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August 30, 2007
Carol returned from Atlanta last night and Alyeska was "on the road again" this morning heading south..
We can tell that summer is nearly over by counting cruise ships in Ketchikan. As we passed by today there were only two at the docks, down from a minimum of three or four, and some days as many as six .
Sorry about another cruise ship picture, we will try to do better..
August 13, 2007
Our summer cruising is coming to an end for awhile, but before we headed to Ketchikan we had to stop by Dora Bay to see our friends Floyd and Darlene. As you may remember from previous postings they are the ham radio operators that host the Great Northern Boaters Net that we check into nearly every morning.
As we pulled into the channel in front of their house, Sassy and Naughty Dog, came down to the waters edge to greet us. We rafted for the night to Wilhelmina who joined us for a feast of BBQ ribs with all the trimmings.
The next morning we cruised over to Ketchikan. Carol, our guests, and Wilhelmina all departed the next day, leaving Lenni and Dave to clean Alyeska for the next two weeks.
August 12, 2007
The past four weeks have been spectacular in SE Alaska. Unlike last summer when we had almost constant rain, we've been bombarded with sunny days and clear skies. The temperature this morning at 10 AM was 64 degrees. Of course that makes for beautiful sunsets as well. Last night in Hunter Bay, we had this dramatic show, followed by a brilliant display of the stars of the Milky Way.
August 10, 2007
As any of you who have spent time aboard Alyeska knows (and had their pockets cleaned out!), David loves to play poker. His favorite TV show is World Poker Tour, which is the only thing he will let us watch when we are at anchor. Now he even has Lenni learning the game!
Aug 9, 2007
We are poking around the west coast of Prince of Wales Island, and looking for the best fishing spots. We've actually gotten quite good at stopping around mid morning to catch our lunch. For three days now, we've enjoyed fresh fish, literally only minutes out of the sea. David caught this beautiful yellow eye rockfish and we had delicious fish sandwiches today.
Aug 5, 2007
We spent a delightful evening at anchor in Redfish Bay on the west coast of Baranof Island. We anchored at the head of the bay to try our hand at catching sockeye salmon, something we had not yet done. The bay was teeming with them and we actually got pretty good at it, catching three nice ones. While we were fishing along the shore in Squirt, three adult and two baby bears also came down to the shore to fish. We sat for hours that evening, watching them catch fish after fish. The mama bear was teaching the babies to fish and it was a wonderful lesson of nature to observe.
Aug 3, 2007
We left Sitka today with our friends David and Jackie aboard. As soon as we got out of Sitka, we put the downriggers in the water and, within ten minutes, had a 24 lb. king salmon and a 10 lb. coho aboard. Not bad for your first day on the boat!
Aug 2, 2007
In the early morning hours at anchor, the water is so calm that the shoreline reflects perfectly in the water and mirrors itself such that you can't tell where one ends and the other begins. David took this photo of the shoreline and rotated it 90 degrees to create what we call totem art. Rotated like this it looks very much like an Alaskan totem pole. Can you distinguish the real shore from the reflection?
July 30, 2007
For all you fans of the Discovery Channel show "The Deadliest Catch", here's the real deal - Captain Sig's boat, the Northwestern. They were in Sitka a few days this week and attracted quite a crowd on the docks. I guess if we had paparazzi up here, they would have been out in force as well.
July 26, 2007
We had one of those beautiful sunny Alaska days today and Fred decided it was the perfect time to work on his tan. He took off his shirt while fishing on the back deck, and David captured this perfect photo of Fred frightening all the fish away!
