May 18, 2012
Today we played tour guide for Bill, Ruth, Colin and
Donna. After picking up a rental minivan
we headed to Saxman Village for photos and browsing the shop. Heading down the road towards Herring Cove we
stopped and watched a pod of Orca’s close to the beach. Turning around at the end of the paved road,
a mere 11 miles from Ketchikan we stopped once again and watched the
orcas. After parking at Creek Street
and walking the boardwalks down to Dolly’s, the brothel museum, we had halibut
and chips at the Alaska Fish House before heading out the northerly direction
from town. Driving to the end of the road we stopped at Settlers Cove park and
walked the trails around Lunch Falls.
Getting back in the car we then stopped at Totem Bight, with
a collection of totem poles and a longhouse and then stopped at Wal Mart, a
waste of time before pre-provisioning at Safeway and finally returning to
downtown Ketchikan where we searched for Bill’s brother’s house from 60 years
ago. We could not find it!
After a long day we returned to City Floats for dinner and a
obligatory stop at the Arctic Bar, Ketchikan’s oldest surviving bar, celebrating
75 years in business. After Bill called
his brother Howard we discovered we had the wrong address, confirmed by the
lady bartender in the Arctic Bar.
May 19, 2012
Bill found the house he remembered this morning and after
turning in the rental car we departed Ketchikan City Floats and refueled both
vessels. Spirit took on 640 gallons of fuel
and headed up Tongass Narrows, up Clarence Strait, turning into Ernest Sound
just past Meyers Chuck and headed for Santa Anna Inlet where we arrived at 1730.
After
anchoring we set two prawn pots before grilling flank steak for dinner. After dinner we pulled the two pots and found
32 spot prawns in our two pots. After
chocolate cake and drinks to celebrate Patrick's 65th birthday we finally called it a night in peaceful but cool
conditions.
May 20, 2012
The rain continued overnight, but not heavy. The prawn pots had mixed results in the
morning, with only 3 dozen more prawns.
We decided to move on to Wrangell and arrived at 1415 after an
uneventful trip up Zimovia Strait. Since
it was Sunday, everything closed at 3:00 PM so we missed shopping.
The man street is
torn up for repaving, so the town is even less attractive than usual, but as
friendly as usual.
We have now travelled 874 nautical miles since leaving
Anacortes.
Pictures in a few days!
Many people think there is a lot to learn to be a successful fly fisher. This article details the main types of fly to use in the early part of the season.
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