Thorne Bay 08/08/2025

 Playing “Where are the rock(s).”

High tide

Low tide

That’s a serious difference, we don’t want to anchor too close to the shoal.

High tide

Low tide

We anchored between “a rock and a hard place”. 😁

We’ve been in this bay before, it doesn’t have a name, but it’s right next to the entrance to the small community of Thorne Bay. I think everyone who lives there has a some kind of a boat, skiff or kayak, that would add up to about 475 boats. I don’t know how many homes are on the road connected to town, but cabins and homes line the entire bay, called the North, and South ends, and many of the inhabitants are accessing town from the water. 

We took our dinghy to town from our anchorage, it's about 3 miles. We wanted to know if they had a fuel dock, they do, what the grocery store looked like, bare, as the supply barge hadn't been in yet, and what the cost of moorage  is if we wanted to bring Denali Rose in, $1.00 a foot, addl $25.00 for power - ea 24hours. 

When departing, I always take a photo of Denali Rose from the dinghy.

We're assuming derelict crew quarters from bygone logging era.

The marina entrance to town.

One evening in our bay, we had an unexpected visit by a humpback whale. He scooped up whatever food he found, and exited out.

Not a great photo, but sometimes you just have to live in the moment, and not through a lens.

Another favorite spot for Gus, when he is feeling ultra relaxed underway. This is his carrier, we keep it out in the cockpit in case of emergency. If needed, we could stuff him in there, zip it up, and be ready to take whatever action the emergency warranted. I have a spatula in there, because he likes to lay on the top, and it crushes the container, so the spatula mitigates some of that. 

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.

Meyers Chuck 07/28/2025

 Let's play again: where are the rocks?

Low tide... this is the entrance to a small bay known as Meyers Chuck.

High tide, you'd better be paying attention to your charts.

All those little asterisks... rocks...the hard bits you want to avoid with your boat.

Everything that is delivered to this bay, comes by boat, or floatplane. 

When we arrived, the weather was sunny, and Clarence Strait was calm, so the dock was fairly empty. We tied up to our favorite spot on the end facing out. It's easier to depart that way.

The next day the weather was predicted to turn, and Clarence Strait was going to have the wind kick up a few notches. The dock was full by 10:30am, and more boats were still coming in, which meant they would have to anchor in the bay instead. I like to watch the jockeying for position, but not BE the one doing the jockeying. We ended up moving small boats closer together on the inside of the dock, to make room, as one boat came in having lost its anchor, and had to be on the dock. It happens, that's why we keep spares, and unfortunately they didn't have one. Lesson learned.

Looking down the length of the dock.

You can tell the winds by looking at those clouds. 

Meyers Chuck is a cute small community without any amenities, like power, running water, communications, the one exception is a part-time post office, it’s only open 2 days a week, and only in the summer, and the cinnamon rolls that the post mistress makes in the mornings. 

This board is at the top of the dock ramp, you can put your mail in the slot, read realty ads, pay a small fee for a map of the trail system, and get the information to order cinnamon rolls. At seven in the morning, Cassy gets in her skiff and delivers hot fresh rolls and cookies to you, either at the dock, or to your boat at anchor. They're delicious!

During the next few days, some boats left, some more arrived, and we ate cinnamon rolls. (Wrapped in plastic wrap for freshness.)

Gus is sitting on Denali Rose's side deck, keeping an eye on the new neighbors. He's ready to repel boarders if needed. As it turned out, this boat had a beautiful pure white long hair cat onboard. However, she was not to be trusted, and didn't have outside deck privileges. 

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.