June 19, 2001, Tuesday- with the forecast of heavy weather in the Clarence Strait, and small craft advisories, we decided to meander another day in Wrangell, a neat little town with 2000 folks. By now we are almost locals, and the woman in the Harbor Master's Office found me a hard line to use for a few hours. So, quickly I got the June web up to date. With about 75 photos to load and then to link with the text, I was glad to have 3 hours of uninterrupted landline time. Now some of our exciting adventures will be up for the viewing.
For lunch we attended a contest for the July 4th queen. Several young ladies, high schoolers, with local business and community support are fund raising for charity. Today they had ribs, dogs, fajitas and other delicacies for sale.
 |
 |
|
|
|
Susan had fallen in love with some of Brenda Schwartz's artwork in Petersburg, and lo and behold, she stumbled into her studio here in Wrangell. Great colorful and realistic boat scenes, water colored onto marine navigational charts.
Phil and Karen found the local swimming pool with an exercise room and showers with fluffy towels. Unlimited daily use at $2 per person. Not bad!
June 20, 2001, Wednesday- Scott, our crabber (not crabby) friend came over this morning. He got in too late for dinner last night, but this morning was explaining more of the daily problems of crabbing. Remember the diary from two days ago and the Stikene River muddy outflow? Well Scott couldn't make it back to move his pots daily. So, on day two, yesterday, they went back to move 10 pots. Well, all were stuck in the mud. After attaching the lines to the boat cleats, and pulling forwards then backwards, then to the right and the left, 9 broke free. Number 10 is gone. His hands were so tight that he didn't think they could go out today. Also, when they arrived the price was $2.40 per pound for Dungeness crabs. Now, it was down to $1.90, and yesterday morning they were told that today they might not take any crabs. Why? They have 10,000 pounds inventoried and their lockers were full. Fortunately, by the end of the day, Alaska Airlines added some cargo flights, and made a good dent in the supply.
Susan and Karen did some last minute provisioning here in Wrangell this morning, and couldn't believe that in this little town, with about 7 churches, a box of Matzo Ball Mix was on the shelf!
Now that we are 10 days into our trip, Phil and Karen asked if we were having a good time. I responded, actually no, but we have to act like we are. Why they asked? I replied, well, in case you ever come up with a good trip, we want to be included. Big smiles around!
Our Stikene River trip with Alaska Vistas, as we mentioned, gave us TLC. What I forgot to mention was that beside the pistol, and the bear spray, they also had a satellite phone.
After topping off with fuel and water, our travels today covered the route from Wrangell trough Zimovia Strait, around Deer Island, to Santa Anna Inlet. Well, remember how tight it was in Wrangell Narrows, well, it was a small fraction of that width through some of the buoys. For a hour all hands were on deck. The entire passage was covered with crab pot buoys. So, go slow and everyone focus and an object, keep it in sight, and tell the captain where to go. Boy do we love that. Combine this with certain areas where the bottom was almost on the top, and boy or boy, did we have our attention level on overload. But, persevere we did, and the Wandering Eye came through in one piece.
 |
 |
|
|
|
Although it rained on and off most of the day, we did have one sighting of a humpbacked whale. Always a sight to enjoy! Total time was from 9 to 5 today, like a day at work, and we did 43 miles, mostly with 10 to 15 winds on the nose and 1 plus mile of negative current. But the ride was smooth as silk and my three boat mates all fell asleep at nappy time while I was in command of the ship.
Phil seems to have an unending supply of CD's for his computer. Over the last few evenings "Millionaire" and "Jeopardy" have occupied our brains. Some of the $100 questions are tricky after you've had a drink or two. Other nights we've watched some of the DVD movies that Steve lent us. Mostly slapstick, light and funny.
We are in another very well protected bay/inlet, and there isn't a wave or rock or roll. Naturally we are by ourselves. In fact, we only saw one other vessel all day. Is this high season? The only noise that we hear is the roar of a hidden waterfall with it's outflow on the bank near us.
Susan and Karen found some new salmon heads for our crab pot. Phil took out the dingy and set the pot. He decided to go ashore and check out the lay of the land. A few footsteps later he noticed several bear footprints and overturned rocks, clear signs of bear looking for the mussels and clams. A quick retreat to the boat followed. Let's see what the morrow brings.
June 21, 2001, Thursday- we have never slept so consistently well as we've been doing on this trip. Nice change for me since I'm usually awake for hours when I sleep in a strange bed.
