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| Dave and Al with our 100 pound halibut. |
Patti and Al joined us in
Cordova on July 22nd for their summer vacation on Seabiscuit. We had a great time with them aboard and a
lot of memorable adventures.
July 22, Monday,
Cordova: Dave and I spent the day doing chores,
maintenance tasks and cleaning. We
replaced the 12V battery in the pilot house that supplies power to the VHF and
HF radios our weather monitor and house battery monitor. We walked up to the post office to pick up two packages, went to the hardware store to buy some stainless nuts and bolts
and stopped at the grocery store for a few things. We ate lunch at a food truck then filled our
propane bottle and dinghy gas can. Patti
and Al flew to Cordova from Boston via Seattle and Anchorage then caught a
shuttle from the airport to the harbor. We
met them at the top of the transient dock ramp ~17:00 and helped them haul
their luggage to the boat. After a “Welcome
Back to Seabiscuit” drink on the stern, we walked up to the Reluctant Fisherman
for supper. It was a beautiful evening,
warm with a light breeze and we sat on the patio and watched the activity in
the harbor while we ate.
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| Fireweed along the road from the Cordova Airport to the harbor |
July 23, Tuesday, Cordova
to Sheep Bay (23 nm, 3.5 hours): It was
raining this morning. We needed a few
things in town so we suited up in our rain gear and headed up the dock. Our first stop was the marine store for prawn bait; next, the bakery for tomorrow’s breakfast; third, the grocery store
up the hill and finally the liquor store.
Back to the boat to stow everything and take a break. Dave and Al filled the fresh water tank while
Patti and I took out the garbage and went to the two grocery stores near the
marina for a few last minute things. We
ate lunch at Baja Taco then went back to the boat and got ready to go. We pulled away from the dock at 12:40 and
cruised out of the harbor, north up Western Channel, and west into Orca Bay
toward Sheep Bay.
 |
| Al, Patti and Dave ordering lunch at Baja Taco, Cordova |
We dropped off the prawn
trap near the entrance to Sheep Bay then wound our way to the anchorage near
the head of the bay. The area
surrounding the anchorage was a bowl surrounded by mountains with steep rock
cliffs above the tree line and waterfalls along the north side. We anchored up at 16:15 and settled in for
the evening. We had grilled halibut
fillets for supper and watched the sea otters and the seals in the bay. Al and Dave cast their lines into the schools of salmon swimming near the boat but didn’t catch anything.
 |
| At anchor in Sheep Bay |
July 24, Wednesday, Sheep
Bay to Beartrap Bay (29 nm, 4.4 hours): We
launched the dinghy this morning and went exploring at the head bay. It was full of salmon. We did some fishing, mostly catch and release, although we kept one pink (humpy) for tomorrow’s lunch.
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| Dave and Al in the dinghy cruising around Sheep Bay. |
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| Seabiscuit at anchor, Sheep Bay |
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| Al and Patti fishing off the stern on the way to Beartrap Bay. |
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| Patti getting the prawn bait ready. |
We dropped off the prawn trap near the entrance to Beartrap Bay then headed inside to anchor up for the night. We grilled lamb burgers for supper, then spent a relaxing evening watching a bear wander along the south shore of the bay and telling stories.
July 25, Thursday, Beartrap
Bay: It was misty and overcast this morning. We had a nice breakfast then launched the
kayaks and the dinghy. Patti and I
paddled up the arm on the northeast side of the bay and then up into the
creek. There were thousands of salmon in
the creek. As we paddled over the fish,
they would roil around and create chop on the surface of the water. Al and Dave came up the creek in the dinghy
to do some fishing. They couldn’t help
but catch something with every cast. It
was raining by the time we got back to the boat.
 |
| B and Patti suiting up to go kayaking with Al ready to help launch the boats. |
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| Patti and B kayaking in the creek at the northeast side of Beartrap Bay. |
Al caught a salmon.
For lunch we had salmon
fish tacos with all the fixings. We
spent most of the afternoon reading our books, unlaxing and telling
stories. For supper, Al made fish
chowder with yelloweye rockfish. After supper, it was
close to high tide so we took the dinghy up the creek to look for bears. We didn’t see any bears but there were tons
of salmon as well as lots of seagulls and a few bald eagles.
