Bryant picked the boys and I up from Whittier dock on Friday evening after work. He is on the every other Friday off schedule, so he and his buddy took the boat out on Thursday night. In the boat harbor, I gave his buddy the car keys. He drove to Anchorage and we boarded the boat. First on our agenda was pulling the shrimp pots. Bryant pulled them in the morning and rebaited them for a day long soak. We figured if we pulled them tonight, we'd get in another overnight tonight, totaling three for this trip. The sun doesn't setting until 9:30 ish and being a clear night, we did have a little time to set up anchor before dark.
We anchored in Shotgun Cove Friday evening. It is the closest anchorage to Whittier. There were probably 6 or 7 other boats anchored in this area as well that evening. Under a star filled, moonless night, we discussed the latest news of Sarah Palin. Hard to imagine the same women, who walked in flip flops and shorts in the 2006 Colonial Days parade in Palmer, AK campaigning for governor, was now the GOP nominee for vice president. I know she lacks experience in D.C., but I've seen the way she connects with people and that means something to the everyday people who go to the polls. I think in some ways it matters more than the people who play games to get ahead. McCain looked for her. I also have a lot of respect for the fact that she won the republican ticket without the support of the state's republican party, who are quite the corrupt bunch, excluding Palin of course.
On Saturday, we awoke to
beautiful blue skies. After a cup of coffee, Bryant and I went dingying around Shotgun Cove. The pink salmon were just swarming around this fresh water stream. The bears enjoyed a few meals of salmon as well. I could see where there was one or two bites taken out of a salmon. It looked like they wanted to say, "I'm full," but then decided that they couldn't hold back and tried another bite only to waste the remaining salmon. I even found salmon heads and guts in the woods when I was picking berries that weren't left behind by the careless fisherman. Of course, I quickly called for Ollie, our dog, to come and explore the woods with me. She usually does smell bears, then barks and hopefully succeeds in scaring them away.
We spent the first half of the day lazing around Shotgun Cove. Around 1:00, we m
otored out of Passage Canal to Port Wells. Huge mountains, hanging glaciers, and blue sky . . . . there was nothing not to like. We ended up trolling down by Granite Bay State Park, only this time we had the pleasure of seeing it in the sunshine, unlike the other 2 weekends when we spent the night down this way. The fish didn't seem to like the sunshine, as they refused to bite. But we really didn't care too much, as we were busy catching the rare rays that make their way into Prince William Sound.
Concerned about gas and time, we decided to head back toward Whittier. There was a small craft advisory for Sunday, so we opted to pack it up Saturday evening while the going was good. As we made our way past Ester Island and in front of Pigot Bay a steady breeze from the east caught our attention. We decided to raise our sails. For about 5 miles, we sailed on a broad reach at about 4 miles/hour. As we started to head back into Passage Canal, we lost our wind. After dropping sails, we motored to our shrimp pots. We didn't break any shrimping records, but caught a couple of meals worth.
The Whittier boat harbor was a mad house. On low tide, one of the launching sites is dry so all the boats are lined up in the water near the launch waiting to takeout. At a boat launch with parking only yards away this doesn't happen, but in Whittier, the main parking lot is 1/2 mile away. Inevitably there ends up being a lot of people holding boat lines on the dock waiting for their runner to return with the truck and trailer, while the rest of the boat traffic is idling in the harbor. There is nothing about Whittier that is normal, so none of this should surprise me, but it does. To add to the boat harbor madness, the Whittier tunnel is only one way. Every hour there is a 15 minute time block of opportunity to get through the tunnel from Whittier back to the main road toward Anchorage. So as we are busy flushing the motor, cleaning up our mess, parking the sailboat, and packing the car, the question weighing on the back of our mind and adding stress is always, "How many more minutes do we have?"
Then the question becomes, why do we come back? After all Whittier is the closest ocean boating port to our house and well, every once in a while you catch some sunshine.
beautiful blue skies. After a cup of coffee, Bryant and I went dingying around Shotgun Cove. The pink salmon were just swarming around this fresh water stream. The bears enjoyed a few meals of salmon as well. I could see where there was one or two bites taken out of a salmon. It looked like they wanted to say, "I'm full," but then decided that they couldn't hold back and tried another bite only to waste the remaining salmon. I even found salmon heads and guts in the woods when I was picking berries that weren't left behind by the careless fisherman. Of course, I quickly called for Ollie, our dog, to come and explore the woods with me. She usually does smell bears, then barks and hopefully succeeds in scaring them away.We spent the first half of the day lazing around Shotgun Cove. Around 1:00, we m
otored out of Passage Canal to Port Wells. Huge mountains, hanging glaciers, and blue sky . . . . there was nothing not to like. We ended up trolling down by Granite Bay State Park, only this time we had the pleasure of seeing it in the sunshine, unlike the other 2 weekends when we spent the night down this way. The fish didn't seem to like the sunshine, as they refused to bite. But we really didn't care too much, as we were busy catching the rare rays that make their way into Prince William Sound.Concerned about gas and time, we decided to head back toward Whittier. There was a small craft advisory for Sunday, so we opted to pack it up Saturday evening while the going was good. As we made our way past Ester Island and in front of Pigot Bay a steady breeze from the east caught our attention. We decided to raise our sails. For about 5 miles, we sailed on a broad reach at about 4 miles/hour. As we started to head back into Passage Canal, we lost our wind. After dropping sails, we motored to our shrimp pots. We didn't break any shrimping records, but caught a couple of meals worth.
The Whittier boat harbor was a mad house. On low tide, one of the launching sites is dry so all the boats are lined up in the water near the launch waiting to takeout. At a boat launch with parking only yards away this doesn't happen, but in Whittier, the main parking lot is 1/2 mile away. Inevitably there ends up being a lot of people holding boat lines on the dock waiting for their runner to return with the truck and trailer, while the rest of the boat traffic is idling in the harbor. There is nothing about Whittier that is normal, so none of this should surprise me, but it does. To add to the boat harbor madness, the Whittier tunnel is only one way. Every hour there is a 15 minute time block of opportunity to get through the tunnel from Whittier back to the main road toward Anchorage. So as we are busy flushing the motor, cleaning up our mess, parking the sailboat, and packing the car, the question weighing on the back of our mind and adding stress is always, "How many more minutes do we have?"
Then the question becomes, why do we come back? After all Whittier is the closest ocean boating port to our house and well, every once in a while you catch some sunshine.
For more photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/jillcaho/CatchingSunshinePWS
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