July 15, 2017

We had sun today!! Woo Hoo!! We decided that Takatz might be our favorite place in Alaska. Beautiful scenery, protected anchorage, and internet.

Fish still jumping everywhere so Greg went out fishing for a while on his own in the morning. No luck.

July 14, 2017

We got going relatively early this morning in order to get around the corner. Peril Straight was glassy and calm which was nice, and there were two other recreational boats going in the same direction as us, one called "You Dear" and another called "Peregrine". Chatham was fine as cruising as well.

We had been texting with Ken and Kim about planning a trip to the Anan Bear Conservatory later in the week, and Ken mentioned that he saw we were close to "You Dear", and if we saw them, we should say Hi for them. We anchored up in Takatz just after "You Dear". While coming into the Bay, there were fish jumping everywhere. So we had some lunch and then jumped in the dingy and tried fishing for about an hour. Oh shock, we didn't catch anything. But we got the "gist" of the new "Diver" gizmo thingy we bought so we could fish without the down rigger. We stopped by "You Dear" on the way back in to say hello to them on behalf of Ken & Kim. We met Peter and Gail and they were very nice.

Back to the boat. Did stuff, had dinner, and decided to stay another day. We decided that Takatz was a really great place because you were hidden in this lovely cove, but you still had a cell signal, and still had internet! How cool is that!

Several other boats arrived as well so apparently it is a popular place. We also had a couple of *big* yachts come in which was amazing. Fun to watch them stop, anchor, dump all the water toys (kayaks, jet ski's, inflatable dingy's) and then also have the accompanying fast boat / fishing boat. Not our peeps.

July 13, 2017

Greg went out first thing to collect the crab pots, and sadly still no keepers. There were 2 in the pots at least so they apparently do hold crab. When we left, we noted that another boat had anchored in the outside part of the cove last night after we were in. Wow! Three whole recreational boats is a new record!

The ride down into Peril Straight was lovely. Our plan was to go to Appleton Cove so that we could put the crab pots out there as we heard that others had been successful. But when we arrived, one of the fish boats had completely carpet bombed the whole cove with pots, and was actually in the process of checking them. There are so many pots that we had to pick through them to find a place to anchor. We also thought about going out into Peril Straight and doing some fishing there.

We had some lunch, and it started to sprinke/rain so then it was nap time for some. And then the wind came up and it was fairly unpleasant outside so we read some more. Late in the afternoon though, the wind died completely and the sun came out! We hopped in the dingy to take advantage of the opportunity. It was now high tide and so we went down to the flats at the end of cove. And sure enough, we saw Brown Bears! They are not a myth! They were still small even in the binoculars, but we could see 4 cubs and Mom. Just lazing around in the grass and sun. No photos as they were too far away. We did row closer up the "ocean stream", but then they appeared to retreat into the forest. Bella fortunately did not make good bear bait.

Back to Spellbound for dinner and ended up seeing a single bear back there. So we popped back into the dingy with cameras to see what we could see. The single one (male?) left by that time, but we could see the sow and 4 cubs hanging around. She knew we were there and kept an eye on us, but we were far enough away that we didn't bother her. Got some "proof" shots.

July 12, 2017 - Happy Birthday Jan!

We had a bit of a lazy morning since. Slack at Sergius Narrows wasn't until 2:00 so there was no point in leaving any earlier than what we needed to. We left around 10:15 and had a lovely cruise up. Even Salsbury Sound was flat at we went by. We did see a cruise ship, the EuroDam, tied up to the container dock just north of town, so now we know that they *do* get cruise ships in Sitka. We also actually saw a couple of other pleasure boats!

We arrived at the narrows early, but it wasn't an issue. We had heard two other boats over the radio go through ahead of us as well. While it Sitka, we saw a boat called "Evergreen" tied up at the dock. We recognized this boat from Rosario on Orcas Island. As we pulled into Baby Bear Cove, it was anchoring just outside the small "nook" and we waved.

Although it had been a clear ride up, it immediately started to pour. Greg put his full rain gear on and went to drop the crab pots. We now had some salmon as bait so he put out 3 pots, 2 with salmon and 1 with halibut as an experiment. The guy from "Seeker" had told us that he limited out when he left his pots there so we were very hopeful we might finally get our first crab. We had planned to go for a dingy ride and see the sights but each time the rain let up, it just started pouring again a couple of minutes later. It was like someone knew when we started to think about it. So we had tea/coffee and read and kept looking to shore to see what we could see. No Bears. Bears are a myth in Alaska.

Eventually it was too late, and we made a nice dinner and watched one of my favorite movies.

July 11, 2017

Mostly a chore day today, and not a good puppy day. We did laundry in the morning and then came back to the boat for a coffee and a short time with the pooper. Then back out again and had lunch at the hotel right above the harbor. They have a decent restaurant. Then a walk down to the "Bishops House".

This is now owned by the Forest Service and they had 2 rangers there. There was a downstairs that you could walk around on your own, and then they conducted tours of the upstairs. It has been completely restored to make it safe to go in, and has been furnished just as it was when the first Bishop from the Russian Orthodox Church was there. It is still "consecrated", but there are only a couple events a year done there.