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| Going up the creek in the dinghy: Al directing Dave to the deeper water while Patti and B look on. |
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| Fish on - reeling in a salmon. |
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| A view up the creek at high tide. |
July 26, Friday, Beartrap
Bay to Landlocked Bay (38 nm, 5.5 hours):
It rained most of the night and was overcast as we cruised out of the
bay this morning. No prawns in the trap
but we did catch a multi-armed sea star.
 |
| Patti and Al with the multi-arm sea star we caught in the prawn trap |
We stopped to fish on the
north side of Goose Island but the current was strong and we were drifting
>1 knot so we moved up into Port Fidalgo and fished near the entrance of
Snug Corner Cove. Patti caught a nice
yelloweye rockfish, Al let a big one get away and we caught a few more rockfish
which we released.
 |
| Patti caught a yelloweye rockfish. |
We crossed to the north
side of the inlet and tried the spot where Dave and I caught the halibut a few
weeks ago but they weren’t biting today.
We dropped off the prawn trap and anchored up in Landlocked Bay. We spotted a mountain goat way up in the
rocky slopes along the north shore. We
settled in for happy hour, then supper and an evening of storytelling.
July 27, Saturday, Landlocked
Bay to Valdez (38 nm, 5.5 hours): It was
rainy and overcast this morning with a forecast of more rain and wind later
today. We heaved anchor, picked up the
prawn trap – nothing inside, and headed toward Valdez. A purse seiner fishery was open and Valdez
Arm was filled with boats fishing on
both sides of the arm and up into the bays.
We worked our way through the maze of boats, nets and tenders until they
thinned out near Anderson Bay.
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| Waterfalls along the north shore of the Valdez Narrows |
We called the Valdez
Harbormaster on the VHF, got a slip assignment and entered the Valdez Small
Boat Harbor. After tying up, Patti and I
walked up to the harbormaster’s office to check in, then walked along the harbor
front and checked out the restaurants.
Al and Dave joined us and we went to the visitor center and then spent
the afternoon at the Maxine and Jesse Whitney Museum. It was a very interesting museum, filled with
artifacts Maxine had collected and taxidermy animals native to Alaska.
 |
| Al with a brown (grizzly) bear at the Valdez Visitor Center. |
After the museum, we
stopped at the Fat Mermaid for happy hour then ordered a pizza to go and went
back to the boat for supper and to unlax for the evening.
July 28, Sunday, Valdez: This morning we did typical town things
including laundry and provisioning along with boat chores and projects. For lunch, we ate at the Potato, one of the
food trucks along the harbor front. For
our afternoon adventure, we went to the Valdez Museum Annex where they have a
scale model of the old town of Valdez prior to the 1964 earthquake along with a
movie telling the story of the quake and the impact it had on the town. We wandered along the town dock and admired
the artwork along the wharf.
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| Al and Patti on the Valdez public wharf. |
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| A Monument to the People Who Built the Trans-Alaska Pipeline near the Valdez Ferry Terminal. |
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| Art work on the Valdez public wharf. |
There is a large fish cleaning station near the harbormaster’s office, so we walked up there to see
what was coming in from the charter boats.
There were lots of halibut, silver salmon (coho), red salmon (sockeye),
some rock fish and a huge ling cod. Valdez has a summer fishing derby for halibut and silver (coho) salmon and keeps the board near the harbormaster's office updated with the biggest fish caught to date. The leading halibut was 285 pounds and the largest silver was over 12 pounds. For
supper, we went to Mike’s Palace and for dessert we got ice cream at a food
truck near the harbor parking lot. One
last pass by the fish cleaning station then back to the boat.
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| Seabicuit at the dock in the Valdez Small Boat Harbor. |
July 29, Monday, Valdez to
Emerald Cove (27 nm, 3.7 hours): We had
breakfast, filled up our fresh water tank, took up the trash and made one last
run to the grocery and liquor stores before leaving the harbor this
morning. It was a beautiful sunny
day. The purse seine fishery was open
for another day and we passed through a mob of fishing boats as we cruised
south down Valdez Arm.
 |
| Purse seiners fishing in Valdez Arm. |
We stopped to fish just north of Point Freemantle. Patti and Al put their lines down to the bottom to fish for halibut and Dave rigged up a herring helmet head to mooch for salmon. Before too long, Dave had a nice red (sockeye) salmon on his line. As we were bringing it aboard, Patti said she had a fish on her line. She told Al it was too big for her to reel in and she handed her rod off to him. It was a big, heavy fish and a fighter. After 10 minutes, Al asked if we still had our fish fighting belt that we used for marlin when we were in Central America and Mexico. We dug it out of storage and Patti and Dave fastened it around him.
