2014-10-26 Day Trip

It has been more than a month since I was out.
It's fall and the weather can be pretty bad sometimes.
Not only do I need good weather, but I need it on a weekend, and that's asking a lot.

The forecast for this weekend was pretty good, but due to other commitments I could only get out for the day on Sunday.  I don't usually do one day trips, preferring to stay overnight, but sometimes you take what you can get.

I must apologize for some of the photos in this posting.  I must have bumped one of the many buttons or dials on my camera.  I can tell it is not focusing the way it used to.  I've spent some time looking in the manual, but have not found the magic button yet.

In any case I pulled out of the harbor just as it was getting light, about 7 AM.

Here are a couple shots behind me to the east where the sun was just starting to show.

My plan was to get the shrimp pots in the water just as soon as possible and then bounce around the area just bottom fishing wherever looked promising.  Then get back to pull the pots about 2 PM and then head home with a goal of getting in around 5 PM.  That's pretty much the way it turned out.

I dropped the shrimp pots in Clover Pass at my favorite spot by 9 AM, and then headed out to bottom fish.

To make a long story short, I got no halibut, or any bottom fish at all, so that was disappointing.

But, to make up for it, check out these shots of the water and the weather out where I was bottom fishing.  To put things in perspective you have to realize that a lot of the time, perhaps most of the time, you can't even fish here.  Look at the weather today!  This is pretty rare for any day and even more rare for late October.

I went back to pull the shrimp pots and got there pretty much on schedule.
I usually leave the pots in overnight, so a 5 hour soak was a bit of a gamble.
They did pretty well, pulling in about 75 shrimp, mostly small ones. 
Worth the effort and bait anyway.

When I pull the pots by myself I cannot really leave the puller and go do other things.
The pots are hanging off the rope on the puller and they need to be dealt with.
It was dead calm, totally quiet, and then "Whooosh!" like an explosion about 20 yards away from the boat.
It was a whale that surfaced and spouted right near the boat.
When they surface and blow it is quite explosive.
Unfortunately I could not leave the pots, so I missed a couple of good shots and only ended up with these.

Just as I was stowing the pots and preparing to behead the shrimp, I had a visitor, the US Coast Guard.  Sorry for the blurry picture.   They were out and about on this beautiful day as well, checking safety gear.

These are the things they checked:

My ID - check.

My documentation on the vessel - check.
In Alaska boats are either registered or documented.
Faraway is documented, and I have a certificate from the USCG that has to be renewed each year.

Life jackets - check.

Throwable life ring - check.

Horn or whistle - check.

Flares and smoke - check.
These expire and you have to make sure you have some that aren't expired.
It's OK to have some that are expired, which I did, but you must have unexpired flares and smoke.
The smoke is for daytime signalling. 

Fire extinguishers - check.
2 are required for my size vessel.
I have 3.
They check to make sure they are fully charged.

Pollution placard - check.
You have to have a placard that reminds people that you can't discharge oil into the water.

Trash placard - check.
The trash placard shows how far offshore you have to be before you can legally discard different types of trash.

They gave me a copy of the boarding report, and since I had no violations it can be used as a get out of jail free card for a year.  If they attempt to board me again for a safety check within a year I can just show them the report and they will not board me.

I got back into the stall right at 5 PM.
I like to be on time.

2014-09-14 Meat Run #2

My friend Len and I made our last salmon fishing run of the season.

We pulled out about 7 AM and were trolling before 8 AM.

We didn't get our first fish until about 10 AM.
But between 10 AM and 12:30 PM we got 12 nice Silvers, including a couple of doubles (two fish on at the same time).  Ironically the only fish that we lost was #13.  The limit is 6 fish per person so we could only go home with 12.

A good couple of hours fishing - that was fun.

2014-09-07 Meat Run #1

This time of year my friend Len and I are thinking about stocking our freezers with our supply of salmon for the winter.  No hiking, few photos, no messin' around, just fishing.

We had a slow start on this day but ended up with 10 nice fat Silvers.

This was a good start but was not enough for the both of us.

Need one more load, next weekend.

