August 9 – 12 – Elfin Cove to Sitka

We departed Elfin Cove Monday, August 9, for Sitka. We started the trip by going to Pelican, another board walk community similar to Elfin Cove with no roads, only a board walk. The cannery in Pelican closed a few years ago and many other businesses in the community have not been able to make a go of it. Elfin Cove seems to be sustaining itself on its sport fishing lodges and commercial fisherman. Pelican has commercial fishing but it is further from the sport fishing area and doesn’t have as many lodges.

Travelling with the Nagles in the DavidEllis is their friend Shirley, the owner of the Elfin Cove bar damaged by fire earlier in the summer. She lives in Sitka for about half the year and was hitching a ride with them. Since she needs to be in Sitka by Wednesday, the Nagles have elected to travel to Sitka on the outside coast, the short route but more exposed to wind and seas. We don’t have that constraint and elect to go the long way back through Icy Strait, down Chatham Strait and then through Peril Strait (despite its name, the only perilous part is Sergius Narrows which requires timing in order to hit slack current).

Bright and early on Tuesday, we head north from Pelican and retrace our route from the previous day. Just north of Elfin Cove as we are motoring through the fog, we see three humpback whales heading towards us a few hundred yards away. We put the boat in neutral and begin to coast. The whales continue towards us, their backs rising and falling as they swim. About 50 yards away, the two whales still heading directly towards us, make the classic big arch of their back, flip their tail skyward and plunge dive. Of course we have no photos because we were so astonished we didn’t think of it until after the whales dove. The camera came out at the ready but no more whales made a grand exit in front of us.

Besides the whale encounter, the trip to Sitka involved one very long day (86 miles on 8/10), one not so long day (62 miles on 8/11), and one short day (30 miles on 8/12). The two anchorages we used, Pavlof Harbor on 8/10 and Deep Harbor on 8/11 were pleasant. The transit of Sergius Narrows was pretty straightforward as we hit it at slack current (it can run at over 7 knots at max current) with no opposing vessels to worry about. The weather by the time we got to Sitka was spectacular.

Sitka is located on the outer coast but behind many protective islands. There are high mountains on one side and water on the other (of course, that describes nearly every Alaskan town in the Southeast). I think Sitka’s proximity to the ocean and the low profile of the islands to its west make it seem even more open and vast the other communities we have visited. In any event, it is a stunning setting and a lovely town (the good weather may be biasing my point of view, however).