to Sitka

DATE: July 7, 2002
WEATHER: Sunny, sunny, sunny
LOCATION: Hoonah
TEMP:42 -68

DESTINATION: Tenakee Springs

SO LONG HOONAH!

The next morning at 6:30 we left the Indian town of Hoonah. Only half awake yet I took Zig down the dock for his last chance to P&P before we too off. He's getting the hang of it and did a good fast job. Larry did the lines this morning. I backed the boat out and took it out of the harbor. It was easy as there was no wind or current and no one around to watch and make me nervous. It was easy taking her out of the harbor too as there were no obstacles to watch out for so it was a good place to practice.

It got down to 42 degrees last night and the windows were wet this morning. I didn’t cook anything last night that should bring in so much humidity (like boiling water for spaghetti). I just don't understand all the wetness getting inside the boat.

Well, we're getting back to normal again with a good nights rest. I gave the boat a good cleaning and got some of our things back in the guest quarters giving us more room in the master stateroom to feel comfortable. The boat looks orderly again.

A TOTAL BREACH!

The sun is out and it's a clear day for a change. The temperature now is 52 degrees and the barometer reads 1020. Should be a beautiful day. As we make our way around Point Sophia I see a hump back whale dead ahead. It’s hug! Now I'm pretty sure we were seeing Minke whales in Glacier Bay not hump backs because this guy didn't look anything like those whales in Glacier. As we passed by he was under the water and when he got about 500 yards behind us he did a total breach out of the water landing with a tremendous splash! I couldn’t believe it! It was magnificent! It was like a grand “good bye” as we headed South almost at the end of our Northern journey. It’s sad to be leaving even though it has definitely been a struggle and a lot of hard work. It's sure nothing like what the Klondikers had to put up with or other pioneers though. We're traveling in luxury compared to that. What a breed they were. You can’t complain about anything with all our creature comforts.

We’re heading South East down Icy Strait. We can see the two boats ahead. They are the people that Larry had drinks with last night. They look like cans in the flat water.

THE STORY BEHIND IT

Hoonah was an interesting place and there was more to see in detail. Most people would think it was a dump I guess but there’s history there and it's unspoiled. I guess you could say it's close to the real thing there which is rare these days with the effect the cruise chips are doing to these little towns. They've made the cruise ship stops so commercialized. The Indians seemed nice though we saw several that were definitely drunk, but they had good hearts and said “hello”. I would like to know why so many of the houses were vacant and deteriorating and how a people who dominated this area for so many 1000’s of years have become so useless in such a short time after the exposure to the white man. Yet they welcome us. I sometimes feel ashamed. (This is interesting when I read this years later as we post it because now having read much about the history of the Pacific Northwest we now know the story of the indigenous people and how sickness brought by the Europeans and greed have pretty much destroyed these people.)

WHALES ABOUND

We are passing by Spasski Island. It’s a reef of rocks with a lone tree on it. Ahead is a population of whales spouting and jumping. We hear “Seabird” calling “Ila-J” remarking at what an amazing sight it is. “Seabird” thought it looked like some kind of factory with all the steam spouts coming up. The whale location is right around Point Augustus. We hung out for awhile watching the whales and tried to get some pictures but this camera is definitely not set up for those kinds of shots. It takes too darn long to set up and by then the scene is gone. It's a shame because we're seeing some amazing things.

The sun is so bright and is shimmering so brightly on the water that it's difficult and tiring to see ahead.

SEINERS IN ACTION

Up ahead is False Bay. There are a dozen seiners in the area. We steer clear because they are working their nets. The seiner skiffs are pulling the nets out and it looks like they are trawling to see what they gather. There must be about five of them all working in the same area. Guess they and the whales know where the fish are something we don’t know. It's an amazing sight!

There are very tall spiky mountains ahead with one singular horizontal cloud mid way. It's quite beautiful. To our left is Admiralty Island and beyond are the tall snow capped mountains. To our right are forested low hills with a long continuous beach scattered with tons of silver colored drift logs. The sky is blue and the water a deeper blue with sprinkled with silver glitters from the sun. The tops of the hills to our right are treeless but thickly covered with mossy green colored vegetation probably glacierized, scraped clean.

