Channel Dancer Adventures

Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Ketchikan, AK
I cannot believe that we have been on the water for over 7 weeks! A new adventure every day and this year, in spite of the weather, the boat has not seemed to shrink at all!!!
After leaving Craig we continued down the south west side of POW....it is a very large island..the largest of the hundreds, if not a thousand or so, of islands in SE Alaska. We spent a couple of fairly uneventful days which is not a bad thing..........until we had to ride out a storm. We had heard weather reports of an upcoming event and found a lovely anchorage called Mabel Bay where we would be sheltered from the predicted SW winds....and we were. It rained horizontally and blew pretty hard in our little cove but we got mainly gusts that blew over the tree tops. We did hear that night about 8PM that is was blowing at Cape Decision...20 miles to the west...at 71 MPH. Now that is a heavy blow and to think that we got maybe 40MPH gusts out of it. Gary makes very good anchorage choices....I opt for scenic....he opts for safety!!! We did not however score on the crabs there. Gary says many of these bays have been "otter-sized". The lovely little furry creatures are decimating the abalone, clam and crab populations. We are sure they will slowly move south towards Puget Sound and then we will be out of crab as well. But then, they are protected creatures. Wish the bears were.
The next day all was calm and we continued on POW to a lovely place called Keete Inlet. We were once again graced with the presence of bears. A couple of them just grazing along the grassy waterfronts. But then a third came along. I was overjoyed until I saw that he was lame....actually badly maimed. Missing his L front paw and the back L was barely keeping him upright. No doubt he had been caught in a trap. He probably won't live long and it made my stomach just flip for him.
This has been the first trip we have ever taken where we have had such bad bear sightings. First was 5/15 with the hunters shooting the bear, then later on at Murder Cove where Gary found the bear carcass on the beach intact except for the missing HEAD and front paws and now this third badly crippled guy. We have had Bad Bear Bay, Butchered Bear Bay and now Maimed Bear Bay.
Enough already!!
But the whale sightings have been quite good this year. And with my new camera we are actually getting some fairly (OK not by professional standards, Chris) good shots of tails which is an improvement over the frustration of missing ALL the good shots in the past. Whales in your water always makes for a good day. Am anxious to get home to MY computer and my Picasa and get some REAL photos online!!!
On south to Hunter Bay where we expected a good beach bear showing but got nada. Instead we were treated to a breeding pair of Sandhill Cranes with babe in tow. I guess they are quite rare in this part of the world. I am not Audubon-ite but it was pretty exciting. There are also several old dock "ruins" in this bay which was the site of a large cannery and a copper mine years ago. It is amazing how heavy weather will quickly turn perfectly good buildings and docks into nothingness in a fairly short period of time.
Next stop, after an absolutely flat rounding of Cape Chacon on the Dixon Entrance, we spent the night in Hidden Bay on the EAST side of POW...finally made it around the south end. Saw another couple of bear, a couple of dear and a beaver swimming in the water. Hidden Bay is indeed hidden. It is entered via a winding channel of rocks and drying reefs that make it a landlocked bay protected from all wind and things that go bump in the night. Very pretty place.
OK, have made it to Ketchikan and will begin our slow journey south toward home tomorrow.
Have many more stops to make and a lot of salmon fishing to do in BC waters. The Kings have already been through and the Silvers are not here yet! For the first time ever, Gary has not caught a salmon in Alaska!! On to BC where the salmon are easy.................
Now to try and load some photos!

I called him Two Dot