2014-08-30 Labor Day Trip

For this trip I had as crew my step-daughter Cristina's boyfriend Ryan, and his grandfather Hal, and his uncle Terry, who were visiting from out of town.  We also had my grandson Bryan, age 8 on board.

Labor Day is a long weekend of course and we took off on Saturday morning.

I did not take very many photos on this trip as I was steering most of the time.

I'll summarize the trip and then show the few photos that I do have.

We trolled and trolled and trolled, and that's about it.

The first day we only got 1 Silver and 1 Pink.

We spent the first night at the Naha dock.

The second day we did a little better, but not much, considering all the hours we put in and the fact that we were running 3 lines.  We ended the day with 4 Silvers, and we spent the night at the Marguerite Bay.

On the last day we got 1 more Pink and another Silver, and a pretty good load of shrimp.

Here are the photos and some captioning.

This boat called the Surfbird went by as we were trolling.  I've looked at their website before and I see it is a charter boat offering multi-day charters in SE Alaska.  Looks like a great trip on a great boat.

This is our modest catch from day 1.

Here's the crew, (sans Bryan).  Left to right, Hal, Terry, and Ryan, with the catch from day 2.

This guy visited us at the Marguerite Bay USFS dock.

2014-08-22 Bailey Bay / Lake Shelokum Trip

My friend Len helps me out a great deal with the boat and once every summer we go out wherever he wants to go, and this year he wanted to go to Bailey Bay.  Lake Shelokum is up at the top of the trail and at the very end of the lake is a natural hot springs.

Bailey Bay is about 42 miles almost due north from Ketchikan, in western Behm Canal.

We took Friday off from work to make a 3 day weekend out of it, and left Bar Harbor about 7 AM in calm, clear and warm weather.

We arrived into Bailey Bay about noon, dropped our shrimp pots in the bay, and were safely anchored shortly after.  There is a mooring buoy near the base of the trail but there were already 2 boats tied to it, which is why we had to anchor.

After a quick lunch we got our gear together and headed up the trail.  It's a nice easy hike up to the falls that run out of the lake.  You do have to cross Maude Creek, which is essentially a waterfall.  But since we had had no rains for the last several days it was easily passable.

Above is a picture of the falls that run out of Lake Shelokum.  The picture does not do it justice.  It is an impressive falls.  Very steep and a lot of water running out of it.  I heard a tale a few years ago of a dog that went over the falls, and survived.

This is the log jam at the end of the lake, just above the falls.

The USFS provides a canoe near this end of the lake, so Len and I took it out and went to the far end of the lake and did some exploring.

Check out this little bird that appeared to be feeding at the top of the falls.  He'd pop his head under the rushing water repeatedly, I suppose picking up insects of some sort.  He was persistent.

Here's Len at the top of the falls taking some pictures.

These 3 people came along as we were checking out the falls.  I think the one guy is carrying a bazooka in that holster!

On the way back from our canoe ride we stopped at this large rock slide.  Len looks pretty small up against those rocks.

 And I look pretty small down by the canoe from Len's perspective up on the rock slide.

BBQ steaks were on the menu for dinner and so we had a pleasant evening on board.

It was a calm evening.

Later that night after it got dark, we saw some bats streaking around the boat.  Haven't seen that before.

The next day on Saturday we were up early and headed up the trail again about 8 AM.

We saw lots of frogs and a few salamanders on the trail.  Here's one of the salamanders.

When we got to about 10 frogs Len said he'd eat one if we got to a dozen, but I didn't hold him to it.

 Here's one of the frogs Len didn't have to eat.

The trail meanders along the side of the lake.  There are some rough spots where you have to crawl under, around or through large boulders.  Just FYI, that gets harder to do as the years roll by.

SEAPA (Southeast Alaska Power Authority) had been working in the area and had a raft on the lake.  They had a helicopter come and pull the raft and their people out.

Here are some shots of the natural hot springs, the lean to that is nearby, and the general area.

This is the natural hot spring at the end of the lake.  The hot water streams off the side of the hill and tumbles down into this natural rock pool.  There is a drain plug in the corner so it can be emptied, and there is a cold water pipe nearby so it can be cooled down if needed.  It's not very large, with only room for perhaps 4 or 5 people at a time.