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| Dave fastening the fish fighting belt around Al. |
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| Dave preparing to "subdue" the halibut before we bring it aboard. |
After 20 minutes, Al had the fish up at the surface and we could see that it was a monster. Dave got out the gaffe and he and Al struggled to subdue the fish. They finally got it into position where they could tie a line to it and fastened it to the cleats on the swim platform. The plan was to drag it to the anchorage, but that didn’t work very well. We stopped and the guys wrestled the fish onto the swim platform and tied it up there.
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| The halibut dragging behind the boat. |
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| Dave tying the halibut onto the swim platform. |
We were about an hour away from Emerald Cove, our anchorage for the night. We cruised into the cove, anchored up and set-up to clean fish. First things first, we measured the halibut – between 58” and 59”, estimated at 97.5 – 103 pounds.
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| Al and Dave on the swim platform measuring the fish 58.5", estimated at 100 pounds. |
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| Dave and Al preparing to filet the fish. |
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| Al making the first cut. We cut large chunks of meat off the fish while it was on the swim platform then cut the large chunks into serving size fillets on the cutting table. |
For supper, we grilled a halibut steak and had a side salad.
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| Patti and Al in the galley preparing halibut steak for grilling. |
July 30, Tuesday, Emerald
Cove to Long Bay, West Arm (20 nm, 3.3 hours):
Our plan today was to go up to Columbia Glacier. We heaved anchor, pulled the prawn trap – 5
prawns inside, and headed north up Columbia Bay. As we approached the moraine, the sand and
gravel bar at the former face of the glacier, we encountered extensive brash
ice and bergie bits. They extended the
full width of the bay and prevented us from continuing any further.
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| A view of the mountains north of our Emerald Cove anchorage. |
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| Cruising up Columbia Bay towards the Columbia Glacier. The brash ice and bergie bits prevented us from getting to the face of the glacier. |
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| Patti, Dave and Al in the dinghy ready to collect glacier ice in Heather Bay, |
We turned around and went
back to Heather Bay, anchored up and launched the dinghy to collect glacier ice
for the cooler. From there we cruised up
into Long Bay and anchored in the west arm.
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| Bergie bits in the passage along the north side of Glacier Island. |
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| Al sitting on the bow as we approach a dirty bergie bit. |
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| Close up view of the dirty bergie bit. |
For lunch, we made fish
tacos with the yelloweye Patti had caught a few days ago. We read our books on the stern in the
sunshine and enjoyed the pleasant weather.
Mid-afternoon we launched the dinghy and went scouting for bear in the
grass and mudflats at the head of the bay.
There were two other boats in the anchorage, so we stopped to chat and
to share our halibut with them. We saw
lots of bald eagles, seagulls and salmon, and a deer, but no bears.
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| Deer along the shore in Long Bay. |
We had prawn cocktails for happy hour to
celebrate our success with the prawn trap, and for supper, we grilled the red
(sockeye) salmon that Dave caught yesterday.
We unlaxed and told stories then called it a day.
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| Al, Patti and Dave on monkey island enjoying cocktails made with glacier ice. |
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| Patti kayaking in Long Bay |
Anchor up and we got
underway ~10:30. Five prawns inside the
trap this morning. We cruised along the
north coast of Glacier Island, through Fairmont Passage where we saw some
puffins and up into Unakwik Inlet. We dropped off the prawn
trap near our anchorage, then continued north up to Meares Glacier. We cruised back and forth 500 – 600 feet off
the face of the glacier, listened to it groan and crackle and watched small
chunks of ice slide down into the water.
 |
| Patti and Al at Meares Glacier. |
All of a sudden a huge slide gave way, crashed down into the water and
created a massive, rolling wave. Dave
turned the boat perpendicular to the wave and we moved away from the face. We could see that the slide had created a
huge overhang so we turned back around and watched the rest of it plummet down.