Walking back towards town, we picked up a Christmas Tree Ornament from the Russian Christmas Store of course. Then to the grocery store to provision. We didn't need much because it really hasn't been that long since we provisioned last, just a few more new fruits and vegetables. Back to the boat to try and appease the puppy a bit. Raining harder so we needed to dry our pants a bit too.

We had been recommended a nice restaurant by John and Judy called Ludwig's. Greg made reservations for dinner tonight as soon as we arrived in Sitka. We knew we might be leaving on my actual birthday so we decided to have birthday dinner the night before. It's a very small quaint restaurant and only seats about 20 people. But the food is amazing! Uses local seafood and has a Spanish / Italian bent. Quite high end with an amazing ambiance. We ended up with several appetizers for dinner and a lovely chocolate torte with raspberry sauce and sea salt for birthday cake. Yum.

Back to the boat for some puppy attention before watching a movie and going to bed.

July 10, 2017

Slept in. Ended up doing a bunch of work on the computers and so were hanging out on board for most of the morning. Danny and Susan came by around lunch to say Hi and look at Cell phone amps. We needed to get out and so we left Miss B behind and went to the Backdoor Cafe for a coffee/tea and a sandwich. Then we walked up to the Alaska Raptor Center, which was a bit of a hike. We arrived in time for a walk around and video, then a look at the 20 bald eagles that were currently in the indoor flight area. The windows were all "one way" so they couldn't see us, but we could see them. They all had various injuries but were on their way to being released. And then a "presentation" with Narwal, the great horned owl.



Like most "rescue, rehab, and release" organizations, there are some animals that can't be released into the wild, and so if they are a candidate, they become "ambassador" animals. Narwal had a broken bone in his wing and he had surgery and was on the road to release. However due to the surgery, he ended up "too loud" when he was flying and so he wouldn't be able to get food as he would announce that he was coming! I thought that was quite surprising.

Then we walked over to a small shopping plaza for some dog treats and other things. Then a long walk back to the boat. We got our exercise today! Apple watch says 6.85 miles of walking.

July 9, 2017

We had to go through Sergius Narrows at 6:00am so we left around 5:20 in the morning. Just leaving the cove we saw that "Seeker" the cargo boat from Warm Springs had spent the night in Bear Cove and was straight ahead of us. So we let him go first and just followed. The ferry Manuska called us on the radio and asked if we would stay at the north end to let him through first and we of course said we would - that was our plan. After that there is one spot for about 20 minutes that is open to the real ocean, and so we zag-ed a bit and sped through it. Otherwise, the transit was fine, however surprise - it rained the whole way. We saw that "Stella Maris" was just leaving Sitka too! We had assumed they would stay until tomorrow, but they had decided to leave and go south and seek some sun. (This is becoming a common theme). We talked for a short while on the radio and they re-iterated that this was the worst summer they had encountered.

Had to call and find out where the fuel dock was. Of course once you know where it is, it's obvious It was raining hard when we arrived and we were not able to plug the electrical in because the power box was locked. Greg walked to the harbormasters office but it was closed on Sunday. We called on the radio and the harbormaster said they would come down and see if they could un-lock the box, but he didn't say when. So we ended up just hanging out on the boat and then having some lunch. The harbormaster did make it down a couple of hours later. Turns out he really likes Grand Banks boats and said some very nice things about Spellbound.

The rain slowed down and sorta kinda stopped so we decided to head out for a walk. We hadn't gone far on the dock before we noticed a boat registered in Thunder Bay, Ontario - a 42 Nordic Tug. Don't see that too often. There was a woman standing on the back swim step who saw us walking Bella and said she had her own doxie inside the boat. We ended up chatting about dachshunds and Canada for quite some time across the dock, and so she invited us over for a drink later.

We continued walking as best we could, but Bella was not helpful. We walked all through town, looked in a couple of shops that were open on a Sunday, down to the library and cruise ship area, and over to the Totem Park. It was a longish walk out there but seemed like a good idea.



There were quite a few large personal boats in Eliason harbor with us, plus a few smaller cruise ships in the harbor closer to town. There is a permanent National Geographic tour office plus another named one, inside the visitor center. We stopped and talked to some other dog people along the way as people asked about Bella.

It was close to 6:00 by the time we got back, so we thought we might be too late to stop by "Potest Fieri" for a drink. Susan was there and said "no problem" and Danny was just on his way back from the liquor store. We met their mini black & tan short haired doxie, "Lowla" too. What a real sweety. Lowla had back surgery last October, and was still recovering somewhat. She could walk, but her back end was a little "loose" and she was slightly wobbly. But she sat on my lap and cuddled with me so she must be a good girl. We had a great time talking with Susan and Danny. They bought the boat new in 2005 and spent 10 years boating on the East Coast all over. They have done the great loop 1.5 times, have been to the Bahamas in it, and all up and down the Coast and through the Great Lakes and Rivers. They were retired the whole time and seem to have boated ever since. They had the boat shipped to Victoria in December 2015 and started boating on this coast, and this year is their first time to Alaska as well. They made it up to Glacier Bay and are meandering back down.

We ended up talking dogs, boats, American tourism as a Canadian and food. They even made me a Caesar. With rim spices. I was impressed. We didn't end up leaving until after 10:00pm and no one had had dinner yet. Ooops. Back to Spellbound for a quick sausage dinner and to bed.