LOOKED LIKE SHARP BLADES OF STEEL SLICING THE WATER

We see fast speeding dolphins – look like blades shearing through the water, must be Dall's porpoises. Large groups of birds cluster together, floating on the water. Looks like they are having a convention with lots of conversation and visiting going on. Ziggy, between the whale watching (which he knows the word now) where he's totally alert and watching is taking advantage of this rare sunshine to find patches of it on the inside of the boat and lays in them to soak up the warmth. Each time we see and hear the whales Zig comes to me and almost asks me what they are by looking up and putting his paw on my leg. He’s so interested and yet perplexed, he wants me to give him an answer, to know what we are so excited about.

We're now in Chatham Strait which we will be traversing quite a bit on our voyage back home. As we pass False Bay the quiet calm flat seas has now traded for a 1-2 foot chop but the winds are with us so we hardly notice. The mountains on the right are more bald on the top now with out any greenery. Larry said this is why he changed the itinerary so we’ll have the winds in our favor going down Chatham Strait rather than against us the other direction. It’s a beautiful shoreline to our starboard by False Bay & Iyokeen Cove & Freshwater Bay.

Coming around East Point we head into Tenakee Inlet and there again are several seiners. Off to the left is a valley and huge bowl shaped mountain with a palomino pattern of snow. One large rock peaks up strong and stoic. We pass an old cannery on the right set on the shore of a beautiful crescent shaped bay. There are remnants of pilings, docks and the broken down structure remains. We pass an old barn and homestead that still look inhabited. It's all very picturesque. The inlet is wide and the valleys are deep and just immense. There's plenty of room up here for anyone. We pass a cove and can see a rafted house leaning and sinking in the water. A new replacement house is on a new wood raft nearby but with a modern day substitute as it has a portable canvas kurt instead. Progress I guess.

TENAKEE SPRINGS

We spot the markers ahead and see some of the buildings of Tenakee Springs. All the buildings seem to be built on stilts over the water, though now they are standing on rocky muddy shore as its low tide. The docks where we are headed are about .5 mile east of the town. There is a floating breakwater protecting the little rustic marina. Larry enters and docks on the west dock. He does a great job. The woman from “Seabird” comes and helps with the lines. The lines get a little squirrelly. It always seems when someone helps things get messed up. I got the lines straightened out and the boat looks good. The docks are in good shape. There’s no water or electricity here and the docks are small. There aren't many boats. Only three of us pleasure cruisers are here and the rest are mostly small fishing skiffs.

DISCARDS

I took Zig to shore to P&P. There is a bunch of junk at the end of the ramp by the docks. Again, a usual sight, abandoned boats just left to decompose. I’m finding this is kind of the regular thing because they have no way to get rid of the stuff so they just leave things were they are when they have become no longer useful. Some guy was breaking one of the boats apart and burning the debris, he also had another sunken boat on fire. There was a small rustic garden at the head of the ramp with a hand made sign asking to please not let you dog pee on the flowers. I got to say it's sure a bad location to pick for a garden because it’s usually the first place a dog wants to go is at the end of the ramp after a long cruise. I kept Zig away.

There is a swing set and some other playground things and as I say a bunch of junk littering the area. Off to the left is the path that goes to town and is only just wide enough for a golf cart. It's just a dirt path so when it’s wet it must be a mess and when it’s dry it must be dusty.

ONE PATH

I came back a told Larry we need to get the bikes down. We took a ride into town. The dirt path is about ½ mile from docks and then in the "village" its one continuous golf cart road with cottages or shacks built on both sides. They are very quaint cottages but certainly rustic. Some are decorated with odds and ends on the outside of the shacks. Some have cute flower gardens and window boxes and most are over grown with wild flowers and plants. Most all are built on stilts. It looks like an artist colony and though some seem shacky on the outside I bet they probably are quaint inside. Rie Munoz is reported to have a home here and a lot of Juneau people. It's kind of a getaway for the locals from Juneau. There is a general store in "village" built in 1883 with a false store front and it's cute as a bug. It looks the same as the day it was built.

TOWN PIER AND DOCKS COVERED IN CRESOTE

The town dock leads down from the general store to the water where a warehouse is perched. Opposite the general store are the baths with a sign out front posting the "Hours". The hot spring baths are in a shack and to be truthful it doesn’t look like a place I'd want to go a bath. There was a note posted on the front door saying "I’m out on the dock and will be back as soon as possible". The old guy was out filling a skiff with gasoline from the tall piers. Any boat tying up to the town pier has to contend with being well below the pier and knowing how to tie up to creosote covered posts with board ties. Guess we’ll pass on that idea.

