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| Magnus, Porter, and Jill-the photobomb.😁 |
In Appleton Cove, we had the pleasure of meeting the crew of Yahtzee, Andy, Jill, Porter, and Magnus. As with many of our "cruising friends", we only know them online through blogs, facebook, and sailing forums, it's always fun to meet in person, and spend some time getting acquainted. Andy edits, and writes for the sailing magazine, "
48 North", as well as his blog, "Rolling with Yahtzee, and
Three Sheets Northwest.
We hosted them for dinner one evening, and then they hosted us for local caught crab, courtesy of Porter, and smores on the beach.
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| "These two are keepers!" |
Porter, who is 6years old, rows the dinghy, puts the pots out, and then later, retrieves them, measures the crab caught, throws back the females, and the undersized, and keeps the appropriate ones. He pulled in so many, Yahtzee didn't have room for all of them in their refrigerator. He's an impressive fisherman. I might add, he also does this from the SUP, as well as the dinghy.
Magnus holds up his salt shaker, he was awaiting his corn on the cob cooking in the fire, while Porter opts for a smore, made with a Girl Scout thin mint, instead of the usual square of Hersheys. We may have stumbled on an improvement to the conventional smore.
On our way to Hoonah, we stopped in Pavlov Harbor, inside Freshwater Bay. We saw small float planes coming and dropping off people, and then several hours later coming back and retrieving them. We wondered what was the draw? The next morning we got in our dinghy, and went to investigate.
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| "Watcha lookin' at?" |
Around the corner from our anchorage was a salmon stream, with jumping salmon. During the day, as we watched, we saw 5 different grizzlies. Notice the bench to the right? Those plane loads of tourists sat there, and quietly watched the bears fish. Too close if you ask me.
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| Tourists, single file. |
In one day, we saw porpoise playing in our wake, whales feeding, grizzlies cavorting in the falls, and the usual eagles, ravens, and leaping salmon. That's my Alaska!
The internet in Hoonah is very slow, it probably has something to do with the large cruise ships that visit here, everyone on their cell phones, overwhelming the system. We received our one week Glacier Bay permit, and then we applied for an extension, and received an additional week. Score! We have two weeks to meander around, and take our time exploring. The added bonus is the the weather high that is over our area, means sunny days, and we're looking forward to it.
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| local color |
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| Which one are you? |
Hoonah has a micro-brewery, Icy Strait Brewery, so of course, we had to try it out. Delicious, and artisan pizza to go with it.
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| Venison pizza to go with our Pilsner, and Bock. |
There might not be a post next Friday, and possibly the following, due to our being in Glacier Bay. I can always post a short update on the SAT phone, so we'll see... maybe.... no promises.
