June 12, 2012
Craig AK
My apologies!!!  Mea culpa!!  Sometimes internet connections are just impossible to come by.
We used to be able to just grab onto a "large" yachts' wifi but those days are over.   Even in downtown Juneau there was no internet at the docks.  But we have had a lovely two weeks since last I jotted down a few thought.  I'll try to bring you up to date on our travels and adventures.

After leaving Hoonah  we traveled east on Icy Strait where we spent a night at Couverden Cove (Swanson Harbor) where the city of Haines has erected two "refuge" floats for fishermen (mainly) to get away from weather and be safe at a dock.  Most anyone uses the floats...we were one of many pleasure craft tied there.  The bad news was that there were no crab in our pots!  We moved on to Admiralty Cove  on the north end of Admiralty Island for just a temporary anchorage while we awaited the tide to flood so we could access another anchorage for the night.  About 4 in the afternoon we left anchorage #1 and moved on to Oliver Inlet.  What a perfectly lovely and beatuiful place!!  Two photos above.  We were surrounded by beautiful mountains and by 5 bears!!  All big Grizz.  Just spectacular.  The only catch was getting through the narrows.  We should have had about 4 feet under the boat (by tide reports) when in actuality we had only 1.7 feet!!!!  We were holding our feet up with concern!.   And many parts of Alaska are so poorly charted, I guess because there are that many people here.....that the charts details only go down to 3 miles.  That is not helpful when trying to get into a tight space.  But we made it safely in without having a rock named for us and safely out on a much higher tide the next day.

We cruised on to Taku Harbor for a day.  Taku is the site of an abandoned cannery now in ruins.  You feel like you are in no man's land when suddenly a large ship passes by your little cove.

On 5/31 we moved on to Juneau where we met up with a couple of Skagit boating friends.  We rented a car, made the obligatory Costco run, Fred Meyers (they were both very happy to see us) and them moved on to Mendenhall Glacier, the Alaska State Museum and the Mt Roberts Tram.
I had posted on FB (while at the library waiting for the laundry to finish) that we had made it Juneau and received a message from Carl Heine ( a former ER doc at Skagit, now in Juneau) that he and his wife were in town and to call them.  Much to our surprise they invited Gary and me and our two boating friends to dinner!  We had a wonderful dinner of grilled salmon with to die for Brownies (made by Carl's visiting from NH mom) in a lovely home with a killer view of the Juneau downtown from high above the water.  They told us that they had bought their home from an artist who has an current exhibit at the Ak State History Museum (Photo of exhibit above)  I was much surprised to see the exhibit!!  Very large encompassing two rooms of the museum.  I felt almost special.....like I had dinner at "his" house last night!!

The next day we moved on to Windfall Harbor in Seymour Canal on Admiralty Island.  This may be one of the most visually productive anchorages of all of our trips combined.  We had bears on the beach, loons on the water, eagles in the sky and kayakers with tents on the beach.  The next morning we pulled big prawns from our pots and had whales in our water.  We had humpbacks and orcas as well as pacific white sided dolphins and sea lions and otters.  AND, the sun was out.  It was a sun in your face, wind in your hair, prawns in your pot and whales in your water kind of day!!  Perfection!!

Moving on past Admiralty and on to Kupreanof Island and again through Rocky Pass!! 
When we got back to Prince of Wales (POW) Island we stopped at Port Protection to see if I could find another former colleague.  To my almost immediate surprise I found Jubal ( the medic) at the grocery store.  I looks happy and healthy and told me to tell everyone that his is now a long haired hippy!!
Down the west side of POW and onto to a few more anchorages before making it into Craig yesterday.  Made it to the grocery this morning so we are once again provisioned.  Our current plan is to continue south around POW and then back up to Ketchikan for final provisions before beginning our southward journey towards home.  We have been out on the water 6 weeks!!  Seems like yesterday that we left home but it is time to think about heading south.  Gary would like to spend awhile fishing Squally Channel in BC....the fishing here has been non existent.  The kings are not in yet and the silvers are still out too.  Read this morning that Copper River kings are way behind this year too....they are usually at Haggen's by mid May!!  And since the otters are protected they are wiping out the clams and crabs in most of the little coves......we may starve....or be forced to eat chicken!
It may be a bit before I am able to post another update but I will as soon as possible. 
Thanks for reading this and traveling along with us on our little boat.  I appreciate all the comments.
Happy travels.