Here's a shot of the hot water bubbling down the rocks.  A few years ago when Len and I were here we went all the way up the hillside and found the spot where the hot water first bubbles out of the ground.

Check out the steam coming from the hot springs from up on the hillside.

Up on the hillside the hot spring tumbles down, and some sort of red algae that looks like tomato soup grows under it.

More tomato soup.

Check out the multi-colored slime growing in the hot springs.  Len took samples of it to study under his microscopes.

There are other hot springs in this area.  Not far away is Bell Island Hot Springs.  When I first came to Ketchikan in 1978 it was a publicly accessible area.  There was a lodge with a restaurant and a large swimming pool, and small cabins each with its own private hot tub.  Since that time the area was purchase privately, and has since fallen in ruin for lack of attention.

Here you can see the walkway that leads from the hot spring tub to the lean to.  The lean to is in a beautiful valley surrounded by majestic mountains.  It's a truly beautiful area.

Here's a closer shot of the lean to.  Those 3 young people we met at the top of the falls the day before said they had spent the night here.  The beams and walls within are covered almost completely with people's names and the dates they were there.  It's like reading a log book.  Some people have fashioned some chairs and tables out of logs, and there is a fire pit out in front.  Daylight shows through the roof so I doubt it is very dry inside in a big rain.

We had our lunches at the lean to and then explored the huge muskeg meadows in the valley behind the cabin.

The valley behind the lean-to is really picturesque.  Looks like a scene out of the Sound of Music.

After that it was just a hike back down to the beach, and then to the boat.

Once there we went out to pull the shrimp pots.  The haul was underwhelming - 2 shrimp.  I think that might be a record.  We moved the pots to a different spot and dropped them again.

Dinner this evening was halibut fillets grilled on the Foreman Grill.  I don't have an oven on board so I use the Foreman Grill a lot.

The Tom Cruise movie Valkrye was on the agenda for the evening.  Probably one of the few where the hero is not victorious in the end.

Sunday morning we were up early as usual, pulled anchor and headed out to pull the shrimp pots.  This time I'm proud to report that we more than doubled our previous take getting 5 whole shrimp this time.

We had a calm enjoyable run back down Behm Canal to town, arriving in the stall at about 1:45 PM.  Total trip mileage was 87.4 nm (nautical miles).

Another successful adventure on Faraway draws to a close.

2014-08-13 Fishing with Karen

My younger daughter Karen came into town for a visit of about a week.
I had to work some of the days that she was in town, and we had literally torrential rains over the weekend, recording 7.5" on Saturday and Sunday, with accompanying winds, so we could not go out then.

So we ended up with only one day and an overnight to get our trip in.
But at least the rains had stopped and the sun had emerged.

We took off on Thursday morning and started trolling for salmon.
We did pretty well and the weather was stunningly beautiful.

We saw this eagle's nest with an immature eagle in it while we were trolling.

We ran to the Marguerite Bay dock in Traitors Cove, arriving just after the float planes had left for the day.  This time of year they ferry tourists in from town and run them up to the bear and fish viewing platform that is about a mile up the road.

Here is Karen's catch for the day.  3 nice fat Silvers, 2 nice fat Pinks, and 1 weenie little Pink.

We filleted the fish, with Karen actually doing one of them entirely on her own.  Way to go Karen!

Here is Faraway at the dock, and the Emerald Star that was there when we arrived.  There was a very nice couple on board who said they were from California, but the boat was registered in Anacortes.  We gave them a fillet of silver salmon, for which they seemed very appreciative.

In the morning we just had time to have breakfast and run to town, arriving about noon.
Karen had to be on the airport ferry at about 2 PM, so we were cutting it close.

2014-08-02 Naha with the grand kids

We found ourselves with the 3 grand kids for Saturday overnight, so we decided to take them out on the boat.  We have taken all of them out at various times, but never have we taken all 3 at once without their Mom.

We got a late start, not taking off until around 2:30 PM.

The weather was hot and sunny, which usually brings brisk afternoon winds.

