Fishing

June 21, 2011

We left Sitka at 0930 and decided to go up the outside of Kruzof Island, so we headed directly out Sitka Sound and joined the many charter boats fishing about 3 miles west of Cape Edgecumbe. By 3 PM we had lost 4 Coho salmon, but kept 3 other Coho along with one sea bass. We knew we had quite a distance to go to meet Matheson's at Kalinin Bay, some 25 nautical miles from Cape Edgecumbe, so reluctantly headed north up the outside of Kruzof Island, noting where all the charter boats were fishing as we went. By 1800 we were rafted to Sea Jay in Kalinin Bay in a now familiar downpour.

Total distance travelled today was 49.3 nautical miles.

June 22, 2011

Today we decided to fish and then return to Sitka to leave our fish with Big Blue Seafoods for shipment home later in the summer, avoiding problems with conflicting rules on fish packaging and transport in Canada. We departed Kalinin Bay at 0630 and headed down the outside of Kruzof Island to catch the slack tide at Cape Edgecumbe and try to repeat our previous day's performance. We stopped in the "shark hole" shortly after departing Kalinin Bay and landed a 15 pound King Salmon. As we retraced our path down the outside, in a moderate southwest swell, we stopped and trolled at several places where the charter boats were congregated, but did not have any luck until we arrived at the pack off of Cape Edgecumbe. We almost immediately had bites and landed 4 more Coho salmon, averaging 5-7 pounds. We stopped fishing and cleaned our catch before heading back into Sitka for a "touch and go" to drop off the catch from the last two days at Big Blue. By 1555 we were underway once again, leaving Sitka for the last time this season, and by 1900 were once again rafted in Kalinin Bay.

We covered 72 nautical miles today.

June 23, 2011

We were underway by 0700 for more fishing and Sea Jay departed for Rodman Bay and other destinations along the east coast of Baranof Island. We will catch up with them in a few days. Fishing was not as good, and we caught only 2 Coho before anchoring in Kalinin Bay at 0945. The wind came up in the afternoon and we decided to cancel the afternoon fishing from the tender after nosing out into the entrance and finding 3 foot swells and 2 foot wind chop, too much for a 12 foot inflatable.

Miriam baked a cake and we invited Jackie and Layne Asplund on "Lady J" and Pat and Norm Wade on "Another Dance" over for dessert. Until late that evening, we were the only three boats in the bay. About 8 PM, there was a broadcast from the USCG about a tsunami warning for SE Alaska, due to arrive about 2245 in the evening. We all made preparations for getting out of very shallow Kalinin Bay into deep water before arrival time, but by 9 PM the warning was cancelled and we all relaxed and had more dessert.

This was one of the shortest distances travelled, only 8.1 nautical miles.

June 24, 2011

Another early departure to fish, pulling the anchor at 0650, and we departed Kalinin Bay for the last time this season. The weather was still windy and the swells were now 5-6 feet in the "shark hole" which made for a very uncomfortable ride at trolling speeds, especially on the turns where we were broadside and rolling. Even with the less than perfect weather we landed 2 more Coho salmon and then headed to Kakul Narrows to try for halibut. The swells and wind prevented us from holding position, so we quit and explored Schulze Cove in Fish Bay while waiting for slack water at Sergius Narrows. While waiting, we cleaned our fish. After an uneventful transit of Sergius Narrows, we headed east in Peril Strait, poking the bow of Spirit into Rodman Bay to see if Sea Jay was there. They were not there, so we continued on to Saook Bay, which we did not like earlier in the year, but with the wind now from the south, it was still as a pond. We anchored in 100 feet of water at the head of the bay and put out our crab pots near the line of commercial pots. By 9 PM we had 3 crabs in the pots and were fleeing from the no-see-ums which were thick in the windless evening. Dinner was seafood chowder, using up some of the rockfish and salmon we had caught, as well as some prawns.

Spirit travelled 51.6 nautical miles today, including fishing.

June 25, 2011

Saook Bay was still a millpond in the morning when we checked the crab pots and kept the six largest crabs (our limit). We pulled the anchor at 0800 and continued down Peril Strait turning south in Chatham Strait, still looking for Sea Jay. We spotted their AIS signal at a distance of 10 miles, anchored in Ell Cove. The purse seiners were gathering in the same area for a 0500 opening the next morning, so we rafted next to Sea Jay in Ell Cove while Jim and Cheryl were out fishing in their tender. We put out prawn pots in the hope we would find some prawns.

Later in the day, Asplund's in Lady J arrived and we had a three boat raft up. After having some of Patrick's hot crab and artichoke dip, a check of the prawn pots showed a small yield of three dozen nice spot prawns. Dinner was fresh sea bass, rice and salad on Sea Jay, followed by some more of Miriam's chocolate cake.