Meares Glacier calving.
We cruised back down the inlet and anchored behind the
small islands in the Cow Pen for the night.
For supper, we had reindeer sausage, cannellini beans and a salad (no
fish today – one of the few days we didn’t have fish or seafood for at least
one meal). We scanned the shore for
wildlife and saw a porcupine grazing in the grass.
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| Al cooking reindeer sausage. Is he smiling because he didn't have to eat fish today? |
Aug 1, Thursday, Cow Pens
to Cascade Bay (23 nm, 5.5 hours): It
was overcast and chilly this morning. We
did a little deck cleaning to get the fish scales off the stern then heaved anchor and
got underway. Best prawn day yet – 31
inside the trap.
Patti and Al counting prawns.
We motored down Unakwik
Inlet, then up into Eaglek Bay where we dropped off the prawn trap before
turning into Cascade Bay. Al spotted a
black bear eating salmon in the creek on the north side of the bay so we
watched him until he wandered up into the woods. We checked out the waterfall and the
anchorage on the south side, then went back and anchored up in the cove where
we saw the bear.
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| Al and Patti on the bow in front of the Cascade Bay waterfall. |
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| The Cascade Bay waterfall. |
We spent some time reading
and unlaxing then launched the dinghy and went up to the waterfall to take pictures.
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| Dave and B in the dinghy in front of the Cascade Bay waterfall. |
Later that afternoon, the
bear came back out into the creek, hopped on a salmon and went back into the
woods to eat it. Shrimp cocktails for
happy hour and fettuccini alfredo with shrimp for supper.
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| Shrimp deheaded and ready to cook. |
Aug 2, Friday, Cascade Bay
to McPherson Passage, Naked Island (20 nm, 3.7 hours): It was a bright, sunny day, calm with very
little wind so we decided to spend the morning rigging up our paravane
stabilizers and testing them. Paravanes are passive stabilizers used to dampen roll while underway. We have hydraulic active fin stabilizers (Wesmar) which we use as our primary roll dampening system. The paravanes are a back-up system for us so we have never used or tested them until now.
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| The starboard paravane deployed |
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| Lowering the paravane fish into the water. |
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| Paravane fish shackle position for Test 3. |
We did three test runs, all
with the “fish” lowered 20 feet below the surface of the water. For each test, we changed the shackle
position on the fish. The table below shows
the results from each of the three tests:
Test #
|
Shackle Position
|
Détente Speed
|
1000 rpm speed
|
1200 rpm speed
|
Results
|
1
|
4
|
2.9 kts
|
4.8 kts
|
___
|
Line
to fish severe angle aft while underway; line lifted 6’ – 8’ out of the
water; noisy vibration. Test stopped
after 1000 rpm.
|
2
|
3
|
2.8 kts
|
___
|
___
|
Line
to fish further aft than Test 1; noisy vibration; test stopped after détente
speed.
|
3
|
5
|
2.7 kts
|
4.6 kts
|
5.5 kts
|
Line
to fish not as far aft as Test 1; line lifted 4’ -6’ out of water; noisy
vibration. At 1200 rpm, port fish
tripped and port paravane pole snapped back up to boat.
|
We stopped testing after
the port paravane pole snapped back up to the boat during Test 3. We learned a few things during the tests and
will make some adjustments before trying again.
We restowed the fish,
coiled up all the lines and cruised down Eaglek Bay to pick up the prawn trap –
4 prawns inside. We stopped to fish on
the north side of Storey Island and caught a few rock fish, a small ling cod
and a small halibut but didn’t keep anything.
Our anchorage for the night was in McPherson Passage on the north side
of Naked Island. Al and Dave worked on
replacing the gasket on the forward hatch while Patti and I did a few small
projects.
 |
| Al installing the new gasket into the forward hatch. |
For supper we made fish cakes
with leftover halibut and salmon. I have
been checking in to the Bush Net every night and tonight, Darlene (the net controller) and I had a good
laugh about being anchored near Naked Island.
