July 8 – Day 69 - Elfin Cove to Inian Is.

July 8 – Day 69  - Elfin Cove to Inian Is.

 

A quite morning, not a lot of charter boat activity before 7am.  Then it looked like a number of fisherman were checking out to go home, backpacks and suitcases being loaded on 3 boats, likely just to take them to the float plane dock on the front side of town.  

 

After breakfast we headed over to George Island to take a hike, and look at the WWII cannon/gun site.   This gun was only shot once and that was for a test, which did not go well (aka it broke) and it was never shot again.   This is the island that Willard got lost (okay he misplaced himself) on in 2016.  Today we managed to keep the group together a bit better, only misplacing Steve for a bit when he went exploring on his own, but he came back soon enough.  

 

Not much to find on the beach there although I did find a 12 lb downrigger ball.   Not sure how that could have washed ashore; lead does not float well.

 

Someone was clearly bored on the beach in Elfin cove as the gathered rocks and shells to create the following.

 

 

After departure we headed out for East Inian Bay to anchor and be in Nellie distance to Gustavus to pick up Pete and Linda Jung who  joining the Nelsea crew tonight for the Glacier Bay leg of the trip.  It will be fun to have them with the flotilla.   

On the way over we saw some critters – one whale, lots of birds – Seagulls and Cormorants mainly, and a community of Sea Lions.  Most of the smaller sealions were in the water but there were some big guys on the rocks making noise at each other.  You know the normal, "I'm bigger and smarter than you so I should be 'king' of the herd" type talk.   In the end they went back to just lying on the rock ignoring each other.  If we only spoke sealion and could tell what they were actually saying to each other, but one clearly put the other one in his place down the pecking order.  

 

The two arguing

But clearly the 'King' was over on the next rock with the family out front.  This guy was big! 

The neighbors

 

Michelle had a pot of spaghetti sauce cooking, I baked French bread, and Jane provided salad for the welcome dinner.

Steve headed out in Nellie for a 1 hr. run to pick up the Jung's.  Their plane came in and Steve picked them up about 5pm without incident.  Steve's trip over was clearly cold and unsettled.  He reported that the crossing into town was 'rough and not a fun ride'.  For Steve to say that it must have been bad tides and currents.  The trip back was reported as flat water.   The evening was spent with dinner and lots of chat about what is happening back home, and up here.  Followed by the all-important re-showing of the Glacier Bay entrance informational videos (aka the rules).     Oh, and it is raining and  gray.