I wake at 5:30A to hear barely audible sounds coming from the
marine forecast channel. Herb has been
up since 5 listening to the repeated broadcasts and updates.
Do we go or do we stay?
Seas are quite benign in Helm Cove, but our concern is
Clarence Strait, where we need to travel for several miles en route to Meyers
Chuck. The Strait runs from Dixon
Entrance north joining
with Behm Canal (where we would enter it) and would be considered big water and
long fetch at that point. Prediction
today is 20 knot winds and 4 foot seas, decreasing to 10 knots and diminishing
to 2 foot late in the afternoon. Friday
looks better.
So we stay!
A few drops of rain fall softly under partly sunny skies;
the temp is 59.
The neighbor men and a boy come back from fishing about 6A
and move their small boats across the dock farther back, knowing the tide will
drop another five feet by 8A. One
confirms that where we are on the outside of the dock will be good and we will
still have eight feet under the Ranger Tugs.
He points out that the shoal drops off precipitously under us and we
could conceivable walk off the dock to land – in my $13.88 boots. Amazing!
A stream continues to run into the bay, as the beach quickly
drains with the falling tide.
 |
| Neighbor's Boat Moves to Deeper Water |
 |
| Low Tide |
Herb and Ray take crab traps out to fish for our next meal.
Ray joins us in the dinghy this morning to explore and search for the beached whale the local neighbor tells us about. He thinks there could be some bears there. We do find the whale on a grassy shelf on the north shore of Helm Bay. Our clue is a small metal fast boat cruising slowly, and we think she knows something, so we follow her.
 |
| View from Dinghy |
Scenery as we cruise toward the site of the whale.
Yes! We see what is
left of the humpback. Herb gets us to
some mossy rocks and Ray takes the painter to secure the dinghy. While he examines the mammal, we tend the
dinghy and visit with the metal boat pilot, who has let his family off to see
the whale. He is from Ketchikan and
tells us the whale was discovered mid-March and has since deteriorated quite a
bit. We can still see a gray mound and a
huge jawbone.
When Ray comes back, he tells of seeing bear tracks around
the whale, and shows us a sample of a whale’s 'tooth' – a baleen. It looks like a piece of weathered palm frond.
Here begin the photos of the whale from our view, still in the dinghy.
We await Rays return and watch our painter he took to secure us down below. Oh, how agile he is! This is a clue why I did not go up to the shelf! Don't need to fall.
He shares part of what he has seen and brings us a baleen.
We are back to Willie’s
Tug by late morning and have a tasty lunch of steaming chili and fresh baked
cornbread. Naps follow.
A large pleasure craft, Black
Ice, cruises in near us and a man dinghies over to inquire about
anchoring. Herb suggests he use his
depth finder to chart a circle of possible anchoring spots. He thanks Herb for the information and says
he will report to the Captain. They move
across the channel to a larger area, as they are 80 ft long and expect two more
similar boats to join them. Later we see
all three, as well as a red Nordic Tug.
When the neighbor fishermen return, they give Herb some
halibut for crab bait. Life is good.
 |
| Higher Tide |
Herb decides to put the fresh halibut in his crab trap for better luck and moves it to a deeper part of the stream that runs through Helm Bay. For his effort he gets two awesome crabs on the late afternoon trip to check the traps. When they return, I ask Ray how he got sea grass across his boot. He replies that he sat in the bow of Herb’s dinghy as they scooted across the 2 ft seas.
Willie of Willie's Tug,
and of Walldog, Willie and Jake
Thursday, July 2, 2015
We do not see a bear!
---
No comments:
Post a Comment