1300 position 55-41N 132-32W. Tied to the float in Thorne Bay Marina
Thankful spent all day yesterday holed up in Myers Chuck waiting out some windy weather offshore. It turned out to be the busiest day of the week with the arrival of the float plane that brings the mail to this sleepy community. The mail plane also carried passengers, and folks lined up on the floating dock waiting to board as the plane taxied in.
Another cruising power boat, "Free Spirit", arrived at the same time the plane was landing, and she tied up right behind us. Her friendly crew came over to visit after getting secured. The seventy year old skipper, Judy Sturgis, was an energetic gal with homes in Alaska, Nevada, and Makena on Maui. She keeps her fifty foot power boat tied to the dock in front of her floating home in Thorne Bay, right across Clarence Strait from Myers Chuck. Crew members Tad and Cindy are in the fishing charter business out of Lahaina harbor, and we found we had lots of pals in common.
Matt and I discovered a single large Dungeness crab in the trap he'd put out in the back chuck, and Lori cleaned it for dinner.
It started raining hard last night and it was still falling this morning. The forecast called for rain and continued nasty weather. The wind looked like it was pretty calm offshore though when Matt went to retrieve the crab trap, so we decided to chance it and headed out to cross Clarence Strait to Thorne Bay.
The wind never got over fifteen knots, but it was bumpier than we'd anticipated. The wind was coming right down the strait, as it usually does here, and our destination was right on the other side only ten miles away. We'd have rolled ourselves to death if we headed directly across the swells though, so we zigged and zagged heading forty five degrees off of the swell direction to make for an easier motion. An hour and a half later Thankful was entering the labaryinth of waterways that is Thorne Bay.
I thought immediately of Broken Bay north of Sydney, Australia, as we powered into Thorne Bay. Totally landlocked and protected like Broken Bay, Thorne Bay is a large body of water that twists and turns through Prince of Wales Island. The shore is lined with both floating homes tucked in the coves and homes built on land, and it looks like many of the residents commute to the town of Thorne Bay by boat, just like they do in Broken Bay, since there are few roads.
As we were tying up in the town's marina, Free Spirit went by heading for Judy's floating home a block from the harbor. Her skipper yelled over as she passed, "Come on over later for cocktails!" It is looking like Thorne Bay is going to be a lot of fun.
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