We made our way over to the Naha dock and were so glad to find a spot at the dock.  A couple of men from another boat that was there helped us get tied up, which is always appreciated.  We could anchor just off the dock if we had to and come in by raft, but it sure makes for a much better experience for the kids and everyone if we are at the dock.

It's interesting to note that sometimes when we pull into a dock whoever is there comes to help, and sometimes they just ignore us.  I always at least make myself available.  Sometimes the incoming boat has lots of crew and sometimes not, but for myself when I come in with Lisa on board I always appreciate help from someone on shore.

Lisa says my blogs are too detailed so this time I will just show some pictures and label them.

The kids did a lot of dock fishing, thank goodness.  I did not let them play with their electronic toys while we were there.  The weather was great and they spent literally hours out on the dock with various fishing rods, catching lots of different types of dock fish.

They kept me hopping, getting fish off the hooks, getting lines and lures untangled, and on and on  But that was fine by me.

Tyler, the oldest, is in Art Camp this summer.  They are doing a production of Sound of Music this weekend, and he spent most of the time while he was fishing singing songs from that musical.  So much better than having his head buried in a video game for hours.

Aliyah, the youngest at age 5, caught her first fish ever.  Way to go Aliyah!

Bryan, age 8, the veteran fisherman, caught his share as well.

That evening we set up another one of our Presto log fires on the dock.  We invited the people from the other boat, the Zig Zag.  They came over and all had a great time at the fire.  Something about a fire just draws people in.

That night the weather was just terrific, so the boys slept up on the flybridge, for the first time ever.
It's like a big tent up there, and they knocked out quickly after having a great day.

In the morning after breakfast I set up the raft and we took a couple of rides.  Tyler especially loves to drive the raft.  Yes, I know I'm driving it in this picture, but trust me, he did get to drive it pretty much as long as he wanted to.

We took another walk of the Naha "Loop" before pulling out and heading home.

Another successful adventure on Faraway.

2014-07-27 Fishing with Len & Lucy

Lisa says my blogs are too detailed, so this one is for her.

Went fishing with my friend Len and his mother Lucy, who was in town for about a week.
Caught some fish - here they are:

2014-07-14 Vacation Trip Part 2

We had a great birthday party for Grandson Bryan yesterday, in high 70 degree weather I might add, so it was time for part 2 of our vacation voyage.

We pulled out on Monday a little after noon, in sunny and hot weather, with a brisk NW wind in our faces.

Crew for this voyage was wife and First Mate Lisa, and First Puppy 'Bina.

Unfortunately we needed fuel again, so it was another obligatory stop at the fuel dock.  This time we had to wait about 45 minutes for our turn at the dock.  It happens sometimes.  There is only so much room at the dock.  We took on 80 gallons of diesel and left there about 2:15 PM.

Here's a shot of a beautiful yacht that pulled in to the fuel dock just as we were leaving.

And here are a couple more yachts at Doyon's Landing, a private moorage just on the south end of town.

I just hate it when you pull into a private moorage in your beautiful 100' yacht, only to have an even more beautiful 160' yacht pull in next to you!  The one on the right is the Glaze, which I photographed on an earlier trip this year.  It has a nice website if you are interested.

Here is a map snippet of the first portion of our trip.
It was hot and sunny and windy and I just wanted to chill out on the boat.
So we headed to a locally known hole called Ice House Cove.

It's only about 10 miles from town, so we did not log much distance today, but we did find a nice, secure, and beautiful place to spend the night.

The entry path into Ice House Cove is a little tricky, but I have gone in there in the pitch black in the dead of winter, so doing it in bright sunlight in mid afternoon was a piece of cake.

We got tied up to the mooring buoy at about 3:30 PM and just hung out for the rest of the afternoon.  Notice the side panels on the flybridge are pulled up to let some air in. 

When it got to be dinner time we enjoyed a great dinner of roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and green salad.

Around 7 PM we put the raft in the water (sans outboard) and rowed the short distance to shore so we could de-water Bina and she could stretch her legs a bit.  She's supposed to use the puppy pads on board but she hasn't been doing so well at that lately.  And of course we spoil her.

