Provisioning our way to Petersburg

Our usual practice upon departing Ketchikan after first arriving in Alaska is to start trying to fill the freezer with seafood.  For us the easiest are prawns and crabs. 

We left Ketchikan the morning of Friday, May 12 and headed to Fitzgibbon Cove, almost kitty-corner to Ketchikan on the NE corner of Behm Canal.  Immediately after arriving, we drop the dinghy in the water and set a couple of crab pots.  The next morning we pull up a few keeper crabs and head to Walker Cove dropping some prawn traps along the way.

Walker Cove is a lovely anchorage in Misty Fjord National Monument less visited than Rudyerd Bay (aka Punchbowl Cove).  The USFS buoy is vacant so we tie to it saving us from having to set an anchor in difficult conditions.  A brown bear sow and cub are chomping the grass as we tie off on the buoy.  Later that evening, we spy three bears working the same beach.

The original plan was to go back to Fitzgibbon Cove or perhaps on to Yes Bay for continued crabbing and prawning but a favorable weather forecast in Clarence Strait encourages us to continue north.  We bypass both Fitzgibbons and Yes Bay and position ourselves in the Port Stewart along Behm Canal, a new-to-us anchorage.

The forecast was spot on and Clarence Strait was smooth. Our destination for the night was Thoms Place where we drop prawn pots outside and crab pots inside.  The next day yielded both prawns and crabs.

We next continue our provisioning efforts with prawn pots outside Santa Anna Inlet.  The journey continues May 17 with Madan Bay and more prawn pots laid.  For our final night before Petersburg we anchor in Deception Point Cove at the south end of Wrangell Narrows.

We get an early start the next morning and see very little traffic in Wrangell Narrows.  We arrive at our preferred time in Petersburg, high slack water, which is shortly after 8AM on Friday, May 19.