July 20, 2017

Today was our day to go to Anan. It was a bit sunny this morning and a bit warmer as well which was nice. Had a shower and did the morning routine and walked over to say Hi to Kim. Ken returned after picking up his father and they headed out to Kindergarten Cove to do some fishing with the family. We went for a walk with Bella to try and tire her out a bit and came back and had lunch. A huge sailboat came into the marina while we were there and we watched it and the world go by for a while. Then another recreational boat came in too. We were no longer the only transient in the marina!

We borrowed Ken & Kim's truck and left around 1:10 to head into town to catch the boat. We were a bit early and so had coffee from the shop and wandered around a bit. As we were waiting at the picnic tables for the boat to be ready, we met our boat companions. It was one family with Grandma and Grandpa from Iowa, Son from Thailand, and Daughter and 2 young granddaughters from Virginia. They were traveling throughout Alaska for 25 days. We talked to Gramma and she said that initially, she bought the tour tickets online, including 2 "kids" price tickets, only to read later that children under 12 were not allowed on the tour! She ended up talking to them and finding out what behavior was needed for the kids and they all determined that their kids would be fine. Apparently the tour people just say that so they can "vet" kids beforehand.



We piled into their jet boat and noticed that it was a bit bigger and nicely appointed compared to the previous one. And of course, they had a bathroom on board. It was about a 50 minute trip at 39kts to the Observatory. They had Black bears there! We had a great time, more detail and way too many photos later. Here's a sample.

July 19, 2017 - Happy 13th Birthday Bella!

Slept in. Did some work on the computers and hung out. Kim called and she was available to go to the grocery store, so we packed up our shopping bags and tagged along for the ride. Ended up getting a lot of stuff and going to both grocery stores so it was good to have the truck. It was quite warm and a bit sunny which was also a nice change. No rain coat required!

Kim invited us to Happy Hour that evening. Back to the boat for lunch and then we grabbed Bella and headed out for a walk into town. She is still not walking at all well and no matter what we do, we couldn't seem to get her to go. So we did a bit of "remediation" and it seemed to go well. We walked all the way into town and to the Library. We brought our iPads to try and download some shows, but it was not that good. Walked back to the boat.

We had a nice Happy Hour on Reiki Master, meeting Ken's step brother Roger and his father Jack. Good conversation about their trip to Jack's camps and old family life. Back to Spellbound for dinner and a movie.

July 18, 2017

Engines on a 5:30am! We needed to be at "Devil's Elbow" at 8:45am for high slack, so that's when we needed to leave. It was a beautiful calm glassy morning and the ride down and through was lovely. Certainly needed to pay attention, and there were spots with pretty low depth of 11' or so, but it was fine. Lot's of kelp.

We hadn't planned to go all the way to Wrangell today, but we didn't know exactly where to stop. We were thinking of Point Baker, Port Protection made for too long a day the next day. So we continued on as the conditions were ideal. We were thinking of either Totem Bay or St. Johns. We also ended up going *into* the current the whole way which was not ideal. But, we thought we could be in Wrangell at 3:30 as that's what the route said, so we just kept going. It turned out to be 4:00pm. Long day.

We texted Ken and Kim and asked if they were interested in going out to dinner at the Stikine with us and they said yes. So we arrived and I showered and we went out and had a really nice dinner. They have had buckets of company and had more arriving the next morning so we had an early evening.

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.

July 16, 2017

We left early in the morning, but not quite early enough I guess. It was a really lumpy ride down. The wind was blowing even though it wasn't supposed to be, and we went into it and slammed for awhile, then it was fine, then it was worse. We pulled out into this little bay for a half hour or so and took a break. Then it was only another 3 miles to go and we hugged the shore so it was fine.

This place is often described as "land locked" as you have to work your way around some islands to get in there and the whole things is well protected. We got to the head of the inlet eventually and one of the mega yachts, Serengeti, was already there. So we picked a spot on the corner so we could see both the waterfall and the stream delta.

We put the prawn traps out "next to the cliff" which is where it was recommended. Picked it up later on, no prawns, full of mud, wrong spot.

Serengeti left and it was replaced with a few more boats. Several big ones, plus a couple of small "cruise ships". We pick the popular places.