NOTHING'S CHANGED

Inside the general store had tall ceilings and wooden shelves that filled the walls all the way to the top. They still used what looked like the original old cash register. I bought some eggs, lettuce and a couple oranges. I also bought a coffee mug to add to our collection. It's really a darling place, still operating like in the old days with no phony tourist gimmicks. There were lots of big dogs lying around here and there. That's one thing I've noticed up here in Alaska is not only is the landscape big but the dogs are big. Ziggy just ran by without even a nod.

We bicycled the length of the "town" which must be less than a ½ mile if that. We passed the post office which is also in an old shack like everything else around here, including the library which is in a little bigger and a bit nicer building. We rode by the Tenakee Springs Lodge which is small nothing more than a house.

5 MINUTE PARADE

There is no plumbing as we know it in this town. Everything goes down the pipe and into the shore water. There's no dumping of trash either as many signs are posted saying as such. There was really not much else to do after you walk or ride the short length of the row of houses. We notice a left over sign on a store front telling the schedule for their 4^th of July celebration which really amounted to a five minute parade. How hilarious and cute!

We rode back to the boat and took a good long great nap. The weather was fantastic and we sat up later on fly deck and had some tea. That's a first in the weather to allow us to do that! I made a pot roast and peach pie for dinner. I think I’ll call it Tenakee Peach Pie if it’s any good.

THOSE DARN CANADIANS

“Kindred Spirit” pulled in and almost ran into our boat. Larry had to tell them to back down to keep from hitting us. They sure are enjoying themselves. They’ve had the dinghy in and out a million times running about.

THE BATHS AT AFTER HOURS

They had their daughters with them and they said the daughters went to try out the baths. They said the baths are really rustic but wonderful. A bunch of women from town were in the baths with them and told them that after midnight it’s mixed couples. Yikes! They said you have to strip and wash first before getting in. I think I'll pass.

We took Zig for a walk but the path in the woods by the marina but it is so trashed we didn’t enjoy it and came back. Somebody or some dog vomited twice on the docks but no one cleaned it up. The docks have creosote on them so you have to take your shoes off before getting on boat and clean them. What a mess. The dockage cost us a whopping $6.30 to dock over night. Wings has an office here too and looks like they have a helicopter pad.

DATE: July 8, 2002
WEATHER: sunny, crisp
LOCATION: Tenakee Springs
TEMP: 48 degrees – 50’s

DESTINATION: Deep Bay Anchorage

HEADING OUT AGAIN

We left the next morning at 6:40. The barometer is reading 1017. It was a restful night except for a run down fishing boat that was running its generator all night. Otherwise, it would have been dead quiet except for the song birds. All night long we hear lots of song birds singing. It like nothing we've ever heard before.

I walked Zig very early but today he wouldn't cooperated no matter how long we dallied. Two guys out on a skiff dropping their crap pots and the sound of their traps banging on the bottom of the boat carried so far that Zig heard it and got scared so he was too scared to get down to business. He'll just have to suffer until the next stop then as there's nothing I can do about it.

Our destination today is Peril Strait which is on our way to Sitka. We'll make one anchorage between here and Sitka. It's still very sunny and clear, feels like we’ll have a hot one for a change. It's so nice to be able to sleep in a t-shirt with all the windows open.

Well, Tenakee Springs was a nice stop. There's a trash on the beach though and I don't like to see that. The woods are just open storage lockers for the locals. All their skiffs are lined up in the bushes over grown with foliage. Guess they don’t worry about any one stealing their stuff around here. There were crab pots, drums, floats, wood, cans, trash, everything you could think of was just lying around like one big open to nature storage shed. It almost looked like a hobo camp by the trail to the town. Make shift storage shacks were made of pieces of thing, anything, tied together and partially covered over with blue tarps or whatever they could find.

LIGHTS IN THE WILDERNESS?

Last night I got up to look out the window and was surprised to see that Tenakee was lit up with street lights on their dirt path. It was the middle of the night so they must be on all night, lighting the path all the way from the harbor to town. It looked so odd to see so many lights in this wilderness. If I lived here I'd be bothered by the lights all night long. Guess it’s good for the fisherman coming and going at strange hours although I don’t think too many fishermen live there. It’s mostly a retirement vacation village. It's funny how they don't plumbing or trash disposal but they have street lights.

SOMETHING BURNING?

