The weather didn't look too bad as Thankful poked out into Clarance Strait yesterday, so we took a right turn to make a second attempt at getting to Cordova Bay.
We could see fog ahead of us in Dixon Entrance as the boat worked along the shore of Prince of Wales Island. About half a mile from Cape Chacon, where Clarence Strait meets Dixon Entrance, the fog filled in completely and lowered visibility to about 150 yards, so we turned on the radar. Almost immediately I thought I saw a boat on the radar, but there were a lot of small islets at the point too so we weren't sure what it was. Just as we rounded the cape Matt spotted the sailboat under power coming the other direction. As the boat passed fifty yards away I recognized it as a Beneteau, the same vintage as our Moku pe'a but about forty five feet long.
Light breeze and moderate seas continued, but once in Dixon Entrance there was no land between us and the open Pacific so we started to feel a decent sized ground swell coming in off of the ocean. The benign conditions didn't last. We went through a number of tide rips, and the varying current occasionally kicked up a decent chop that forced us to alter course to keep from rolling poor Thankful to death. We were glad the girls weren't with us. They would not have enjoyed the ride. We never saw more than fifteen knots of wind, but I wouldn't want to be there in anything heavier. The fog disappeared as we worked our way west. Thankful finally made the turn into Cordova Bay at 3PM and the seas settled down a bit.
Cordova Bay opens to the south into Dixon Entrance. The bay is thirty miles long and has dozens of fjords feeding it. There are hundreds of islands in the bay. You could spend years gunkholing around the bay and never anchor in the same place twice. We only have a couple of days though, so choosing a destination was difficult. Matt spied an area that looked promising for halibut, so we headed there. Our target fishing spot was too windy for bottom fishing (we'd drift too fast), so we tucked in behind some nearby islands to anchor and fish.
It turned out to be a great place for catching kelp. First I snagged some kelp with my salmon lure. I couldn't get the lure unstuck and didn't want to lose it, so Matt tried to pull up Thankful's anchor so we could drift back over my lure to free it. Our anchor, however, was fouled in kelp. I managed to get my lure free while Matt was screwing around with Thankful's anchor. We reanchored, caught some more kelp, and gave up fishing for the day.
We headed in to a protected anchorage in Max Cove where we licked our wounds and had a restful evening.
Refreshed and reenergized, we are headed out into the bay this morning to try to catch some dinner. Matt has some spots in mind. We are thinking we may anchor for the night among the islands at the bay's entrance. There may be some glass balls on the shoreline there, and we know how to catch those.
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