Sailing SE Alaska

July 29, 2012 Funter Bay on Admiralty to Pavlof Harbor in Freshwater Inlet

     We woke up early as we had a long way to go today (35 miles) to Pavlof Harbor in Freshwater Bay. Billy motored out to us to say goodbye. Besides being a gardener and great story teller, he is also very artistic and he brought us some gifts that he had made. I won’t go into detail as I want his identify to be private, but I want him to know if he reads this, that I will treasure his gifts forever and they will always represent the specialness I feel about my month here in SE Alaska.
     After Billy left, we pulled the hook but before we left Funter Bay we had one more stop to make.
     Pete had me take the helm and steer Privateer toward the public dock in the middle cove and had me bring her dockside. “You’ll stay right next to me in case I mess up?”, I asked anxiously, envisioning ramming into the dock and hurting Privateer. He smiled reassuringly and as we got closer I was alarmed that there was another sailboat at one end and a float plane dock protrusion on the other but Pete patiently verbally guided me through the process and I got us close enough that Kelsey could hop onto the dock, then Pete and a great sense of relief once Privateer was under their control at the dock and I could turn off the engine.
     The reason we had come here was to look at the old salmon cannery ruins here of the Thlinket Packing Company and the old Aleutian graveyard.
     During World War II, after the Japanese attacked one of the islands in the Aleutian chain, American soldiers rounded up all the Aleuts, with little time to pack their belongings, and brought them further East where they were forced to live in abandoned canneries and old mine buildings. It seems they were left to fend for themselves--thrust into a completely different environment then they were accustomed to. On June 24, 1942, 479 Aleuts were brought to this old cannery. They were cramped in old rotting buildings and many died of TB and pneumonia. In Funter Bay 32 Aleuts died in two years.
   After the war, they were returned to their old villages that had either been burned down by the Americans (to prevent the Japanese from using them) or vandalized by them (such as tearing down a wall, so an army jeep could be parked inside) and their belongings stolen.
     One old building had pages from the Saturday Evening Post, dated April 12, 1919, lining the ceiling, no doubt pasted there to try to keep out the freezing winter wind. After exploring the cannery ruins--we walked back to the beach--very cool dark flinty rocks interspersed with quartz and I collected a few shells and wave-worn glass.
     Billy had told us to follow the beach to the end of the grassy area until we saw a white stake with orange tape of top, which marked the beginning of the trail to the graveyard. After a short walk through the woods we came to the graveyard, marked by numerous Russian Orthodox crosses and some headstones. Pete respectfully removed his hat before walking under the archway (which I was grateful for as that hadn’t occurred to me, which I copied). We carefully and quietly walked around the moss covered graves--most of them children and baby sized--hard to imagine the heartbreak in this place.
     Walking back to the boat I traded a little girl on the beach one of my sea urchin shells for one of her shells, then noticed in my hunt for shells and glass, I had fallen way behind and Kelsey and Pete were already on the dock! I hurried to catch up and by the time I made it to our boat (she’s OUR boat now!), Pete had the engine going and then we were away. We never did see any bears on Admiralty Island even though at one bear per square mile, it has the densest bear population in SE Alaska.
     Motored out into North Chatham Strait and headed South to make our way to Pavlof Harbor in Freshwater Bay. The water was glassy (Pete says it is rarely like this) and a short distance outside of Funter Bay we saw a humpback whale fairly close. We continued to motor and eventually Pete attached the autopilot to the tiller, which was cool as I had never seen one before.
    Hours of companionable time spent with Pete in the cockpit (Kelsey was down below today). He was wearing his constant companion, a beautiful well-loved Cowichan sweater with a whale pattern (he uses it as a pillow at night) whose elbows, already mended once by his mom, are thinning and falling apart again and his smart-wool cap. Sometime in the afternoon, he turned to me, “We’re leaving 58 degrees latitude now--hey, you should name the article you submit to 48 North (Seattle sailing publication), 58 North!”.
     At one point I noticed a tug and barge heading North between us and Admiralty Island and pointed it out to Pete. Pete looked over his shoulder and turned back, “That’s the Pacific Titan bringing its weekly supplies to Juneau”. No wonder everything is so expensive here. Every food item has to be brought a long way from the lower 48.
      The clouds were low over the mountaintops today so the scenery wasn’t much to look at. Grey clouds and grey seas. Eventually the South wind picked up some but never enough to raise our sails and beat to windward and make the time we needed to make today. Eventually, the waves got choppy and I smiled at Pete, “We’re bucking the chop!”
         About six hours later, we turned into Freshwater Bay and Pete had me unfurl the yankee. As we approached Pavlof Harbor, Pete spotted a bear leaving the beach and walking up the small river there (bear 37). This is the first bear we’ve spotted since leaving the West coast of Chichagof--probably because the salmon hadn’t started to run yet and the bears were eating grass along the water until they did. We guessed that by the time we hit Lisianski Strait that they were starting to move up the rivers to catch salmon.
    There is a brownish-orange sandy beach here which is a beach color I hadn’t seen before. Pavlof Harbor is a small cove which has a small river feeding into it with a lovely small cascading waterfall. Unfortunately, two other boats beat us here to anchor and they have an awesome view of it from their boats. There aren’t too many anchorages along this Eastern stretch of Chichagof Island, and this cove is a welcome respite.
    Pete has just finished frying up the cod that Billy gave us this morning and Kelsey has just placed a plate of cod, mashed potatoes with chives, garlic and bacon bits and sautéed sea asparagus. Gotta go!
    PS. Billy--the cod was delicious!!!!