Sun is bright and makes it hard to see as we go down and out Tenakee Inlet. We've become used to the overcast days and not used to the sun now reflecting on the water. It seems so extraordinarily bright. Larry thinks he smells something burning; then I think I smell something burning; then Ziggy looks like he thinks something up. We all run around the boat to check everything but all is fine. False alarm.

SHORT WALK BUT 50 MILES BY SEA

We notice on one of our maps that Tenakee Inlet has a kayak portage at the innermost part of the inlet that leads a short walk overland to Hoonah. This to me was amazing when I noticed it. Someone can kayak way into this inlet and then carry their kayak over land to the Hoonah inlet and save maybe 50 miles of kayaking and boating. Though it took us a good part of the day to get here from Hoonah it's just a short walk across land.

7:45 AM: We leave Tenakee Inlet and go around on the outer side to pass marker F16. Chatham Strait is relatively flat and not a boat or person to be seen. On the chart in the center of Chatham Strait there is a marker are called “Three Nautical Mile”. (Wonder what that's referring to.)

THE OVEN IS ON AND THE LID SEALED SHUT!

Well, we figured out what was burning. Larry put me at the helm and I noticed the red light on the stove. I could see it from the helm. I turned the burner off immediately and I tried to lift the top cover of the stove top but couldn’t as it was too hot and swollen from the heat. Larry was in the bathroom – I called him in a panic. He managed to get the top open. Apparently last night when I was cooking dinner with the pressure cooker I left it on while I checked to see if the pot roast was cooked. (I don’t turn the burner off when I do this because I usually have to put the pot back on and then it takes too long to reheat the coil) When I told Larry dinner was ready he turned the generator off and I had neglected to turn the burner off before he did that and never noticed it because the light was out. Apparently when we were running the boat he turned the generator on and this automatically turned the oven back on. There is a safety mechanism that is supposed the turn the oven or range top off if the lid is down but it failed. So we were very lucky.

HUGE SCALE AGAIN

We’re passing the narrow inlet of Basket Bay. We see a little skiff at the end of the inlet fishing. He’s like a miniscule speck on the landscape next to the huge mountains. To me the most impressive thing about Alaska is the scale of everything. I can’t grasp the enormity of everything. I keep relating it to California scale. Everything looks walkable, climbable, and reachable until you get out of the boat and try and then you realize how big and how distant everything really is. We've been here all summer and I still can’t figure it out or take it for granted.

On the right side of us is Chichagof Island and its colors are pure rich greens, grays and whites. On the left is Admiralty Island and everything is blue and grey shades. The sky above is deep blue laced with wispy white clouds. Its dead quiet, not a sound except for a sea plane flying low by our boat.

I take a short nap and what seems like only moments later I wake and look up. Everything is an eerie grey. The water is suspiciously flat. There are now two boats in water a head of us. Off to left we see silver rectangles on shore, shimmering and metallic. It’s the Tlinquit Village of Angoon. The sun is obscured by these strange flat stretched out clouds creating this strange atmosphere of blue white.

We’re nearing the inlet to Peril Straight now. The corner is Morris Reef. We see the marker far ahead off the shore. It’s hard to believe we need to go that far off the tip to avoid the rocky reef hidden beneath the surface of the water. The water and everything is metallic silver.

9:45 AM: We make the turn into Peril Strait. The green can is crowded with several sea lions all lying on top of each other. Ziggy goes out to take a look and then barks to be let in when done.

WE PASS JADE AND RAVEN

On our left is Fairway Island with marker “32” and an abandoned house just behind it. Ahead about 3 miles we see M/V Jade. We hailed them on the radio. They stayed in Appleton Cove last night. They said they’re heading South towards Petersburg and Wrangell now to see that area since they rushed by it on the way up. All of a sudden I smelled something and thought it was burning electrical wires. I quickly checked the galley out and salon and asked Larry to see if he could smell it and “yes”, he said it’s a dog fart. Ziggy had a funny look on his face. Whew false alarm, only a little dog fart.

Larry chatted on the radio with Jade finding out what they've been do and what they plan to see next going. We asked if they were going by way of Rocky Pass but they said no, thought it would be too shallow. We go out on our deck and wave as we pass each other by. Then we hear Raven who calls us on the radio to say "hello". They’ve already come out of Peril Strait and darn it we missed them. They stayed at Appleton also and are heading South now. They are going back on the outside and meeting up with Patience on the outside near Craig on Prince of Whales Island. We hear another boat calling Jade on radio who says he was monitoring our conversation and wanted to tell them they can go through Rocky Pass with 8’ of water below their keel. They said it was narrower than Wrangell and they would have to time it exactly at the right time. They said it’s marked well with the kelp. It didn't sound like Jade wanted to chance it as they said they've decided not to go that way.

