Our destination for the night was another new to us anchorage, Rowan Bay on Kuiu Island on the east side of Chatham Strait. The weather was lovely and the seas in Chatham Strait were nearly flat as we crossed over to Rowan Bay. The bay was nice but the scenery wasn't nearly as dramatic as that in
Gut Bay. The hills were lower and softer as they were heavily timbered. We were a bit put off by a 2-story floating fishing lodge on the north shore of the bay. But it did not appear to be active as we saw no boats come and go or other sign of life. The worse, though, might have been the pesky horse flies. Marcia made a pretty good dent in their population while she sat on the fly bridge.The next day, Thursday, June 23, the weather forecast indicated that it would be the last of the good weather for a while. So rather than try another new anchorage on Kuiu Island, we crossed Frederick Sound to Chapin Bay on Admiralty Island, an anchorage we used last year.
The next morning, we traveled the relatively short distance along the south shore of Admiralty Island to Cannery Cove in Pybus Bay. Cannery Cove is a popular anchorage but the popularity is well deserved. It boasts beautiful scenery (at the head is a meadow often frequented by brown bears and beyond it, a stunning mountain-scape), and an ample anchoring area offering protection from most storms. When we pulled in, only one other boat was there. By nightfall, a total of 8 boats, including ourselves, were anchored in Cannery Cove. We ended up spending 3 nights in Cannery Cove, using it as a base to service the prawn traps we dropped in the channels outside the cove and to try our hand at halibut fishing. The prawning was productive, the fishing was not.
The weather for the first two days was poor, with regular rain showers and winds in the 10-15 knot range. By our last day, the winds were dying and the low marine clouds hinting at sunshine once the sun began heating the atmosphere. On the morning of Monday, June 27, we continued up Stephens Passage to Gambier Bay. Marcia tried halibut fishing along a channel leading into the bay but again, no luck. We dropped three exploratory prawn traps in Gambier Bay since we had never prawned there before. The next morning, the prawn traps were productive but the bottom was muddy and the prawns and traps required extra cleaning to get the mud off.
On Tuesday, June 28, for our final night out before heading into Juneau, we tied up at the public dock in Taku Harbor. The year before we had sat up a storm in Taku before heading into Juneau. The weather was much better this year, with lots of sun and temperatures in the mid-60's.
Based on suggestions from others, we are docking in a new location in Juneau this year than all our previous trips. The Intermediate Vessel Float (IVF) is on the waterfront in downtown Juneau, nestled between the cruise ship docks. It is a small dock, only 6 slips, and does allow reservations. The moorage fee is over twice that which is charged at other Port of Juneau facilities but we thought we'd splurge for a couple of nights and see what the "city life" is like in Juneau.
We'll be renting a car in Juneau in order to provision for the next leg of our summer cruise into Glacier Bay National Park. There is a Costco in Juneau so we'll also provision for the staples that will take us through until we get back to Puget Sound in September. Annie-cat continues to do well with her every other day subcutaneous infusions of lactated Ringer's solution and Marcia will be stocking up on supplies for that as well.
We are nearing the half-way point of our trip and have traveled 1,865 nautical miles in the 65 days we've been out. I expect that we'll get to 4,000 miles by the time we make it back to Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island.
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