Sometimes things happen when you're out on these trips that seem odd and you can't explain.  About 8:30 PM, right at low tide, a small runabout came in and tied to the beach nearby.  This is not a nicely sloped sandy beach.  This is a steep and rocky beach.

There were 3 young adults on board, and one of them was carrying an infant in a front pack like carrier.  They tied off the boat and scrambled up the rocks, baby and all.  About an hour later they came back, still carrying the baby.  They scrambled down the rocks, got in the boat and left.  Who knows what they were up to.

When it got to be bedtime we realized that the wind had kicked up a bit and the waves were slapping up against the hull, making sleeping up in the front berth sort of like sleeping inside a base drum.  So we made up the couch bed and went to bed out there.

Tuesday morning we were up early and had a good breakfast and took Bina to shore again.

We pulled out about 10 AM.  We're on vacation after all.

Weather was sunny, with some patchy fog still rolling around.  And of course still breezy.

Here's a map snippet that shows the second portion of the route.

We went north into Carroll Inlet.

It's not very far up into the inlet.

We anchored in about 180' and started halibut fishing.
Lisa had this idea that if you stay on a halibut fishing spot for 6 hours then you will catch a halibut.
We stayed for 6 hours - we didn't catch a halibut.
We didn't catch anything.
But it was a pleasant spot to spend the afternoon.
We did see some Killer Whales pass by.
This was the best shot I could get of them.

We pulled anchor about 5:30 PM and headed to the Shoal Cove dock, just a couple of miles north in the inlet.

Interestingly enough the Shoal Cove dock is not in Shoal Cove.  It's too shallow in the cove for anything other than a skiff so the USCG and the USFS put their docks just a mile or so north of the cove itself.  The USCG used to maintain a LORAN station near Shoal Cove and they used the access road to get there.  LORAN was a navigational system before GPS, but the LORAN station has been shut down.

Just about the same time we arrived there a small runabout, perhaps 22' long or so, also arrived, with 5 "kids."  I called them kids, but Lisa said they were "young adults."

They set up a barbecue up at the top of the ramp and cooked a salmon fillet.  They ran around on the 4 wheelers, and generally had a good time.

Here is a picture of them when they were loading up to leave.  They had the 5 "kids," the two 4 wheelers, and they had picked up a dune buggy that apparently they left there a few days ago.  It was a pretty heavily loaded boat.

Dinner this evening was hamburgers and salad.

The Shoal Cove dock has a clear view of the western sky, which can lead to some very good sunset pictures, under the right weather conditions.  This was one of those times when I would run out and take a picture of the sunset, and then run out again 5 minutes later because it was better.  I think this picture was the best one of all of them.

We had a very quiet and restful night on board.

On Wednesday Lisa got up very early and took a few pics, and then of course went back to bed.

We had a good breakfast and then took a longer walk up the road.
Lisa was collecting rocks off the road - don't ask.

When we got back to the boat it was -2.1' tide, and the back of the boat was sitting in about 10' of water.  Good thing it only takes about 3.5' to float the boat.

We pulled out about 11:15 AM, headed to Thorne Arm, just up and around the corner.
Here's another map snippet that shows our short voyage this morning.

We anchored in about 180' for some more bottom fishing.
True to form the weather seemed to kick up as soon as I dropped the anchor, but thankfully it calmed down quite a bit before we left.
However, we got no fish, again.
This is what I told Lisa at the time:
"I have given up all hope of ever catching a halibut again."

Since it was late in the day when we anchored we did not have the obligatory 6 hours to stay there, per Lisa's mandate.

One of the blogs I follow states that while he, the boater/blogger, wants everything to go smoothly and have uneventful but enjoyable trips, his readers seem to want drama, things going wrong.

When we bottom fish I don't use the anchor that is on the winch.  There is not enough "rode" (chain and line) on that anchor.  I use a smaller anchor that has about 450' of line and chain on it.  The downside is that I don't have it on a winch.  I use a "buoy pull" system to pull that anchor.  That system is complicated and I don't think I can describe it properly here, but suffice it to say it is something of a challenge for two old people like us to pull it.