Even later in the day, more purse seiners arrived in Ell Cove, getting some rest before the 0500 start of the 15 hour fishery. This tiny cove now has seven boats anchored, but the wind is so calm we are all sitting motionless as the sun sets. We do not even have a lot of bugs this evening.

Our distance travelled for the day was relatively short; we only covered 28.7 nautical miles, for a grand total of 1763 nautical miles.

June 26, 2011

The purse seine fishery started at 0500, and the seiners anchored in Ell Cove began leaving at 0230 in order to get into position for the start. Patrick headed out in the tender at 0330 to pull the pots in case they were in the area where nets would be set. There were only 18 prawns.

We broke up the raft at 0825 under partly sunny skies and headed for Warm Springs Bay and the small community of Baranof. We managed to find a spot at the dock and by 1000 were tied up. Later Sea Jay rafted to us as the docks began to fill with the purse seiners coming in from the short fishery. By late afternoon the seiners were rafted four deep at the dock.

We fished for halibut in the evening, but no luck.

June 27, 2011

Today was a fishing day, from Lady J's 17 foot Arima tender. Before fishing we hiked up to Baranof Lake and Patrick took a brief soak in the upper hot springs. Fishing was spotty, with Matheson's getting 2 halibut from their tender and the three of us on Lady J's tender getting 1 halibut, three quillbacks, 2 sea bass and 1 pacific cod.

The evening on the dock was pretty noisy with all the seiners partying. We gathered on Spirit with Matheson's and Asplund's for appetizers of Dungeness crab and spot prawns and then each of us had dinner on our own vessels.

June 28, 2011

Spirit and Sea Jay got underway at 0915, in the rain. Our destination was Patterson Bay where we anchored at 1515, after setting our prawn pots. We had a repeat of autopilot failures today, blowing fuses several times. We suspect the electric pump on the hydraulic steering is failing.

Several hours later, the wind picked up and our anchor was not holding, so we reset it in a different location. We also set wind speed and depth alarms in addition to anchor alarms to alert us if the weather conditions continued to deteriorate. An evening check of the prawn pots gave us 7 dozen nice sized spot prawns. The alarms never went off, except that the cliffs were steep enough that the GPS could not always see the satellites for a position fix, which set off another alarm.

June 29, 2011

The weather overnight stayed reasonable, and a morning check of the prawn pots produced almost 9 dozen prawns. We pulled the anchor at 0950 in light winds but heavy rain and headed for Red Bluff Bay where we anchored at 1335, making sure we had a good set on the anchor. We set the prawn pots, and an evening check produced a few, but Sea Jay's pots had a lot. We gathered on Sea Jay for prawn appetizers, which turned into dinner.

June 30, 2011

We pulled the anchor at 0730 and stopped to pull our prawn pots on the way out of Red Bluff Bay. There was not a huge amount, but 3 dozen nice prawns. We headed out across Chatham Strait, with Petersburg as our destination, a distance of about 70 nautical miles. The wind had been blowing for some time in Chatham, and the seas were on the beam, running 5-6 feet, with winds of 20 knots. It was not a pleasant crossing for about 1 hour until we got into the lee of Kuiu Island. The seas built once again as we continued up Frederick Sound past the entrance to Keku Strait and then became flat as we headed by Portage Bay and on into Petersburg. By 1645 we were docked in heavy rain.

We headed (almost waded) up into town and met Miriam's friend, Marge Oines at the only Mexican restaurant in town for burritos. After a pretty bland meal which needed lots of salsa and hot sauce we returned to the boat and visited with Marge.

We have now covered 1922 nautical miles as we head for Wrangell to pick up mail and spare parts to repair both the autopilot and battery charging system on Spirit.

The rain continued overnight, heavy at times.

July 1, 2011

The rain continues and is predicted to last into next week. After a walk up into town for last minute supplies we left Petersburg at noon for the run down Wrangell Narrows and east in Sumner Strait to Wrangell. The wind was predicted to be 25 knots, but we saw gusts to 32 knots as we headed south from Petersburg. Exiting Wrangell Narrows we now had 25 knots of wind on the bow and an ebb tide as we travelled the last 20 miles into Wrangell.

The windshield wipers are getting a workout!

The wind and current continued to oppose us as we headed into Heritage Harbor where we discovered three more Selene's, Peregrine, Raindancer and Sojourn. The harbor was calm and docking was easy with lots of people on the dock to get our lines and help us in. There is also another Selene in Reliance Harbor, one mile north named Moonstar.

After a mini-homecoming on the dock, we had spot prawn fettuccini and asparagus for dinner as we watched the fishing boats return and the rain squalls pass by us.

Later in the evening we were joined by the crew of "Misha", who know John Duvall, our guest last year from Ketchikan to Anacortes. We spent several hours and several bottles of wine exchanging information on the best places to stop and fish between Wrangell and Sitka.

Our log now shows 1961 nautical miles.