#2013-22 Fed up with Local Sitka Fishing

June 12, 2013

On Wednesday we continued our fishing in the waters local to Sitka.  At 5am we take a 2-hour ride to the promise land, Biorka Island.  It was pretty good last year so we dragged bait for 4 hours with just a small black cod to show for it, not much promise today.  So we head back towards Sitka, working the Eastern Channel, just 30 minutes outside of town and protected from the ocean swells. It was a long, slow day and we landed a few Cohos. Even so, the views were spectacular in the bright sunshine which required liberal doses of sunscreen for some crew.

The view east from the Eastern Channel fishing ground.

A cruise ship is visible between the islands off Sitka.

Trolling speed, depth, heading and
chart plotter on the Samsung Galaxy III
display repeated from the pilothouse
to the flybridge.

Alex experimented with the Samsung smartphone and was able to repeat the chart plotter display up on the flybridge. It was a cool wifi navigational extension, but it didn't contribute to getting us any more salmon!  After a very slow fishing day we set the crab traps in Camp Coogan Bay.

June 13th, 2013

On Thursday, Dave awoke the boat as usual about 5AM.  We headed back out to the Rock Pile and landed a King just after 7am.  With just the one bite, things went even quieter so again we moved to Eastern Channel.  We trolled and trolled without nibbles, and got pretty bored.  We quit at 2pm and pulled the crab traps, which had no tenants.  We returned to Sitka fed up with the local fishing, but with a new plan in mind.

Back in December, Jay Field invited Alex was to a meeting of the Puget Sound Anglers, Fidalgo - San Juan Islands Chapter.  Jay is a Chapter official, and the meetings are at Jay's restaurant, Village Pizza, Anacortes, the best pizza place around.  The speaker was a charter fishing guide and the topic was some fancy new 3-D depth sounder.  More importantly, he is a fishing guide out of Sitka.  So after his talk, Alex asked where he fishes around Sitka.  The first words out of his mouth were Whale Bay.

Whale Bay is 35 miles south of Sitka, an hours ride in a fast charter boat, but 4 hours for the Wild Blue.  As soon as we arrived back at the docks, we set about preparing for a 3-day cruise to the Bay.  Provisions, water, evening refreshments, and bait were all secured, and by 6 in the evening we were on our way. The route takes us through 3 narrows for a protected inside passage, but the last hour is in the outside waters of the Gulf of Alaska.  The last hour was surprisingly fair for an open ocean ride and we dropped 2 crab traps and the anchor just after sunset at 10pm in Sitllwater Harbor, an anchorage that lives up to its name.  We're eager for morning to arrive.

Our route from Sitka to Whale Bay

#2013-21 New Crew Arrives Sitka

On Monday the sun came out in Sitka and so did a new Wild Blue crew.  For 10 days or so we will cruise with some SLO (San Luis Obispo) Townies.  After dinner out, we get up early Tuesday and headed to St Larzaria Island and Vitskari Rocks, aka the Rock Pile.  We're fishing by 7am and land our first and only King for the day at 10:30.  It continues slow and we head back to Sitka to enjoy barbecue Salmon.

Marinated then barbecued on cedar plank.

This morning this salmon was swimming in Sitka Sound. Tonight his fillet is swimming in our stomachs.
The fish was marinated in soy, wine, lemon juice, olive oil and crushed garlic, then barbecued on cedar plank while basting, then topped with butter and capers.

Dave McNamara, Sid Findley, and Roger Larsen our crew for a week or so.

The crew this week comes from various backgrounds.  Dave McNamara is an owner of 4 Seasons Outfitters, a sporting goods store in San Luis Obispo.   As you would expect, he turns out to be an excellent fisherman, and expert fish fillet-er. Sid Findley is a retired judge from San Luis Obispo County who has crewed on the Wild Blue many times.  Roger Larsen operates a property management and maintenance company.  He and Dave fish regularly in Yakutat, Alaska.

#2013-20 Soft Batteries and Fishing Sitka in Rough Weather

Wednesday June 5: Battery Reconditioning Day

The main battery bank has not been performing to par lately.  It takes a full charge but delivers just 200 amps of the full 1600 amps available before it needs a recharge. We never consume more than 800 amps, or 50% of the bank's capacity, before insuring a recharge cycle.  The 8 X 4D AGM battery bank is only 14 months old so we suspect a bank reconditioning is needed.  So today, Wednesday, we took 4 of the 8 batteries off-line, and discharged them to about 8 volts.  This method, recommended by Ample Power a Seattle alternator builder, entails loading each battery with about 5% of it's 200-amp rating until the voltage drops to around 8-volts.  It took most of the day until the batteries were almost completely discharged.  They stayed between 10 and 11 volts for a long time before succumbing to 8.  The discharged batteries were then wired as a 4-battery main bank and a full charge cycle was started. After several charges cycles over several days the 4-battery reconditioned bank is performing much better than the old 8-battery bank.  We'll do the same to the other 4 batteries then combine the batteries into an 8-battery bank again.  At that point a 15.5V equalization charge will be applied for 8 hours. We expect the reconditioned 8-battery bank to perform as new.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday, June 6 - 8: John Gets a Fish

With the weather turning to rain and winds, the fishing fleet is denied the best angling spots, unless they are OK with rocking and rolling in the big ocean swells.  John and Alex fished Eastern Channel over three days, a mostly protected spot a few miles south of Sitka.  We trolled in the lee of the islands, with many other boats, and got two fish. One afternoon John hooked a fish and brought it to the boat.  It was a King salmon but just 27 inches long, 1-inch short of a keeper.  The salmon haven't been in too close to shore around Sitka just yet.  Probably good next week when the SLO Town folks arrive.  Lets hope the weather gets better too.

