First Ice !!!!

Day 37 – June 16

The fishermen were out early this morning; none from Magic. Here is a photo of one of the Alaskan Ferries as it heads out of Petersburg, notice its size in relation to this large cannery building. They don’t look at all like the ones we have on Puget Sound, of course the water up here can be a lot worse than Puget Sound and the runs are longer. There are sleeping rooms on these ferries, and locals have told us that many people just set up tents on the observation deck and camp out along the way.

We went into town, to the museum, took some photos and then picked up some take out lunch and back to the boat to pull out of Petersburg. Not far out we saw all these white blobs across the waterway. Glen said they were all fishing boats. About 10 minutes later, we saw one closer and guess what … it’s ice. Yippee our first Icebergs! Nicole grabbed a small chunk off for a beverage or two this evening. That’s my girl!

We anchored in Thomas Bay for the night. There were commercial crab pots all over the place. Put both anchors down and tied to shore. Crab and Prawn pots put down. Becky, Mike and Nicole take the Miners dinghy to go test their luck at fishing. Nicole hooked a Salmon and got it to the surface but it got away before they could get it netted. Okay the kids are hooked, they came back to the big boats for long sleeves, beer, and more fishing gear. To heck with dinner, they want to fish. They came back cold and fishless.

Happy Fathers Day! Happy Birthday Glen!

Day 36 – June 15

Happy Fathers Day! Happy Birthday Glen!

Started day in Wrangle. The crabbers are heading out of town in a steady stream of boats. Big ones and little ones all loaded and or overloaded with crab pots. The locals tell us that we will likely have trouble finding places to anchor or even drop our own crab pots as there will be 1,000’s of commercial pots everywhere.

Glen went out to pick up the crab trap and came back with a big smile saying “I’m the best fisherman.”. I grabbed the camera thinking that maybe he had a pot full of crab. Nope, just two crab and a Halibut. Like who catches Halibut in their crab pot? Glen of course! It was a baby so after the photo op, it was released to grow up.

Glen rode Tom’s bike over to the airport to meet Nicole’s plane. The plan was to take a taxi back, but a very nice woman who was picking up someone said she’d give them a ride.

With Nicole safely on board we untied the lines and headed out. We had an easy cruise traveling through Wrangle Narrows to Petersburg. There are something close to 60 navigation markers to weave through in the Narrows, as well as a good number of small boats out fishing. Got to Petersburg and found John and Daleen Reed (John is a fellow ski patroller). The Miner’s were also already in town. We did some grocery shopping and checked out some of the other stores. The larger grocery store is up the hill a ways from the marina but has a free shuttle van service to pick you up at the marina and deliver you and your groceries back down. This was quite nice. We chuckled while looking at the greeting cards in the store that there were no cards for friends, just relatives. We decided that maybe everyone was related. Petersburg is larger in population (approx 3000) than Wrangle (approx 2000), and has more stores, but still feels small. There are a couple fish canneries here so the population grows quite a bit during fishing season.

We invited the Reeds and their cruising friends Don and Diane over for dinner. We had eleven people on board Magic for a Crab and Halibut feast. If anyone left the table hungry it was there own fault. We then all gathered in the salon and watched the Whale video that Dan and Marilyn Wilshin sent us. It was amazing; and makes us all hopeful of seeing even a fraction of what they saw on their 2004 trip. Thanks again Dan. Nicole showed her 2008 ski patrol slide show, as most of us had missed the banquet and not seen it yet. We then watched photos of part of the trip, and had ice cream. The big screen TV and new camera have proven to be wonderful additions.

What a great day! Family and friends together sharing time, stories, and adventures.

Hanging out in Wrangle

Day 35 – June 14

In Wrangle again today. I didn’t get our blog postings last night so doing it this morning. Have a weeks worth to post so keep reading, and you’ll get caught up on our adventures.

Happy Anniversary to Keith and Suzi (Glen’s parents).

Here are some fun photos of Tom’s fishing skills. Good thing his son-in-law Mike is joining the group today, he likes to fish and he might just be able to teach Tom and Glen something.


Miner’s have their guests on board and are headed out to Roosevelt Bay for the night. We will catch up with them tomorrow after Nicole arrives.

Three young local fishermen gave us some Halibut last night as they were finished with their Halibut season and were gearing up for the Crabbing season which starts tomorrow - Sunday at noon. They said that they were done with Halibut and were only going to it for crab bait. We got enough to feed our crews for a couple days.

Red Bay

Day 34 – June 13

Red Bay –
It’s a calm non rainy morning with the sun trying to peek through a low cloud layer. It looks to be the makings of a nice day, keeping fingers crossed.

