Sailing SE Alaska

July 28, 2012   Couverden Island to Funter Bay

     Got up at 8am this morning. A sunny morning! Kept having an urge to break into the Beatle’s tune, Good Day Sunshine but decided not to torture Pete and Kelsey with my singing.
     I had my chai tea this morning in the cockpit and watched the clouds toward the East as they layered the peaks of Admiralty Island. This is the direction we’re heading today I studied the clouds as I leisurely sipped my tea to determine what the wind was doing out there as Pete had taught me. They were moving very slowing toward the North, so a South wind. Looking at the currents inside our little 2 mile long bay was useless as we are very protected from the outside waters here. A lone eagle perched in a spruce tree on the shore closest to us and occasionally cried out.
     Pete had rowed Trinka over to check out the dock on the other side of the spit and when he came back he had harvested a whole gallon bag of sea asparagus for Kelsey on the shoreline exposed at low tide. That earned him an appreciative smooch from Kelsey.
    After our yummy omelette breakfast, we started to get underway. Pete wanted to go ahead and raise our main while still at anchor so Kelsey and I uncovered the main. I was captain today so I asked Pete, “Do you want to take us out of the bay before I take over helm?” “No”, he answered, “just follow my bread crumbs”. The bread crumbs are the track made yesterday on his GPS as we came in.
     I turned the engine on and Kelsey pulled the halyard to raise the main, then took the tiller while I went forward to raise the anchor (great exercise when it’s a chain anchor). Anchor off bottom and Kelsey keep the main sheet slack and free so we wouldn’t sail forward until the anchor was aboard, snug in it’s bow roller. Walked back to the cockpit and started the two miles out of our sweet bay and carefully followed Pete’s “bread crumbs”--wouldn’t want to hit a rock.
     Once safely out of the cove we turned South, unfurled the yankee and turned off the engine. The water was a slightly rolling and glassy (quite the opposite of yesterday’s chop)Very light wind--less than 5 knots and we moved very slowly at between 1-2 knots and sometimes our sails would just sag. I think Kelsey and I would have turned on the engine but Pete urged patience and eventually we could see darker, ripply water ahead so we knew the wind was picking up farther to our South.
     As we started to clear the chain of islands to our port side and could adjust our direction to the East toward Funter Bay, the wind picked up to about 10 knots from the South, our sails filled and finally we were making better progress at about 4 knots. We had seen a sailboat motoring toward us in the distance and as they got closer, they hailed us on channel 16.Turned out they were acquaintances of Pete and Kelsey and Pete asked them to take our picture as we sailed by.
      We had a nice sail across Chatham Strait, looking North up Lynn Channel, more snow topped mountains. We listened to the Channel 16 chatter and would turn to whatever channel they went to--much talk of humpback whales (or lack thereof) today. We had seen one or two individuals blow in the distance. Pete said that this area usually has a lot of humpback activity but all the talk on the radio today was of the intense feeding the last few days in the area South of Glacier Bay where we had seen so many whales two days ago, so it seems that other than a few individuals here and there, that’s where they were.
     As we approached Admiralty Island and Funter Bay, I was still on the helm after about three hours. Pete was having me make some course corrections and I suddenly noticed I was having trouble remembering which way to turn the tiller to head up and realized I had become mentally fatigued--my brain was befuddled. Especially now that I’m approaching my last week with Peter, I’m feeling pressure to absorb as much knowledge from him as I can and my brain had had enough for the moment and it was a relief to turn the helm over to Kelsey.
     A short distance before the mouth of Funter Bay, the wind died and we took down,flaked and covered the main and furled the yankee. We motored into Funter Bay, and could see the ruins of an old gold mine building on the South shore and a cute red float plane moored nearby.