POISON MUSSELS KILL 100!

Zig and I took another nap until we rounded the inlet to Deadman’s Reach. This is the location where 100 Aleut Indian hunters died from eating poison mussels they gathered in Poison Cove which is dead ahead. It’s hard to imagine that happening. They were on their way from Sitka and then to Kodiak. They were hunting for the Russians. Those poor people had a rough time with those Russians.

STAY OUT OF ANNIE'S COVE! GOOD GRIEF!

We went into Annie’s Cove (the one that’s not named on the chart but the Douglas' like it). It’s very small and was full of sea weed and wakes from the boats. We gave it a try but by the time we let the chain out it brought us too close to the rocks and didn’t seem like a protected place so we left. We pulled up gobs of sea weed. What a mess.

DEEP BAY MUCH NICER

We decided to go into Deep Bay Anchorage instead and anchored way in the back where Douglas recommends. The place was full of crab pots. We had to be very careful not to snare any with the anchor. We think we should have anchored nearer the entrance but that was not mentioned by Coast Pilot or Douglas. Later we noticed a boat anchored there. Next time we’ll decide on our own.

A GAZILLION KAYAKERS

Glacier Bay adventure boat came in and anchored. A gazillion kayakers got in the water and were everywhere. Between them and the crab pots it was a crowded place for awhile. For dinner we barbequed a Cornish game hen and some eagles sat nearby watching everything. After the kayakers left the anchorage turned out to be a nice quiet place.

DATE: July 9, 2002
WEATHER: Cloudy, clear
LOCATION: Deep Bay Anchorage
TEMP:56 degrees

DESTINATION: Sitka

DON'T TRUST HUMANS AND DON'T BE TOO CURIOUS

Next morning I decided to see if I could catch a fish and sadly I caught a little seal that had been hanging around our boat since we arrived in Deep Bay. Something had hooked the line and I jerked the line several times to make sure I set the hook. I reeled in the line and was shocked when the little seal surfaced finally with that stupid hot pink lure stuck in his lip. I stopped pulling immediately when I saw it was him. He stayed there quite a long time just looking at us with his big black wonderful eyes. Each time I tugged a little on the line it pulled his upper left lip out. It was awful. I didn't know what to do. It was like he was looking for us to help him. Larry wanted to reel him in and try to remove the hook but I had heard that seals are dangerous and was worried he'd bite. So Larry took the line and decided to give it a yank to try and pull it out. It broke the line where the bait attached and now free down he went with the dam lure attached to his upper lip.

We were so upset. I just went downstairs and bawled and Larry felt equally bad. I came up in a little while and just cried on the deck while I watched for him. Every so often he would come up and look as us as he had done before but this time we knew it was him as opposed to other seals because he had this stupid pink lure hanging from his beautiful mouth. It was a horrible experience and I can still cry now as I write this. To think that we came into his beautiful bay where he innocently goes about his curious way and to leave him with this monstrosity in his mouth. I can’t stand it. And all for what? We weren’t starving; we didn't need a fish to catch. That's it, I’m through with fishing. These people that come up here and have to fish and fish and crab and crab and get way more than they’ll ever eat is cruel and disgusting. I can’t stand the idea of maiming a creature like that or killing it. I’m sorry little seal, beautiful seal, please forgive me and I hope that awful hook works it’s way out so you can again go about your cute way. And don’t trust those humans and don’t be too curious.

REGRET BAY

Leaving Deep Bay (I called it Regret Bay) at 10:30. Barometer at 1026.4.

SEVERAL RAPIDS TO COVER TODAY

We’ve got a lot of maneuvering to do today. We're going through several rapids so I look at the charts again and I’m still so upset about the seal that I can hardly concentrate. I have to concentrate though because not only do we have to reverse red right returning but we are looking at the chart upside down. As for Deep Bay although we liked where we were, the crab pots were dangerous and worrisome so we think the best place to anchor is after grass topped rock on the South East end in 6-9 F. That location was one protected from the wind and closer to shore. We saw lots of eagles and heard many birds the sea gulls hung out in groups giving us lots of entertainment.

