Trawler Blogs

In recent years we have set goals that get us north of Ketchikan quickly (e.g., Little Norway Festival in Petersburg or beating the start of the commercial prawning season). This year, absent such a goal we took a less scripted and meandering path.

First, since it had been a few years since we we’ve been around Revillagigedo Island  (this is the very large island on which Ketchikan is located). The circumnavigation of the island is about 125 miles (not counting diversions for anchoring) but since we don’t particularly enjoy the SE corner of the route, we traveled clockwise around the island as far as Walker Cove on the east channel of Behm Canal then turned around to retrace our route counterclockwise. Besides, Walker Cove, we used Yes Bay and Traitor Cove as intermediate stops in both directions. Traitor Cove was a new stop for us. It has a public dock which we were able to use on the return leg of the trip. After this 6-day jaunt we returned to the Bar Harbor docks of Ketchikan.

After two nights in Ketchikan, we started our northbound journey in earnest and traveled first to Frosty Bay, about 2/3’s of the way from Ketchikan to Wrangell. We’ve gone past Frosty Bay many times since it is only about 4 miles north of Santa Anna Inlet, an anchorage we’ve used often. There is a USFS cabin at the bay but we didn’t have time to check it out before leaving the next morning. We continued the next day to Berg Bay, which also has a USFS cabin. Here we did have time and we launched our dinghy, taking Drake to shore and playing ball with him on the grassy patch in front of the cabin.

From Berg Bay we traveled to Wrangell for the Memorial Day weekend. One of the attractions of going to a dock in a SE Alaska town are the walks we can do. Wrangell has sidewalks along most of their roads as well a few trails, so Drake is always anxious to get off the boat and start exploring the different scents. It being spring-time in SE Alaska, one of the scents are the blooming skunk cabbages.

Up to this point we had not done any prawn fishing. The commercial prawn season started on May 15 but it was now closed in most districts. We decided to try some of the areas in Fredrick Sound that were productive for us last year. We traveled first to Sanborn Canal in Port Houghton. The next day, we dropped our prawn pots on the way into Hobart Bay for the night. We were disappointed by the slim harvest of prawns but attributed some of the shortfall to the octopus that was in one of our pots when we pulled it up.

From here we traveled a little north to Windham Harbor to drop pots. The next day’s harvest was pretty good, but we had to work for it. Both this year and last year, we’ve been surprised by how strong the tidal current is here, and by its timing. We pull our pots by hand, and the current makes that harder: the boat drifts with the current, but the pot sits still on the bottom. So, as we haul the line in, it’s dragging through moving water the whole way — like pulling a drogue. The stronger the current, the harder the pull. We thought we were pulling pretty close to slack (an hour after low) but the current was acting like nealy a one knot ebb current.

Even though it had only been a few days since we had been in Wrangell, Drake was getting antsy, so we headed to an anchorage with a nice play beach, Honey Dew Cove on Kuiu Island. Two nights here seemed to do the trick. To reward ourselves as well as satisfy Drake’s needs, we headed next to Warm Springs Bay on Baranof Island. We were able to get on the public dock which made accessing the trail to Baranof Lake and the hot baths convenient. Again, two nights seemed to do the trick.

An “oh-dark” start from Warm Springs Bay allowed us to get to the DeGroff Bay near Sitka in one day. The next morning, June 3, had us on the dock in Eliasen Harbor in Sitka completing this leg.

Leg 2 – 16 Travel Days, 569.4 NM, 93.5 Engine Hours

In recent years we have set goals that get us north of Ketchikan quickly (e.g., Little Norway Festival in Petersburg or beating the start of the commercial prawning season). This year, absent such a goal we took a less scripted and meandering path.

First, since it had been a few years since we we’ve been around Revillagigedo Island  (this is the very large island on which Ketchikan is located). The circumnavigation of the island is about 125 miles (not counting diversions for anchoring) but since we don’t particularly enjoy the SE corner of the route, we traveled clockwise around the island as far as Walker Cove on the east channel of Behm Canal then turned around to retrace our route counterclockwise. Besides, Walker Cove, we used Yes Bay and Traitor Cove as intermediate stops in both directions. Traitor Cove was a new stop for us. It has a public dock which we were able to use on the return leg of the trip. After this 6-day jaunt we returned to the Bar Harbor docks of Ketchikan.

After two nights in Ketchikan, we started our northbound journey in earnest and traveled to Frosty Bay. We’ve gone past Frosty Bay many times since it is only about 4 miles north of Santa Anna Inlet, an anchorage we’ve used often. There is a USFS cabin next to the bay but we didn’t have time to check it out before leaving the next morning. We continued the next day to Berg Bay, which also has a USFS cabin. Here we did have time and we launched our dinghy, taking Drake to shore and playing ball with him on the grassy patch in front of the cabin.

From Berg Bay we traveled to Wrangell for the Memorial Day weekend. One of the attractions of going to a dock in a SE Alaska town are the walks we can do. Wrangell has sidewalks along most of their roads as well a few trails, so Drake is always anxious to get off the boat and start exploring the different scents.

Up to this point we had not done any prawn fishing. The commercial prawn season started on May 15 but it was now closed in most districts. We decided to try some of the areas in Fredrick Sound that were productive for us last year. We traveled first to Sanborn Canal in Port Houghton. The next day, we dropped our prawn pots on the way into Hobart Bay for the night. We were disappointed by the slim harvest of prawns but attributed some of the shortfall to the octopus that was in one of our pots when we pulled it up.

From here we traveled a little north to Windham Harbor to drop pots. The next day’s harvest was pretty good, but we had to work for it. Both this year and last year, we’ve been surprised by how strong the tidal current is here, and by its timing. We pull our pots by hand, and the current makes that harder: the boat drifts with the current, but the pot sits still on the bottom. So, as we haul the line in, it’s dragging through moving water the whole way — like pulling a drogue. The stronger the current, the harder the pull. We thought we were pulling pretty close to slack (an hour after low) but the current was acting like nealy a one knot ebb current.

Even though it had only been a few days since we had been in Wrangell, Drake was getting antsy, so we headed to an anchorage with a nice play beach, Honey Dew Cove on Kuiu Island. Two nights here seemed to do the trick. To reward ourselves as well as satisfy Drake’s needs, we headed next to Warm Springs Bay on Baranof Island. We were able to get on the public dock which made accessing the trail to Baranof Lake and the hot baths convenient. Again, two nights seemed to do the trick.

An “oh-dark” start from Warm Springs Bay allowed us to get to the DeGroff Bay near Sitka in one day. The next morning, June 3, had us on the dock in Eliasen Harbor in Sitka completing this leg.

Leg 2 – 16 Travel Days, 569.4 NM, 93.5 Engine Hours