During a lazy breakfast Karen poked her head onto the deck and wow….a grizzly bear was on the shore, at the same spot that Phil had been 12 hours earlier, turning over rocks at low tide, looking for food. Out came the cameras and we were entertained for the better part of an hour.
 |
|
|
Phil and Karen retrieved the crab pot. Two legal Dungeness (6.25" across the shell, male only) were inside, along with two enormous starfish. One crab jumped out while loading the pot into the dingy. The two starfish were wrapped around the bait box and had devoured most of the salmon head. Removing them from the cage took a little work.
 |
 |
|
|
|
After an 11 AM departure (to get the tides with us…or at least not full against us), we headed towards Meyer's Chuck. It's a 24-mile passage, with about 20 miles to the southwest. With wind coming from the southeast, we were well protected. Exiting from our inlet, we noticed a twin-engine helicopter hauling logs and depositing them on the shore. Other equipment then loaded them onto a barge. This was tough flying. Part of the trip we even got to sail, but then the wind died and we had to power up the engine. We debated whether to rename our ship the Wondering "Bob" instead of the Wandering Eye. Rounding the corner to start our southeastern leg, bang, right into the wind, up to 25 knots. Seas were 5 to 6 feet with waves and or swells coming right at us. Our speed dropped from 6 to 7 knots, to 3 to 4 knots. The bow, heavy with our anchor chain (300 feet) and a full nose water tank, repeatedly was doing the let's drop down into the sea and make a big splash. Although we rocked and rolled a little bit, everyone was in great spirits and sans any ill effects.
 |
 |
|
|
|
Our destination, Meyer's Chuck is a quaint little harbor protected by a narrow entryway, that is, if you consider a 90-foot width in high seas narrow. As soon as were turned into the harbor, glass smooth water. The State of Alaska maintains a free dock and everyone either ties up or rafts. Our first thought was to raft against a trawler or a fishing vessel, so we deployed the fenders (AKA rubber bumpers) along the port (left for all of you land lubbers). As we got closer, the folks on the dock suggested that we pull around the backside of the dock, and they would help us dock our 44' vessel into a 50' space. Nice and easy does it every time. Fortunately for the Wandering Eye it was nice and slow because as we hopped off the boat to help with the lines, we noticed that we had not adjusted our fenders. For rafting the fenders are tied high to protect the top of the boat hull from rubbing against the next vessel. Floating wooden docks are low, maybe a foot or two out of the water, and our fenders were way above the dock line. Fast work by our excellent crew kept our boat off the dock and gave us time to reposition the protection devices.
 |
 |
|
|
|
A few homes surround the harbor, and one business still exists, a fine art gallery with all Alaskan made artwork. The signage tells us that the path we walk from the dock to the gallery is called "The Highway". It's hard to believe, but 25 people live here year round.
 |
 |
|
|
|
June 22, 2001, Friday- low tide this morning was at 8 AM. It was impossible to leave at this tide. Being on the backside of the dock we had to either turn the boat around or back out. Our 44' floating home doesn't like to back out or turn as commanded, but we have plenty of time to think about it until the tide returns. At 11 AM we decided to give it a try. Off all the transient boats, we were the only one still left. This could be because the others were on the outside of the dock and in deeper water and had bow thrusters. What ever….we thought about tying a line to the stern and letting the boat swing around for a 180 turn, but there was too much current and wind against us. Then we thought about tying a bowline on and letting the stern work it's way around. Problem here is that we didn't want the stern getting around into the shallow water and dinging the prop. So, option three was to carefully push out the boat to go around some local fishing boats, and work our way slowly to the end of the dock. Phil did a great job and we headed out. However, we while putzed around with leaving the dock, a turbine beaver float plane landed, discarded some passengers, and departed. What a pilot! He had to clear a rocky bar that materialized at low tide, which forced a landing nearer the dock then we thought he normally would have done, thus he was committed to landing with no go around options, in a very small body of water. Perfectly done!
 |
 |
|
|
|
Yesterday's big water in Clarence Strait, fortunately, was nothing more then a memory. Out southeastern course was 90% smooth as silk. However, we had delayed out departure out to get the current flowing with us. No matter where we were today, the tides were against us. Departing at 11 AM and arriving after 7 PM for a 32-mile trip was crazy. Between current against us, and sail with a tact here and another there, over the water we did 48 miles.
 |
 |
|
|
|
The harbormaster in Ketchikan cleared us into the central harbor for spaces 27 or 28, one being a starboard dockside and one being a portside. We elected for the port entry and had attached all of the fenders as well as the bow, stern and two spring lines. Karen was watching with the binoculars for the dock numbers, and we are almost into the port side space when I noticed a large float in the corner of the space. Quickly, like a Chinese fire drill, Karen, Susan and myself have to more the four lines and the four fenders to the starboard side. Meanwhile Phil is trying to negotiate the vessel from one slip to another. Let us say that by the time we got everything finished safely at the dock, there was a lot of discussion on how we could have done it better.
 |
 |
|
|
|
Dinner was near the top of the dock, at a little restaurant that did Italian, Greek and Mexican food.
|
CLICK HERE TO: |
|
|
|
|