About 10 am a dinghy pulled up to us for a chat. They are about the first pleasure cruising people we’ve seen this week. A nice couple from Tasmania traveling on their 48 foot sailboat. They left Florida in 1994 for a 5 year adventure. They made it back to Florida 8 years later and said ‘what are we doing here, in this rat race’. They sailed back to Tasmania bought property, built a house, and set sail again. They were up here last summer and went home last fall to check on the house. They plan to sail down to California, Mexico, and South America this fall and then across back home. They have sailed around the world twice since 1994. Now that is an adventure. I’m sure that some of you sail boaters are drooling and day dreaming right now.

The sun lost it battle and it stayed gray and cloudy most of the day, it even rained a bit. Saw one whale and one large Alaskan Ferry while going up the Clarence Straight. There is lots of wood on the shoreline, and many sections which look like they might be sandy or small rock beaches rather than rock walls down to the water which we see more often.

Eventually we got to Wrangle, fueled and tied up for the weekend. Saturday Becky and Mike, the Miner’s daughter and son-in-law join them, and on Sunday morning Nicole joins us. Once we have them all on board we’ll head out toward Petersburg. We will have internet and phone service until Sunday – Yippee. So if you need something there is a two day window of opportunity.

Exploring the El Capitan Cave, then on to Red Bay

Day 33 - June 12

It is a rainy morning. Donned our rain gear, and boots, and headed out. We met Mod and Jess at the trail head building at 9:00 am. They issued us hardhats with headlamps, and flashlights and told us about the area, the forest, how the caves were formed, etc… They lead the way up the hill to the cave entrance. The trail is really a boardwalk and stairs up the hillside, with about a 500 vertical foot gain in about ¼ mile. Having the stairs is easier on both the hiker and the forest. We didn’t go too fast as you don’t want to get over heated (aka sweaty) before going into the cave, where the temperature is 40 degrees.

Along the way Mod who was leading stopped to point out points of interest, the differences in the new growth forest at the bottom of the hill and the old growth forest further up, a variety of types of trees, ferns, and other vegetation, what looked like claw or slice marks on the Hemlock trees which were made by ‘flying squirrels’, etc… all very interesting. She led us into and through the cave. We wound our way 600 ft deep into the cave. We were in the middle level of the cave, which is the only level that they take the public into. It is a sponge cave in that it is full of holes and sort of resembles Swiss cheese. There are vertical shafts throughout the cave. This cave and others in the area have been mapped and had artifacts discovered and dated. In this cave on the upper level they found evidence of both black and brown bear using the cave for hibernation during the same time period. There apparently are no longer brown bear on this island. The bottom level has a river running through it. On the middle level back further than we went they found evidence of humans in the cave, there were also bones of a juvenile sea otter, cedar bark, and charcoal, some dated back to about 3500 years ago and the bear evidence as far back as 10,000 years.

Much of the rock is limestone. One of the local Forest service workers has taken a piece of the flow stone from the cave and polished on edge of it, and returned it to the cave so that they can show it to the visitors. You can clearly see the many layers of different colors etc… Apparently they have tested by looking at the layers, can tell what kinds of pollens were in the air, the temperature outside the cave as well as the age of each layer. All very interesting.

These caves were formed by water erosion, unlike the Ape Caves at Mt St Helens which were formed by lava flows. There is quite a bit more moisture in this cave than the Ape Caves which makes it quite slippery in places. As I was walking through this cave I remembered going to the Ape Caves with the boy and girl scouts some years ago. I could just picture those kids in this cave climbing all over and having a blast trying to scare each other. Unlike the Ape Caves, up here they are taking steps to protect the sights in the cave and it’s continuing to evolve.

Jess the other guide is a college student from Chicago out here interning with the Forest Service for a summer adventure. She is a biology major hoping to become a teacher. What a great way to spend a summer. If there are people wanting to go into the cave, they lead up to three tours a day. Jess said that she will be in great shape by the end of the summer.

We did not find much written about this area or the cave, but would recommend taking this side adventure to others.

We were back to the boats by about 11:15 am and after lunch we headed out. It is still raining. Glen and I ducked into a place called ‘Hole in the Wall’ for a quick peek. Another one of those very narrow entrances to a nice protected bay. Glen loves this type of entrance. This one even has a tree down sticking out across to make it more fun. If we’d wanted we could have reached out and touched the tree as we went by. I didn’t as it was raining. I did venture out to get a couple photos of the passage however.

Stopped in at Port Protection so Tom could get some fuel. Very small place, so in and out quickly. Oddly we got phone coverage for a short time and internet access for about 5 minutes just outside the harbor; but no coverage in the harbor. Go figure.

Rainy, gray, foggy afternoon with lumpy water. Pulled into Red Bay for the night. Glen and Tom worked on Tom’s generator as it didn’t want to run today. They originally thought the problem was related to a shortage of fuel but after taking on more fuel the problem continued. Turned out that the fuel level was so low that it drained all the generator fuel lines, once they were re-primed all was well again.