We've enjoyed cruising with John.  He's an excellent chef who can manage to make eating healthy also quite tasty!

Sitka doesn't offer a cruise ship dock like Ketchikan, Juneau and other towns.
Tourists pile into shore boats for their city invasion.

#2013-19 Pretty Sitka

We're up early and out of Appleton Cove by 6:30 as we need to be at Sergis Narrows for 9 am slack current on our way to the old Russian capitol, Sitka. Of course so does every other boat transiting Peril Strait. As we approach the Narrows, which is a man-made section which deepens the Strait for commercial transit, we come in contact with several other boats.  The 400-foot ferry Columbia passes close from behind. Next a 45-foot Shohanna pops out of Baby Bear Bay just in front of the ferry. And the yacht Marlinda meets us as we exit the Narrows.  But soon after that it's all quiet again as we are now headed south to Sitka.

The 400-foot Alaska Ferry Columbia starts her pass at at 18 knots.

Just couldn't resist this photo of Columbia.

Marlinda, a 140-foot yacht, cruised up to Alaska from Mexico this spring.

In the narrow passages like Olga Strait you see such strange things along the shore. This double cross must mean that two persons died in this spot. In fact the two crosses in Olga Strait were erected in memory of Kirby Reid, a high school senior killed in a boating accident in February 1998. Olga Strait is about 11 miles northwest of Sitka.  Alaskans have placed memorials on federal lands to the ire of the US Forest Service. Hey USFS, get over it!

Olga Strait tribute to high schooler killed in a boating accident.

By noon we're in the pretty town of Sitka and tied of the dock in Eliason Harbor. The Wild Blue will hang out here for a month of fishing and classical music entertainment from the Sitka festival.

The Statendam is back in Sitka .

Mount Edgecomb towers over Sitka providing an excellent aid to navigation.

#2013-18 Into Peril Strait

This morning our prawn traps did not yield any catch records.  In fact we returned those few that made the ride to the surface. By 10 we were on our way north in Chatham Strait. We decided to take a peek in Warm Springs Bay and noticed the dock was open, an unusual occurrence. So we tied up and walked up to the falls, springs and Baronof Lake. It's a pretty walk and of course we discovered fresh bear tracks, but due to our off-key singing, the bear decided we were probably not that tasty!.

The dock at Warm Springs Bay was nearly empty!

The warm springs next to falls is the best in SE Alaska.

There are benefits for signing off-key: music minded bears run from you!

After lunch we were back in Chatham Strait moving north. There's not a lot of boats out in fact we haven't seen more than handful of pleaure boats all week.  Almost every anchorage so far we've had to ourselves. Finally the tour boat Liseron passes us going south.

Liseron is a smaller cruise boat.  She reminds us of the San Pablo
in the movie "The Sand Pebbles" with Steve McQueen.

In the early afternoon we turn to the west into Peril Strait as the wind begins to build. We drive thru Hanus Bay looking for an anchorage but the wind there is approaching 20. At last we set the hook in Appleton Cove which is always secure. For the first time we anchor with several other boats. Everybody wants a secure port in a storm.

Alex's favorite middle-eastern dish is Mjadra: wild rice, onions, celery and
lentils topped with fresh salad.  Yellah!

#2013-17 Solitary Red Bluff Bay

For the first time we wake up the glorious sunshine in Hamilton Cove which brightly reflects off the tan sandy beach.  Five knots of soft breeze from the southwest greets us as round the top of Kuiu Island into south Chatham Strait. Rippled flat seas set the foundation for a picturesque view of the snow capped mountains of east Baranof Island.

The snow-capped mountains of east Baranof Island.

Soon we enter Red Bluff Bay and set two prawn traps.After a look at the Bay's 200 foot waterfall, we drop anchor at the head of the bay next to a large yacht which soon leaves.  Once again we have a beautiful bay all to ourselves. Last year this in early June this bay had 9 boats and lots of bears roaming the estuary. Where are all the boats and bears this year?

Anchored all by oursleves.

As we entered Red Bluff Bay this large yacht exited!

#2013-16 Hamilton Cove on Kuiu Island via Rocky Pass

We needed to be off the anchor and underway by 7am in order to make high tide and slack current in the center of Rocky Pass. The Pass is a 15 mile winding natural water way with numerous obstructions. It is lined by some 40 navigation aids, or marks, signing the correct route.

As we begin to cross Sumner Strait in order to enter Rocky Pass, a dense fog clutters the view. We hope no cruise ships are passing this morning on this ship route.  With the fog horn blasting, the radar guides us.  Soon the fog lifts just as we enter the Pass.

The fog lifts just as we enter Rocky Pass.

We concentrate on following the navigational signs and make our way up to Devils Elbow near the center of the Pass. For some reason the current is still running pretty good there, so we disengage the autopilot to steer by hand.

At last we pop out the north side of the Pass and wind our way through the various tiny islands off larger Kuiu Island, finally anchoring the very pretty Hamilton Cove. Surprisingly we have 3 bars on the cell phones from the nearby village of Kake, AK, as the ping sound of emails arriving mixes with nature's sounds.

Kuiu Island has many smaller islands and islets along it's east coast.
This one might look like a Russian submarine in lower light!

This week's crew is John Atiya from San Luis Obispo California.  John is an old friend, real estate broker, and tennis partner. He has crewed on the Wild Blue previously and is anxious to catch and cook some fish. So John begins fishing here while Alex prepares some white king salmon. purchased in Ketchikan, for the barbeque.

John Atiya from SLO Town is this weeks Wild Blue crew.