Kalinin Bay

Our first day aboard Thankful was spent backtracking along familiar territory that Starr had traversed heading the other direction a few weeks earlier. We had noticed a large sailboat entering what looked like a deep and attractive bay when we entered Salisbury Sound from the ocean aboard Starr, and that same bay, Kalinin, was our day's destination on Thankful.

We stopped for an hour outside of Kalinin Bay to fish for halibut and salmon, but all we managed to snag was a couple of rock fish, which were thrown back.

The cruising guide said that there was a dangerous submerged rock at the narrowest part of the entrance into Kalinin Bay. Thankful crept in slowly past where the rock was supposed to be and anchored in the shallow inner bay in company with a couple other boats. We never saw where the rock was, and I'm not sure that's a good thing.

The first thing we noticed after anchoring was a grizzly bear in the grass by the beach. A kayaker with a rat sized dog aboard paddled in near the bear, and we watched closely to see if the bear was going to enjoy some canine pupus. No luck as the bear, which Matt later saw had two cubs in tow, departed the beach as the kayak approached. We later saw a second brown bear on another part of the shoreline.

The kayaker later came by to compliment Matt and Vicky on their boat. She had once owned a sistership to Thankful, a Transpac Marine Eagle Forty. It was her favorite boat. She also said that she hadn't noticed the bear on the beach.

There were fish, chum salmon according to Matt, jumping everywhere in the bay. I tried casting for them while Matt and Vicki bottom fished for halibut, again without success. We also put out a crab pot overnight but found just a single pathetic undersized one clawed crab in it this morning so we threw him back.

I am usually a pretty lucky guy, but not when it comes to fishing. Don and Sharry caught both salmon and halibut on Starr, fish that had eluded us the whole month that I was aboard, two days after I left the boat. I am hoping that my bad luck in fishing is not contagious. It is still early in the voyage of the mighty Thankful though. We shall see.

We had hoped to head north outside of Chichagof Island to some hot springs near the northern most end of the island but the wind and waves have come up which would make that route uncomfortable. We opted instead for the inside passage where it will be calmer.

Thankful just successfully negotiated the potentially treacherous Sergius Narrows, the skinniest part of the channel between Chichagof and Baronof Islands. The current can smoke through the narrows at up to nine knots, but we timed it for slack low water to avoid any unnecessary drama. We don't need that kind of adrenaline rush while the new crew aboard Thankful is still green.

It is amazing that large islands like Chichagof and Baronof, both more than fifty miles long and almost as wide, are separated by long narrow channels that are sometimes less than a quarter mile wide. This part of Alaska is full of islands and channels like this which provide beautiful scenery and protected cruising waters.

Skipper Matt hasn't decided yet on our destination for the day. He plans to ride the tide between Chichagof and Baronof until it is no longer helping us along and then find a hidey hole to anchor in for the night.