July 17, 2017

Meant to leave earlier but didn't. Got to Chatham around 8:00. No wind and calm, but a bit rolly polly at first. Didn't take long before the swell disappeared. Had a lovely ride into Kake. Looks like they don't get much in the way of transients there. We couldn't raise the harbor master on the radio and so ended up getting his cell number. All the slots were empty so we could just choose.

One of the reasons we went there is because they have a good cell signal. So we had lunch and then started making arrangements to go to the Anan Wildlife Conservatory. We were aiming to go Friday. We wanted to go with the same guy who took us on the Stikine River tour, but we had left him a message and he had not called back. Also, his website said his tour was 10 hours long! A bit long for us. So we started googling for other operators.

Long story short, we ended up calling the Forest Service directly and getting our own permits over the phone for Thursday. And we got on a boat with "Alaskan Waters". (They had room on the boat but no permits). There tour is only 5.5 hours which seemed a bit better and less of an issue for Bella. It's ridiculously, disgustingly, embarrassingly expensive, but chest la vie. It's a unique opportunity to see wild bears close up. Gotta try. So since we were going to Anan a day early, we decided to do Rocky Pass tomorrow.

By this time it was late afternoon so we went for a dingy ride towards the town. We got there and it was difficult to see that there was any "there" there. We eventually found what we thought was the right "City Dock", but it was covered with barnacles and we were worried about the inflatable. Also, couldn't see any of the buildings that the books said should be there. So we didn't stop.

Back to Spellbound for dinner. Another boat showed up with was a local Alaska boat preparing to go through the pass as well. But they had never been before either. A nice couple from Klawook (sp?) with some friends from out of town. They said they would follow us through.