Aug 3, Saturday, McPherson
Passage to St. Matthews Bay (45 nm, 6.1 hours): The prawn trap was empty this morning. We had a long straight run across the Valdez
traffic lanes to Port Gravina Inlet. It
was another beautiful, calm day with light winds and seas less than 2
feet. We dropped the prawn trap off near
the entrance to St. Matthews Bay then turned north. The bay is lined with steep rocky cliffs and
we spotted some mountain goats along the east side. We anchored near the head of the bay and
settled in for a relaxing afternoon. The
temperature dropped and the wind picked up so we had happy hour inside instead
of up on monkey island. For supper,
Patti and Al made seafood pie on the grill with scallops, prawns and halibut
cheeks.
 |
| St. Matthews Bay |
Aug 4, Sunday, St. Matthews
Bay to Cordova (30 nm, 4.1 hours): It
was overcast this morning but wasn’t raining and there was no wind so we
launched the kayaks and the dinghy.
Patti and I paddled around the bay while Al and Dave took the dinghy
ashore and went for a walk up the creek at the head of the bay. They saw thousands of fish in the creek,
spawning or finished spawning and dying, along with a lot of seagulls and bald
eagles, but no bears and no bear tracks.
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| Patti kayaking in St. Matthews Bay. |
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| Starfish near the shore, St. Matthews Bay. |
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| Dave and Al walking along the shore at the head of St. Matthews Bay. |
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| Al and Dave getting back into the dinghy after their shore walk. |
Aug 5 - 6, Monday - Tuesday,
Cordova: We spent the morning telling
stories while Patti and Al packed their bags and got ready for their flight
home. We loaded about 20 pounds of
halibut and salmon into one of their small suitcases then walked up to the top
of the ramp to wait for the airport shuttle. Dave and I had lunch at the
pizza parlor then spent the afternoon doing laundry and boat chores. Tuesday we spent the day doing more boat
chores, re-provisioning, studying the cruising guide in the library and touring
the museum. For supper, we walked out to
the Powder House and ate on their patio overlooking Eyak Lake.
 |
| View of Eyak Lake from The Powder House Patio. |
Aug 7, Wednesday, Cordova
to Cloudman Bay (42 nm, 5.5 hours): We
left the Cordova dock ~7:30 this morning.
High tide was at ~8:30 and we got a push from the ebb current flowing
out of Orca Bay. There was patchy fog
until we passed Gravina Point where it lifted.
It was bright and sunny for the rest of the cruise. We anchored inside Cloudman Bay, on the
southeast side of Bligh Island. We spent
the afternoon voyage planning for the rest of our time in Prince William
Sound. For supper, we cooked halibut
with carrots, onions and coriander and for entertainment we watched the sea otters
feeding in the bay.
 |
| View across Tatitlek Narrows as we were entering Cloudman Bay |
 |
| Halibut fillets with carrots, onions and coriander. With all the halibut we have, we'll have lots of opportunities to try different recipes. Reminds me of Bubba in Forest Gump - halibut tacos, fried halibut, grilled halibut, halibut steaks, halibut pie, halibut cheeks, halibut chowder, halibut bites with mango salsa... |
Aug 8, Thursday, Cloudman Bay to Valdez (27 nm, 4.2 hours): We heaved anchor at 7:30 this morning in order to catch high tide going through the Tatitlek Narrows. There is one area about mid-way up the narrows that only has 7 feet of water at zero tide and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of water. That also meant that we had the ebb tide against us along with a 20 knot wind as we cruised north and east up the Valdez Narrows and we didn’t make very good time. We called the harbormaster on the VHF as we approached the harbor and they assigned us to S Dock in the new harbor. One of the things we wanted to do while we were in Valdez this time was to check out the new harbor so that gave us our opportunity. We pulled into the harbor, found our slip and tied up to the dock. We walked up to the harbormaster’s office to check in then ate lunch at the Thai food truck along the harbor front.
 |
| Seabiscuit at the dock in the new Valdez Harbor. |
Aug. 9, Friday, Valdez: Today we did a few boat chores, then walked up to the Mexican food truck for lunch. We took a tour through the Valdez Museum, strolled through town and picked up a few things at the grocery store. We plan to leave here in the morning and head to the west side of Prince William Sound.
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| The Whispering Giant Indian Head in Valdez carved by Peter "Wolf" Toth |
Until next time…
