Week 10 - Sitka and South

Monday June 17. With gear to fix, the AP1 to pick up, we decided to head over to Sitka and needed to time the Sergius Narrows for a noon transit. So Kurt was up and out early to pick up the crab pots. There were three keepers. Next he and I went out and retrieved the prawn traps. There were some very nice spot prawns. Yes! So it was back to the boat and a flurry of activity. I got water going to cook crab, and cleaned the prawns (took their heads off and treated the tails in bleach water) 26 large spot prawns and 10 side strip shrimp. Then cleaned the crabs and cooked the sections. Got everything complete and secured and we were pulling anchor by 8:09. The crab sections were cooling off in cold fresh water and I picked them while underway.

We got to Sergius ~ 45 minutes before low slack, and transited. It was fine, not swirly. Next we went through the Neva Straight and to a favorite anchorage, the Magoun Lagoon, 12 miles from Sitka. It was a bit of a nail biter as we entered through the narrow and shallow entrance, we calculated we had about 6 feet under our keel. Inside we noticed it was windy, 10-15 kt wind, but the anchor stuck really, really well. One nice thing about wind is no bugs! Dinner was a crab and shrimp salad.

On Tuesday we got a prompt start and pulled into Sitka ~ 9:30, were given a slip assignment and were off doing errands. I took my reels to the repair person, turned out to be a 5 mile round trip walk; there is a bus, but I must have just missed it. On the way back, I looked out at the entrance to the harbor and saw m/v Passages, owned by our friends Doug & Jill, and called Kurt and told him they were coming into port and to go catch a line, which he did.

Doug and Jill arrived to get ready for the arrival of their son and grandkids. Doug is a top notch fisherman and had been having excellent success fishing. He is also an excellent source of tips. I know he really wants me to catch a king. They had us for dinner that night and by the time we left Sitka I was armed with a number of suggestions and tips.

The next day, we continued with boat chores including taking our dirty laundry the quarter mile to the laundro-mat and installing the repaired autopilot control unit retrieved from the Sitka dealer to whom it had been sent by the manufacturer. Also Dr. Reel came by with my reels, how nice and prompt. So I continued to tie hoochies, etc. And get tips from Doug.

A week or so ago, Kurt noticed that the engine room temperature was more elevated than usual and tracked that down to the failure of the engine room intake fan, which it turns out had some corrosion. So, as soon as we got to Sitka he ordered replacements for that plus the exhaust fan. They arrived the day we planned to leave, Saturday, and he went and collected them at the post office and we left for Viskari Rocks, where it was rather lumpy then to Kalinin Bay.

We hoped to use our new trolling valve on the transmission and the downrigger that now had the part so we could use it on the big boat. We were ready to catch a king! When we got outside the bay, we prepped and went to the hot spot where we discovered that the trolling valve was not working (the trolling valve allows the boat to travel slower than the normal idling speed of 3.5 knots) at all. When we engaged it, the boat was dead in the water and the shaft did not turn at all. We had tested this last March before heading north to Alaska!! It worked then, but not now.

It is disconcerting to have a boat dead in the water, especially as close to shore and rocks as we were. So we quickly got ourselves back to "normal cruising" and I tried using the gear at the lowest speed we could go, but all I got were tangles of the flasher and the hoochie. Back to the drawing board. We went in to Kalinin so we could do some troubleshooting. The next morning, Sunday Kurt saw 3 bear on the beach, brownies. Also we confirmed in the protected waters of the Kalinin Bay, the trolling valve was not working. So we headed out and south, and tried "mooching" near Viskari Rocks, and I proceeded to catch 2 rockfish, so I quit. I just don't like catching rockfish. We headed to Herring Bay, where we had been in 2011, it is lovely. That evening, we saw one bear on the beach, a brownie, just moseying along the shore.