Tenakee Springs to Sitka

The bath house at Tenakee Springs

The general store and main intersection

Kasnyku Falls, Baranof Island

Entering Takatz Bay

On our cocktail cruise with one of the many waterfalls in the background

Spirit and Sea Jay rafted in Takatz Bay

Another Takatz Bay Vista

May 31, 2011

The skies remained clear overnight and the wind died down to calm as we prepared to depart Tenakee Springs. We walked up into the center of town, expecting the store to be open at 1000 AM, but no luck, it would not open until 1215 PM and we had a long way to travel so we tallied the status of our fresh food (and wine) and decided to leave for Takatz Bay, a run of 50 nautical miles. The weather was sunny and almost no wind the entire way. We saw a few humpback whales, mostly in the distance, but lots of porpoise following the boat. There was very little marine traffic, just two tugs, the occasional cruise ship and a few commercial fishing boats.

Along the way we stopped at Kasnyku Falls for a photo opportunity and then a few more miles into Takatz Bay where we rafted alongside Sea Jay. Takatz Bay is one of the most scenic bays we have ever anchored in, with waterfalls, glacially green water, snowfields and it is nearly totally protected from winds. The water temperature was a cool 40 degrees due to the glacial water coming in from the falls. After settling in we took a "cocktail" cruise with Mathesons on their shore boat, taking photos, eating crab cocktails and stopping briefly at the salmon hatchery in the outer bay. As we were heading back, a small cruise ship "Safari Explorer" also anchored in the outer bay, out of sight and sound from our anchorage.

Dinner was a marinated and smoked flank steak, and then we watched the Clint Eastwood movie "Gran Torino", which was surprisingly good. We retired for the night, serenaded by the sounds of all the waterfalls.

We have now covered 1120 nautical miles.

June 1, 2011
The day started out sunny, with light winds, so we decided to stay another day and go fishing for salmon in the afternoon. The crab pots were totally non-productive, with a haul of 5 giant starfish, so we moved the location of the pots to try and improve the luck. In the afternoon Jim and Patrick went fishing and were modestly successful, with one sea bass and two small but legal Chinook salmon. The sea bass and one of the salmon became dinner, smoked on Jim's Traeger smoker/grill.

June 2, 2011

The morning started sunny as we checked the crab pots and once again found nothing in them. We pulled anchors at 0855 and headed back up Chatham Strait with a stop for more photos at Kasnyku Falls. We entered Peril Strait at 1200 and by 1405 were anchored separately in Appleton Cove watching a brown bear on the beach just a few hundred feet away. Later in the day the wind came up to more than 22 knots, and we were concerned about the lack of swinging room between Spirit and a reef, so about 100 moved the anchorage into the lee of Anderson Island, in the middle of the cove.

Today's run was 38 nautical miles for a total of 1158 so far this trip.

The crab pots we had set earlier yielded 2 large Dungeness crab, with a lot of females that were returned to the sea. The rest of the evening was quiet, with only Spirit and Sea Jay occupying Appleton Cove.
June 3, 2011


The wind decreased overnight, but the clouds had returned, with only occasional glimpses of the sun. We checked the crab pots and found two large Dungeness crab. Although the limit is three per day per person, we do not have the room in either our stomachs or freezer for that much crab, especially since these are so large with such firm meat. The brown bear we had seen the evening before had returned to the beach for more foraging, but our new anchor site was too far away for photos.

We pulled the anchor at 0955 and continued up Peril Strait towards our destination for the day, Baby Bear Cove. There was a solitary humpback whale in Deadman's Reach, but too far away for photos.

Baby Bear Cove has a tricky entrance, but we have navigated this entrance before, and by 1245 we were anchored right at the head of the inlet, with Sea Jay anchored ¼ mile further out. The head of the inlet is very calm, but there were several crab pots in the prime spot for safe anchorage so after watching Spirit swinging in the wind, we decided we needed to move to have adequate clearance between the beach and the crab pot floats. We ended up rafting alongside Sea Jay where we got our own pots ready, and then placed them on the other side of Peril Strait in Deep Bay, where we have anchored before. We checked the pots in the evening before a dinner of crab and salmon chowder with fresh sourdough bread. We each found one more large crab. Since we had an early departure, we brought the pots back to Baby Bear Cove and placed them among some other pots in the cove.

Today's run was a short 22 nautical miles, bringing the total to 1180 nautical miles.
June 4, 2011
Miriam and I set the alarm for 0500 so we could pull the crab pots and still get underway at 0630 for slack water at Sergius Narrows at 0717. Sergius Narrows is about 6 miles from the anchorage and it is best to run it near slack water. When we woke, the rain had returned and the crab pots were empty except for starfish and immature Tanner crab. We timed it well, except that the Alaska ferry Taku was also aiming for slack water. We beat the Taku through Sergius Narrows by about 15 minutes. We headed through Kakul Narrows, across Salisbury Sound, where we got a taste of the ocean swells, and then down Neva and Olga Straits into Sitka Harbor where we docked at 1015 in the morning. By the time we were docked the rain had mostly disappeared and there were glimpses of sun, but not enough to see Mount Edgecumbe.

The days run was 30 nautical miles for a total of 1210 nautical miles.

After collecting mail and parts from the post office, we had dinner with Matheson's at the Channel Club in Sitka and called it an early night.

We will spend the next few days in Sitka catching up on maintenance.