Resupplied in Craig 10/072025

 Another cruise day. 

One of these things is not like the others.

I added the arrow to point out the “aid to navigation”, it warns of the shoal, and rock.

This is what actually exists, just a bare pole, with nothing attached. It’s always good to have situational awareness, and keep your eyes on the surroundings, as well as the chart.

We finalized our Amazon subscriptions for a general delivery to Craig, and anchored in a couple of bays to wait for the mail to arrive, typically as least a week or two. 

Shelikof Inlet had glass smooth water.

On the way to Port Refugio, previously a cannery, now a commercial fishing resort. There were several homes, and plenty of small rental cabins. If they let us look around, it would be fun to stop in sometime.

The moon is so bright, it almost looks like day.

Gus is studying the chart and the bay for the optimal place to anchor.

Bill received the email that the Amazon order had shipped, and for an unknown reason, it was sent UPS. It ended up in Ketchikan, and then a small charter/tour floatplane company, Taquan Air took it to Craig. We hadn’t planned on going to Craig right away, but now we needed to go to pickup our order. We definitely hadn’t expected it to arrive so fast. 

Craig is at the end of the rainbow, will we find a pot of gold? Or at least a spot at the transient dock, hopefully with a power connection, and water for laundry. (Craig, is the largest community on Prince of Wales Island, pop 1050.)

Turns out, there was plenty of room at the transient dock, and full access to power and water. Bill took the dinghy to the floatplane dock, where Taquan Air had their offices, and loaded up our Amazon order. 

 

We had actually ordered more, but another shipment was sent back due to damage enroute, we suspect it was the glass jars of RAO’s spaghetti sauce that broke and covered everything in that box. We’ll make do with Newman’s, acquired at the grocery store.

After stowing all of that, we had a delicious pizza from the local eatery, it was over $40.00, but we got three meals from the extra large, and we really enjoyed it. Yum, Greek pizza, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, chicken, fresh tomato, good sauce, and crispy crust, what a treat! 

The next day, since we had unlimited water, time for multiple loads of laundry, I think I did six loads, then a trip to the grocery store. It’s in walking distance, so Bill loaded up the blue tubs, and the wheeled cart, so he could carry our purchases back. As it turned out, the store gave us a ride back to the harbor, so no loaded trek until we got to the dock. 

Three tubs full, and a few cases of shelf stable milk, and canned veggies, much easier to transport down to the boat with a dock cart. Of course, the transient dock is at the farthest end.

Fabulous sunsets from our viewpoint at the end of the dock.

I took a lot of photos. 

With the laundry finished, grocery stop, mail stop, and post office errands all finished, it was time to cruise on. The next day on the way out, we made a stop at the fuel dock, where we took on diesel for Big Red, (the engine), the generator, the pilothouse drip heater, and the Espar heater, gas for the outboard, and refilled a propane tank for the BBQ. Full tanks, water/fuels, full larder, even fresh green stuff in the outdoor cooler, I think we’ve contributed enough $$$ to the economy of the town. 😃

Gus REALLY enjoyed our stay in Craig. He has a small heating pad underneath his bed, and with the connection to shore power, we kept it plugged in. We think his aging bones, and muscles enjoy the heat, and help his mobility. (If he ever got out of his bed when the heater is on 😁.)

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