When I went to pull it, the anchor hung up on the bottom, and I could not get it up off the bottom.  This is a potentially dangerous situation, so I just put an extra buoy on the line and left it for the night.  I did call the USCG and notify them that I was leaving it.

Here's another map snippet that shows the very short run from where we were anchored to bottom fish to the spot inside Moth Bay where we anchored for the night.

I have anchored inside Moth Bay many times over the years.  It is a nice place to spend the night.

When we got in there there was a small sailboat named "Liberty" anchored in there, but there was plenty of room for us to anchor as well.

We got anchored up OK and then had a good dinner of hot dogs for me and hamburgers for Lisa, and salad for both.

About 8 PM we put the raft in the water and rowed Bina to shore.  On the way back we rowed over to the Liberty and chatted with the two guys on board.  They were just wrapping up a 9 day voyage around our island, and headed to town tomorrow.

At 9:30 PM, just before full dark, I reset the anchor, moving just a little closer to the Liberty, and a little further away from the big rock that was menacing us right off the stern.

Whenever we are anchored I am up several times in the night, checking our position on the GPS to make sure we are where we're supposed to be.  I also set a shallow water alarm on the GPS so that if we drift into shallow water an alarm will sound.

Thursday morning we were up about 7 AM.
The Liberty was gone - not unexpected.

We took a short shore excursion and then I got this shot of Lisa and Bina in the sunlight.

Here's where the drama starts...

We were sitting there enjoying breakfast, with the generator running, and I noticed that there were lots and lots of jelly fish around the boat.  And I mean lots!

Just about the same time I started worrying about the generator salt water intake sucking them up - the generator quit.  The generator is a small diesel engine that uses salt water for cooling.

The sea strainer that is the first filter on the sea water was plugged almost solid with jelly fish goo.
I neglected to take a picture of this, but you can thank me later.

I had a hard time cleaning out the sea strainer, and then I had to figure out how to get the remaining jelly fish goo out of the sea strainer canister.  I tried pliers, hooks of various sizes, screw drivers, etc. but nothing worked.  Pardon my language but it was like trying to suck snot out of a bottle.

Then I remembered that I had a large turkey baster on board.  Don't know why I put it on board.  That was the perfect tool to suck all that goo out of the sea strainer.

So then I tried to start the engines and the port engine would not start.
More drama.
I have run this boat for 7 years, putting almost 2000 hours on the engines, and without exception the engines have always started - until today.

It only took a few minutes for me to discover that the port engine starting battery was low, and that's why the engine wouldn't start.  Now that the generator was functional again I could start it and run the battery charger for awhile to charge the batteries.

After charging the batteries for awhile I successfully started the port engine.
However, it would not kick into gear.
The starboard engine was fine, but the port engine was in permanent neutral.

I am no mechanic so I called my mechanic on my sat phone.
He said he thought the problem was electrical because my engine controls are electronic.
So I shut everything down, waited awhile, and then started the engines again.
Everything was fine.
Guess I rebooted.

We pulled the anchor and went back out to where our other anchor was stuck on the bottom.
After some very tense moments and some very hard work, we were able to successfully pull the anchor.  I had thought I might have to cut the line and say good-bye to it.

Around noon we start trolling again at the entrance to Carroll Inlet, near Ice House Cove, where we had stayed the first night out.  There were fish jumping everywhere.

After only about 2 hours of trolling we had 2 nice Pinks and 2 even nicer Silvers on board.

We headed back to the Shoal Cove dock (we like it there) arriving there about 4 PM.

Here are the fish we caught.

Dinner this evening consisted of fresh Silver salmon cooked on the Foreman Grill, potatoes, veges, and salad.  Very good.

After about 2 1/2 weeks of warm sunny weather the rains finally returned.

We had a quiet evening on board and a very restful night, listening to the rain.

On Friday morning we were up, and had a quick breakfast, and then took another longer walk up the road, in the rain.  Lisa's still collecting rocks.

We fired up the engines (without incident this time) about 10 AM and headed for home, arriving in the stall at about 1 PM.

We logged about 100 nm on this trip.

Another successful voyage on Faraway.

Back to work on Monday - ugh.