Whales and Jellies


Departing Exchange Bay, before the fog set in...

Today, we transited Sumner Strait and the southern end of Chatham Strait as we continue towards Sitka.  It was very foggy this morning making the many gill-net fishing boats a major hazard to navigation.  Gill-netters string out a long net (up to about 1/2 mile long) with a small orange buoy at one end and their boat at the other.   Between that buoy and the boat is a net suspended by faded white/blue semi-floats, which are impossible to spot.  I can tell you that a lone, small orange buoy is hard to spot until you are nearly on top of them, let alone the invisible net floats...   But, we weaved our way through the fleet.   Why can't they answer VHF???

Once we rounded Port Protection, the weather cleared-up, and while not sunny, it was still very nice.

The weather was cooperating, so we passed by Bear Bay, which was our intended destination and headed around Cape Decision to Port Malmesbury.

While it may not sound like a lot, we covered about 80 miles today at 7knots (8 miles an hour).   That makes for a long day.

This is the Cape Decision lighthouse.






We played dodge-whale in Chatham Strait.   There were humpbacks all along the shore and maybe for 1/2 mile out.   No bubble-net feeding today though.





The southern end of Chatham Strait is open to the Gulf of Alaska.  Just look at how calm and flat it was today.  Perfect conditions for this rounding!

This is why we elected to continue on and get around this cape.  This view is of the Gulf of Alaska looking southwest.








We pulled into our new anchorage, Mud Bay at Port Malmesbury on Kuiu Island.   A superbly secure, small anchorage.   Yet again, we are the only boat here.  Very nice indeed.

On the way in, we were greeted by Sea Otters, actually, lots of them, but I only got a picture of this one.











Particularly cool are the numerous jellyfish as seen in this video.   As an experiment, I uploaded this to YouTube and then linked to it.   I'm hoping for better resolution than the whale video from yesterday.  Let me know your thoughts.

Tonight, Karen made a Mongolian Beef dish that was quite tasty, and we had the remainder of last night's Long Cellars 2022 KYFFO.














Καληνύχτα.   That's for you, Kalen!

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 24, 2025 at 5:41 AM

    Cape Decision Light – First lit in 1932 at a cost of $150,000 – a lot of money back then!. The original light was a Third Order Fresnel lens and was replaced in 1996 with solar power. The Fresnel lens is now on display at the Clausen Museum in Petersburg. In 2005 the lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Love the videos :) My co-workers enjoyed the one from yesterday!

    ReplyDelete
  2. PeterJune 24, 2025 at 7:51 PM

    Thanks, I'll keep 'em coming! But I don't promise to do one every day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SuzyJune 25, 2025 at 9:45 AM

    Love the jelly video, the resolution is coming through well on this end. How large is the jelly - it's hard to tell the scale here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. PeterJune 25, 2025 at 10:03 PM

    I'm guessing it was about 10" in diameter. Looked kind of like a Lion's Main Jelly, but I'm not sure.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And it Starts again, then Stops, then Starts, then Stops, then...

Image
I'm reminded of a variation on a warrior theme.   That which does not work makes you stronger... Things started off well enough though we did finally get aboard later on Wednesday than anticipated.  We'd spent a lovely day in two Drs appointments, then visited some dear friends, Jack & Kathe.   Then we hung out with Kippy & Deam at a wine tasting at Long Cellars in Woodinville.   My sister, Jenn, & Marcia joined us there and we six had a rollicking good time.   Jenn & I were essentially Kippy's neighbors when we were still all in diapers.   Yup, we've known each other for a very long time. I came home with 4 cases of wine.   Did I mention that I really think Jason Long is one of Washington's finest winemakers?   www.longcellars.com.   Check them out. What's the first thing I do when I board the boat???  Make sure we aren't sinking.   A quick tour of the bilges and all was ...
Read more

Speed Test Again

Image
Let me preface this with the declaration that Speed Tests in a boat are subject to so much variability as to be nearly useless.   Undaunted by this reality, we did one today to compare the old prop's performance to the new 5-blade prop's performance. Whoa, back the boat up.   Today, Mark, my old college roommate, came up and hung out with us.   We started off with a lovely Mexi breakfast made by our glamourous Admiral/Chef, Karen. Then we did chores as I needed to get a few things done, such as put the fuel additive in the fuel tanks (note, it takes a lot of additive to treat 1,500 gallons of diesel).   Then Mark and I hung the TV in the VIP room only to find out that the plug has no power!   Chasing that down is a task for another day. It rained this morning but cleared off for a beautiful afternoon.   Not quite sunny, but still very pleasant. So, on to our sea trial/speed test.   Basically, we note the current, spee...
Read more

Hauled!

Image
A boy and his prop... Yea!   Today we got Blue Redd hauled, the props swapped, back in the water with the old prop, and back to the dock - all without any damage to anything or anyone. We missed the pickup time for The Prop Shop to collect the prop, so Brent lent me his truck (THANK YOU, Brent!!!) so we could deliver it to them. Karen & I had a lovely road trip to Mukilteo as that is where "The Prop Shop" is located.   To my surprise, once the prop was delivered, they started work immediately and said they would have it ready for pickup at 10:00am tomorrow!  Can't complain about that customer service! This picture is of John at The Prop Shop, taking the singing prop out of the back of Brent's truck.   And my supervisory skills are on full display in the background... Our boatyard, PMC, won't be able to haul us again to swap props back to our de-sung new 5-blade prop until Wednesday at 1:00pm.   Being the optimistic soul that I am, I'm hop...
Read more