STORY OF THE LONELY WHITE CROSS

The weather is cloudy now but clear and the waters are flat. We spot Bear Bay where some people like to anchor. It doesn’t look as protected as Deep Bay was. A seiner is coming our way with his flopper stoppers down. As we pass the point of our harbor we see a white cross that someone has placed very prominently on shore. I wish I new what the story was. Did someone drown there or was there a ship wreck?

CAN'T SOCIALIZE WHILE WE GO THROUGH THE NARROWS!

We go through Sergius Narrows – no problem. It's well marked, and we pass “At Ease”. They’re headed to Petersburg. He calls us on the radio right in the middle of Sergius Narrows so I answer him while Larry concentrates. All I could think of to say was that I was anxious to get to Sitka to get some laundry done. They said they have a laundry mat but no service for doing your laundry but added they have a nice grocery store. We keep passing other cruises that we've met along our travels this summer. Everyone is heading back south now. We’re behind schedule.

MOVE OVER DANG IT FOR THE COLUMBIA FERRY

“Columbia” ferry comes on the radio and announces it will hit Sergius Narrow in 20 minutes. So we figure that means he’s about 20 minutes behind us.

A “Bernie Boat” (we call any little fast boat, a Bernie Boat, a friend that has a little fast boat) cut the narrows and took a short cut at about 20 knots. There was a black hulled boat behind us but he disappeared. I can’t figure out where in the heck he went as there was no turn off that I could see and he was right on our tail. It was a strange scary looking boat and he was riding on our tail. It reminded me of that movie that Steven Spielberg did when he was twenty about the monster driven truck that keep coming after the salesman in the car. The truck was all black with black windows and this boat was the same way. Scary and black and riding our tail and then poof, just disappeared.

GOOD PLANNING

We are passing many little rocky islets with what looks like little mini Christmas trees and hills and others with silver trees leafless trunks, and still others with lush mixed evergreens. We went through narrows with 2 ½ knots against us, almost at slack. No problem and good planning on Larry’s part.

YA-VOLL! SUDDENLY EVERYTHING'S RUSSION!

We now head through Kahul Narrows. In the distance we see 4 or 5 pointed mountain tops, they are the craggy green mountains on Kruzof Island. Suddenly everything has a Russian name now.

Larry calls the fishing vessel ahead to ask about going passing them on their portside. He answers "Okay" and Larry replies by telling him he’ll give him plenty of room. These fishermen are short and brief on the radio unlike most of the yakkity cruisers.

We enter Salisbury Sound and get our first glimpse of the Pacific. My gosh, suddenly there are lots of boats sightseeing and fishing out there.

THOSE CRAZY CANADIANS AGAIN

We hear "Up Spirits II" on radio. They’re leaving Sitka. We passed them and she did a flag salute to us. They said they had a good time in Sitka. Can’t believe all the places we have seen them. It's certainly a small world cruising up here.

INCONSIDERATE

Went through Neva Strait with the ferry boat gaining on us but there are 3 fishing boats in between. We have 3 fishing boats & one boat called Yachite to follow. Yachite passed us going through one of the narrows back a ways and left a tremendous wake. Yesterday we had the same problem coming around into Annie’s Hole. They are in such a dam hurry they could care less about the wake they leave you in these narrow passages. All the markers ahead are easily visible and we have no problems.

12:20 PM: We're now out of Neva narrows and rounding Neva Point. We still have 20 miles or so to go.

12:40 PM: We're getting ready to enter Olga Strait. We decide to pull off in Nakwasina Passage to let the “Columbia” ferry go by. He was having a difficult time dealing with several fishing boats on the last passage. We could hear him on the radio. There was a lot of miss communication before it was clear which side they’d be on so he could pass. The 3 fishing boats ahead us called Columbia and said they’d pull off to his starboard at the entry to Olga. Why they didn’t pull off sooner where we did is puzzling as there was plenty of room. So the Columbia had to lumber along another long distance behind them. Nevertheless, Columbia gratefully answered back saying “Thanks guys” after he went through.

We pulled in behind Columbia and the 3 fishing boats. They were going so slow the one was going almost a crawl. Larry kept calling him on the radio to get permission to pass but he wouldn’t answer so when Larry felt it was safe we just went by him. His boat name was “Lucky Strike”. Then Larry asked “October” if he could go around him. We did. Columbia also had to maneuver around the inconsiderate “Yachite” that was ahead. We could hear them talking and the Yachite wanted him to wait until he could get to an area where he had a little more room to move over for him.