Jeff's Log ~ Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Wednesday, October 1,2008, Foggy Bay, Alaska

We left Ketchikan on a glorious sunny morning. A little back-tracking was necessary for fuel and propane. The fuel dock provided for both needs, and we were on our way at about 1100. The trip down the channel this time was an awesome one with the splendor of the scenery visible for miles. About an hour after lunch, however, things began to deteriorate, and before long, we had gusts to 35 knots on the nose, and seas were building rapidly. Our destination of Foggy Bay was not far away, and we got there with a minimum of discomfort. The channel in to the anchorage was very narrow, and Scott drove the boat slowly while I directed him from the nav. Station. There was only one time when I had to really get tough with him because he did not want to follow my direction. After we were anchored, I showed him on the chart what he could not see under water, and we are still friends.

Ken left us some Friskies cat food to try in the crab trap. I cleaned out the very rotten chicken that produced no results, and installed the cat food. That yielded the usual results this morning. You guessed it, an empty trap. They sure make it look easy on the deadliest catch tv show! While we were at anchor last night, the sky was full of stars, and they were so bright, one could almost read in the cockpit. We fell asleep to the sound of wolves howling. Sometimes close and fairly loud, and sometimes distant and very hushed. That sure was neat. I wonder what they were talking about.

This morning, we were up at 0700, and the tide was low. We both could see what we navigated through yesterday afternoon, and congratulated each other on the job that we did. Navigation out was done the same way, retracing the path that was left on the chart plotter. We were safely outside the rocks by 0815, and Scott took the first watch. We expect wind and seas to build all day as we go to the Chatham Straights, on the other side of the Dixon Inlet.