       Pete and Kelsey have some friends here and I am going to be intentionally vague here to protect their privacy. I’ll call their friend--Billy (and I think he can guess why I’ve named him that). As we entered Funter Bay we passed Billy in his boat, pulling up one of his crab pots. Crabs are abundant here, which means there are no sea otters (sea otters prefer coastal areas). Billy smiled at us and I was introduced. Crab for dinner tonight at Billy’s house. I could hardly wait.
     We motored further into Funter Bay---there is plenty of anchorage all over Funter Bay at good depths for smaller boats and a public dock in the center cove (more about that later). Houses dot the shore but there is no town here. In a cleft in the mountains, you can see the Harding Icefield to the East that rises above Juneau.
     Once anchored, we puttered down below and Kelsey made dessert--apple ginger crisp--until it was time to row ashore for dinner at Billy’s house. Him and his wife have a lovely spread and Billy showed us his garden and I was surprised to see many of the same flowers that grow in Seattle--peonies, delphiniums among others and a lovely, fragrant Sitka rose bush. Billy grows potatoes with fucus kelp as a groundcover/compost, and greens such as chard and kale plus raspberries and strawberries.
      I peered back into the woods, dense forest with moss covered ground and huge quartz boulders. On the edge of the woods was a huckleberry bush with the biggest huckleberries that I had ever seen--almost as large as a commercial blueberry--and they were delicious!
     We arrived in Billy’s home--big windows overlooking Funter Bay. Billy was stir frying some sea asparagus and mushrooms. I think I may have impressed them that I knew what it was, but admitted that I only learned it from Pete’s wild harvest from this morning. (As I read them this passage, Kelsey piped up, “Hey, you’re getting credit for that but I’m the main forager!” Pete gave her a big grin)
    Billy had some visiting family and a friend, whom I’ll call Lloyd and his wife (who turned out worked in the same small school district as I do now--many years ago--small world). Oh, and a little adorable creme brule colored dog. I was given a glass of wine and slowly relaxed (I’m actually fairly shy)
     Soon, a huge, mound of Dungeness crab on a platter was placed in the middle of the long, paper covered dinner table, along with garlic bread, sautéed sea asparagus, a bowl of sliced avocado and a salad (no way I’m wasting stomach space on a salad when there’s fresh crab!). Billy showed me how to use the crab shears, which I liked much better than crab crackers. Billy’s wife, Catherine poured me a small bowl of butter for dipping--she said Alaskans don’t use butter with crab though, they eat their crab with cocktail sauce.
     Before we started to eat, Billy raised his hands for a “blessing” and we all joined hands and shouted, “Family! Family! Family!” Then I dug into my first bite of Alaskan crab. Yummmmm. Best. Crab. Ever. I ate my first half, then put another half on my plate and devoured that one as well. Great conversation--stories of aggressive land otters, salmon runs long ago (old timers said you used to be able to walk across creeks on their backs they were so thick), more food and wine and everybody loved Kelsey’s dessert.
    Catherine told stories of long ago commercial fishing up in Alaska. One story was they were boarded once by the Coast Guard and survival suits were very new back then and they had more survival suites on board than people but only one life jacket. The Coast Guardsman pointed out to her that they didn’t have enough and she looked at him, “If you were going down, would you rather have a survival suit on or a lifejacket?”, “A life jacket”, he answered. “Well, about all lifejackets are good for up here are finding your dead body!”, she quipped back. She added, “I probably shouldn’t have said that, as he promptly wrote me up a citation”.
     Talked awhile with Lloyd, funny stories about a popular and unpredictable governor he worked with, sad stories that reminds one to value every day. He was a pleasure to talk with and was genuinely interested to hear my own sometimes sad stories. As we talked, every once and awhile, movement over his shoulder, out the window would catch my eye--salmon jumping. (L.--if you read this I am sending you a mental hug)
      Too soon, the evening wound down and it was time to row back to Privateer and while still on deck, the resident harbor porpoises swam nearby. The no-see-ums were out though (a very tiny bug that bites but doesn’t have the good manners of a mosquito and announce itself with a buzz) and I soon went below. To bed right away and instantly to sleep.