MV Alpenglow: Juneau to Sitka

We spent 3 nights in Juneau and tried to make it as productive as possible. We did cross paths and caught up on our travels with fellow Queen City Yacht Club members, Wanda and Rico on Wanderer and Lynn and Dave on Willawaw. They arrived in Auke Bay from the south having stayed in Taku Harbor the night before, while we came from the north.

In past years, we have rented a car for a day to run our errands but have now decided that we can get by with riding our bikes, taking the bus or using a Lyft/Uber. The Lyft/Uber drivers are very accustomed to taking people from the Juneau Costco to the harbor at Auke Bay.

During the summer, the Statter Harbor at Auke Bay is very busy with locals coming and going, whale watching tour boats, commercial fishing boats and transient recreational boats such as we are. Another very noticeable presence are the mega yachts. It is common to see 2 or 3 tied to the breakwater dock at Statter Harbor with another anchored out in the deeper section of the bay. Most mega yachts abound with glamour and luxury in their appearance.

On this visit there was a yacht that stood out for its purposeful look. The vessel,180’ Power Play, is in the category of a “support vessel”. Its purpose is to carry the necessary accessories to a larger mega yacht, such as a large (e.g., 50’) tender, jet-skis, or helipad that might interfere with the appearance of the owners primary mega yacht. A little searching on the internet revealed that Power Play was built for Jan Koum, a co-founder of the company WhatsApp (later purchased by Facebook for a reported $19 billion). Sadly, the vessel supported by Power Play, the 241’ Mogambo was not present (its AIS position was in the San Franciso Bay area) at the time.

We departed Juneau on Wednesday, June 19 and headed back towards Chatham Channel. We anchored again in Cedar Cove in Freshwater Bay near the more popular Pavlof Harbor. We dropped our three prawn pots in Freshwater Bay as we went in. This time we were alone in the anchorage.

The weather deteriorated overnight and, while the anchorage was calm and protected, as soon as we poked our nose into Freshwater Bay, we had 2-3’ foot seas. It was a challenge to retrieve our gear, but Marcia’s sharp vision spotted all three pots bobbing up and down in the waves. All our efforts were wasted as we had zero prawns. We won’t be trying there again anytime soon.

We had arranged to meet up with our friends John & Kathleen on Laysan in Takatz Bay. They were coming north up Chatham Channel from Gut Bay and had the wind and seas on their stern making for a relatively comfortable ride. We slogged south down Chatham Channel in 15-20 knot winds and 3’ head seas. We breathed a great sigh of relief when we arrived at the protected entrance channel to Takatz Bay.

We joined John & Kathleen for a paddle in our kayaks to the head of the bay at high tide (at low tide it is a large mud flat). There was a brown bear feeding on sedge grass at the shore’s edge who was not bothered by folks watching him from a respectful distance.

That evening we were invited with John & Kathleen to dinner on the vessel You Dear, belonging to Peter & Gail who are John & Kathleen’s “neighbors” in Petersburg. Peter & Gail were buddy boating with their friends Doug & Karen owners of Peregrine. The meal was seafood recently caught by Peter, Gail, Doug & Karen.

After our second night in Takatz Bay, Alpenglow and Laysan both departed. The wind and seas had calmed down considerably from the day we had arrived. When we departed, John & Kathleen continued north up Chatham Channel with the goal of Hoonah where a haul out was scheduled two days later. We continued south towards Gut Bay.

During our two nights in Gut Bay, we dropped prawn pots which yielded satisfactory results. The salmon fishing, however, was not successful. We decided to return to Sitka for another visit.

Along the way we stopped in Hanus Bay and took our kayaks to shore to access the USFS trail to Lake Eva. The hike was fine, but our timing was poor because we landed on a following tide and had to drag our kayaks a long way across a muddy shoreline and even further after our hike. Not wanting a muddy dog, we carried Drake across the muddy parts of the beach.