us we saw on our nav system that they were now going 36 knots. 

 

 

Made it to Sitka stopping at the fuel dock first - 984 gallons …. called the bank to take out another loan <kidding>, good price $2.08.   Note – we carry 1,000 gallons so we were pretty low.  Being as it was late in the day they allowed us to stay at the fuel dock (all on the inside of the dock) while we went up to the store a couple blocks away.  The group bought so many boxes (easier to haul to the boat) of groceries we convinced the store to drive us back to the dock in a pickup truck.   Once loaded we headed out again for a short trip south to the island that Nat and Linda had rented a house.  They had 4 couples at the house for a week.   We anchored out front and went in for a visit. 

 

 

The house is beautiful and has a second building with two bedrooms, so easy for four couples to stay.  Their group was all leaving early the next morning so we did not stay too long.  Had internet access at the house so was able to download and upload emails.   Back to the boat and I stayed up reading and writing replies.