Tom tried his hand at fishing again tonight. Yikes we could go hungry if we had to live off his fishing skills. Note that Glen doesn’t even get his line wet very often so I guess I have to give Tom points for trying.

El Capitan

Day 32 – June 11

Another sunny morning. We went for a dinghy ride, first over to El Capitan Lodge (in this bay). Wow, what a great place. Ladies, if your husband says he’s going to a remote fishing lodge in Alaska without any phones or ‘other fluff’, do not believe him! This place has 10 guest cabins, a large dinning room, separate building with a lounge, 6 fishing boats, a plane, complete massage services, and broadband internet and phone. It also has all the fish packing and shipping needs right here on site. One of the owners gave us a tour. It is simply beautiful. We asked how the fishing has been and were told that the temperature is 10 degrees colder than normal, therefore the Halibut have not started to come in yet.

Back to the dinghies and we traveled on to New Tokeen. There is nothing new about this place. No humans in sight, just one small dog that barked the entire time we were there. Explored the old buildings which used to house a store, repair facility, and fuel stop among other fishing needs but is all closed down now. Saw momma and baby seals on the rocks along with a lot more otters in the water. Headed back to the big boats with a shrimp and crab pot pulling side trip. No crab, but about 2 dozen shrimp. Dinner will include seafood tonight.

Pulled anchor about 1:15pm heading back toward the El Capitan Caves and see what we can see.

Tied to the dock at the El Capitan Caves and talked to the Forest Service workers. We’ll go on a cave tour tomorrow morning at 9:00 am. Took a short walk around the area. The guys went up to the entrance to the cave to check out the hike up the hill.

After dinner Chris and I went up and invited the Forest Service workers down to the boats for dessert. Chris had baked a cake. One of the ladies was there and came back to the boats with us, and left a note for her work partner Jess to come down to the boats. We ate cake and visited with Mod for a couple hours. Very interesting lady; originally from Gig Harbor. Seems like a lot of people in Alaska ‘used to live in Gig Harbor’, not sure what that says about the Harbor. Anyway she told us a lot about the area and the caves. Delightful evening.

Sarkar Cove - Our 30th Wedding Anniversary

Day 31 – June 10

Happy Anniversary to us !!!
I know it’s hard to believe but it’s been 30 years.

Sunny morning, until about 10:30 am when the gray clouds started to come in and the air temp went down. Indian Folklore says that there used to be a village in this bay but that a Devil Fish came up and devoured the entire village. Tom pulled his crab traps this morning and discovered that something had taken not only all the bait but the bait box too. He said it was the Devil Fish.

11:20 am anchor up and headed out of this bay for some other cove down the way. Less than 2 hours later the boys found our spot for the night; Sarkar Cove. There are a couple of houses and one fishing lodge here. Also a tarp lean-to tent in the trees which appears to be someone’s ‘summer home’. Tom anchored today. Just after we tied up I spotted a deer in the meadow behind us. The first deer of the trip and I got a couple pictures. Glen spent the afternoon working on the water maker which decided that it needed some attention. After reading the manual a couple times and changing a filter, it appears to be working again.

We went for our daily dinghy ride up the river; again as far as we could go. A bit farther than yesterdays adventure but not too far. There were lots of little fish, from tiny to about 4 inches, in the water and 3-4 Eagle in the trees and then on the rocks of the river bed. Hopefully will have some good close up eagle photos.

We didn’t stay up river very long and started back out and across the bay to explore in the other direction. All of a sudden Glen turned our dinghy very sharply and headed back to the boats. I said “What’s up?” and Glen said the boats have moved. Sure enough they had drug anchor and were now in 15 feet of water and about 30 feet from shore. We jumped onboard and started our engines. I was at the helm maneuvering while Glen was pulling the now dislodged anchor. Tom and Chris had stopped in their dinghy to check the crab pot when Chris told him that Glen was moving the boats. They came back and Tom took over the anchor pulling detail. Someone said ‘bigger is better’ and we re-anchored with Magic’s anchor. They guys could not figure our why Tom’s anchor did not hold that time, it was not windy and he had 140 feet of chain out in 40 feet of water, which is 3 to 1 so it should have been fine. Whatever … we’ll stick with ‘bigger is better’ for tonight.

After dinner we all took a kayak ride up the river. We had to paddle very hard and fast in one narrow section of very shallow rapids. I got stuck so Glen came back and with my bow line in his teeth and both of us paddling hard I made it through. The river wanted to push us back down stream. Once up in the upper river or lower lake we continued into the main lake. Beautiful lake filled with small islands. The water was about 62 degrees by Glen’s guess. Paddled across the lake a bit and around a couple islands and then back down the river. The ‘rapids’ section was a lot easier going down stream. Tom had his camera along and got photos of the group both going up stream and then videos of us coming back down. Saw a deer resting in the tall grass along the shoreline as we came out into the bay. This time the boats were exactly where we’d left them. Bigger proved to be better.