Goodbye, Craig. 09.02

On my way back to Ketchikan, finally! We left yesterday evening.

The ride has been fantastic so far. We’re going up and around Prince of Wales Island and then down Clarence Strait, which should be familiar territory because we went through there on the way north. Other than the one town we’ve passed—a town Ron described by comparing it to Deliverance—it’s all been tiny islands and calm water and sea otters and ducks and jumping salmon that we don’t have to catch. There’s one channel, with part of it dredged out to allow passage, that’s so narrow apparently they used to have competitions to see who could tow a log barge through without touching either side. Here’s a photo of it from the back deck:

Jokes about greasing the boat to get through, etc.

A few minutes ago I was standing at the sink making coffee and a humpback sounded 20 feet from the galley window!

Staying in Craig for a while was a great opportunity to see some landscape I hadn’t seen before, and when the other seiners were in town it was a lot of fun because there were loads of people to hang out with, but the harbor has felt dreary and empty with everyone gone, and I am not at all sad to leave. It’s been a drag sitting around watching all the other seiners either go back out to fish around here or head south to Puget Sound for fall fishing. I expect Ketchikan should be livelier.

Here’s a dreary parting image:

Really, what’s to love?

And, oh, apparently we are deer hunting right now. You can see them grazing on the shore and tag them right from the boat. A dedicated post if we are successful…