Following our ten-day stay in Petersburg, on Memorial Day, May 27, we headed south with John & Kathleen on Laysan to anchor in Ideal Cove, about 15 miles south of Petersburg.
About ½ mile north of Ideal Cove is beach access to a trail that passes some lakes and eventually reaches one of the roads on Mitkof Island. Laysan launched their dinghy and graciously took Marcia, Drake and I over to the trailhead. By this time is was the afternoon and we only walked about a mile along the trail before turning around and returning to the anchorage.
The next day we parted ways with the Douglas’s who were still in shakedown mode and were planning to stay a few more days before moving on. We headed up to Pybus Bay where we dropped three prawn pots in our usual spot. Starting last year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game had moved the commercial prawning season from October to May. While the commercial prawning season in the district encompassing Pybus Bay had closed we weren’t sure whether our pots would be able to harvest any prawns leftover from the commercial prawners. We anchored for the night in one of our favorite spots west of the West Brother Island.
The next morning, the weather had deteriorated a bit, and the anchorage was a little bouncy. We headed over to Pybus Bay to retrieve our pots. The wind and sea conditions made it a little challenging and while we did a respectable haul of prawns, we elected to not reset the pots but instead headed further west in Fredrick Sound to the Honey Dew anchorage. This is another favorite anchorage of ours as it has a lovely beach to which we paddle kayaks to shore and play ball with Drake.
The weather continued to be unsettled so we decided to repeat the route from 2023 in which we headed to Warm Springs Bay. In the early season, the dock there isn’t as crowded and finding space is easier. There is a small community of vacation homes along boardwalks leading up from the dock and three tubs fed by a piping from the hot springs up the hill from the dock.
We got our soak in the tubs after we arrived, but soon heavy rainfall and its runoff overwhelmed the flow of from the hot springs and the tubs became tepid and discolored by the tannin from the ground water. We decided to cut our losses. After two nights, we did an early start, rode favorable wind and current and made the 83-mile journey to Sitka, arriving the afternoon of June 1.
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