Peril Strait Anchorages | Deep Bay and Half Tide Neck

Laura Domela — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 17:15:05 +0000

We left Sitka on Tuesday morning and once through Sergius Narrows we decided to stay in Deep Bay. We put out crab traps and made dinner and didn’t really take any photos. The weather looked like this:

Inside Deep Bay:

No thanks, I’d rather be in the boat:

We fished a bit and caught one black rockfish but no salmon, so we made rockfish tacos for dinner.

On Wednesday morning our crab traps collectively had 20 crabs in them! Twenty! But guess what? Nineteen of them were females and we had only one male keeper. One out of twenty!! Apparently this used to be a great crabbing spot earlier in the season. We took our one crab and headed out. Still pretty rainy and cloudy. We decided instead of Appleton Cove we’d go someplace new, and anchored at Half Tide Neck in Hoonah Sound. Cool spot! (We caught another black rockfish on the way from Deep Bay to Half Tide Neck. Still no salmon.)

We set the crab pots out again (come on, one more!) and then did a little exploring.

Half Tide Neck panorama:

For dinner tonight I made rockfish cakes. (Same method as crab cakes, but with rockfish…and a tiny bit of leftover salmon…and I added some diced jalapeno.)

They turned out great!

There’s a mooring ball at the Half Tide Neck anchorage, and a little cabin. At first I thought it might be a forest service cabin, but I think it must be private. Sweet location!

This morning the clouds had lifted a little and we decided we’d forego Appleton Cove and go all the way to Takatz Bay in Northern Chatham Strait. The conditions were forecast to be good in Chatham (15 knot winds and 3 foot seas), so we’d make some miles and go to another new (to us) spot. We saw a couple humpbacks, and some more Pacific White-Sided dolphins. Boy do those guys move fast!

Where Peril Strait meets Chatham Strait:

Nice to see some blue sky, finally!!

Once out in the strait the conditions were more like 20 knot winds with 3-4 foot seas, but whatever. It was bumpy, but it was sunny!

Ell Cove to Baby Bear Bay

Laura Domela — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 01:57:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska

We left Ell Cove fairly early in the morning. The first hour or so of our cruise was in some fog, but we still had pretty good visibility. The National Geographic Sea Lion called us via VHF to let us know they were going to exit their cove and cross our stern, then pass to our starboard side.

Here they are passing us:

The fog cleared up before we turned into Peril Strait:

We cooked the last of our rockfish last night and I made rockfish cakes for lunch today (a little mayonnaise, an egg, spices, panko, cooked rockfish, sliced green onion). Deke put together a delicious tartar sauce, and we served the rockfish cakes over a bed of arugula while underway. They were really good!

Deke and Tiffani, scanning the shoreline for bears:

No bears, but we started seeing MANY spouts ahead of us and ended up passing by a very tight pod of about 10 humpback whales traveling east in Peril Strait::

We got to Baby Bear Bay and there were maybe 5 other boats anchored in there, but there was plenty of room. Tiffani and I put together a happy hour snack using the rest of the coho, some creme fraiche, and a little bit of caviar on top of some crackers:

It was a beautiful, quiet evening in Baby Bear Bay:

Tomorrow we'll head on to Sitka for a few provisions, and then we plan to explore a few nearby anchorages for the next couple days.

Today's track (50.7 nautical miles):

Peril Strait – Riveted

Peril Strait Anchorages | Deep Bay and Half Tide Neck

Ell Cove to Baby Bear Bay