Intermission is Over

After our brief, but hot return to the Seattle area, we arrived back in Wrangell ahead of schedule by 20 minutes on Alaska Airlines and were greeted by cloudy skies and much cooler, but still pleasant temperatures.

Spirit was fine, and we began the maintenance tasks that we had deferred pending bringing spare parts back from Seattle. We have replaced the "duckbills" on the macerator pump and it now works just fine. We also replaced latches on one of the ice chests, replaced some burned out bulbs, filled the water tanks and re-organized and inventoried our remaining supplies. The rain started late in the day, so we waited until Saturday to re-provision Spirit. The grocery stores are closed here on Sunday, and we intend to leave on Monday morning, perhaps early. The rain continued, heavy at times on Saturday, so the grocery store free delivery service was very welcome. The Selene 55 "Bonaventure" docked close to us in the early afternoon.

We set one crab pot and were rewarded with our legal limit of Dungeness crab, which we cooked and cleaned Saturday evening. We awoke Sunday morning to brief periods of sun, which then changed to rain and much cooler temperatures. Later in the morning "Facing West", a DeFever 47 from Anacortes Marina (just one dock over from us) arrived and we exchanged information on fishing, crabbing, prawns, etc. Like just about everyone else, they said the fishing has been very poor, but they are hoping for a good Coho season.

Ben and Connie Mikaelsen arrived a few minutes early on Sunday evening on the milk run flight from Anchorage (via Juneau and Petersburg). It was raining, of course, as we got the luggage down the dock. Patrick had prepared crab cakes as an appetizer with the fresh crab, and dinner was grilled mesquite marinated tri tip steak and potatoes au gratin accompanied by a green salad. After dinner, Patrick and Ben walked back into town in the rain so that Ben could get a feel for Wrangell. On a rainy Sunday evening, after dark, nothing was open, the streets were deserted and the bars had even started closing early.

Monday morning started out partly cloudy, with a few patches of sunshine. The plan for the next two weeks includes a detour back to Endicott or Tracy arm so Connie can experience glaciers from the water, and then back down to Craig on Prince of Wales Island via El Capitan passage before working our way to Ketchikan on July 23. The detour north will also allow us to replenish our supply of glacial ice.

The crab pot had several more crab, and we had some light rain as we headed for Wrangell Narrows, but then it cleared off and boosted by the flood tide, we zoomed up to the mid-point and then rode a little of the ebb into the marina. It was like old home week, with Panta Rhei, Ponderosa, Augenblick and Misty One all in the marina. We had an appetizer potluck on Misty One, drinks on Augenblick and then pork burritos (the only item left) at La Fonda Mexican restaurant (part of Kito's Cave). We all hope we do not regret that decision.