Day 34 ~ Auke Bay, Juneau to Funter Bay in Mansfield Peninsula on Admiralty Island

Dad’s steps were definitely lighter on this particular morning thanks to our impending departure. He really does like to keep moving, which makes this kind of trip perfect for him. The night before, Wendy and Dad had created our float plan so we were all ready to go as soon as the laundry was finished, we fueled the boat and Michael arrived. When the last load went into the washer Dad disconnected the hose and we began getting ready. A few minutes before Michael was due in we headed towards the fuel dock. Unfortunately, a fishing boat had the same idea. The fenders were down on the port side and the crew didn’t want to change them so I swung the boat around and we waited on the public dock.

Within 10 minutes of her touchdown, Michael was walking towards us. She bought “Uncle Merman” a pair of boots like the ones that the rest of us had purchased for the trip. Her timing was perfect because the night before Dad was threatening to take a knife to his boots to shorten them. We have come to appreciate why the rubber boot is the official footwear of Alaska.

When the fishing vessel finished the crew still didn’t want to change the fenders so I did a full spin of the boat and we did another port docking. It is funny how Dad and Wendy as crew are less excited about moving fenders and more demanding about the skipper maneuvering the boat. The rules are certainly different from when they were at the helm.

Wendy had been at the helm since we departed Juneau with Michael serving as the co-pilot. Dad was keeping himself busy ‘fixing stuff’, I’ve always known that I was a busy person but after spending a month with him I now know where I get it!  When we rounded Point Retreat, the Simbalaut was the furthest north that she has ever been at N 58.41.151.

The whales put on quite a show for us. The salmon were jumping and the humps were breaching, flapping their fins and giving us the flip of their tails as they dove.  As we approached Funter Bay, Wendy slowed up so we could fish our way, Dad always ready to fish grabbed a pole and within 5 minutes she was yelling “fish on”. Michael raced to the back of the boat to observe as Wendy reeled it in. Wendy’s fish arrived at the boat before Dad had the other gear up and was ready with the net. Michael asked, “Now what, do we net it?”  Dad, who we had nicknamed “Big Chief”, said “just grab the line and throw it in the boat”, so that is exactly what Michael did. With one fell swoop, the fish was 10 feet in the air and on the swim step flopping around with no hooks. Chief was more than just a bit shocked, the angler was speechless and poor “Miss Overachiever” was stunned. Dad jumped on to the swim step to try and get between the fish and the deep blue sea. Super salmon did a back flip on the swim step, hit the transom and off he swam. We had a great laugh. All the gear when back in the water and we were back to fishing. Wendy had a streak of hooking them and not getting them in the boat so we started calling her “Hook’em no catch’em”. We got one silver and one pink in the box and headed to anchor down.

Admiralty Island is noticeably different than the mainland that we’ve had on our starboard side for the past two weeks. The island is much lower in height and more rolling hills than the sharp tall walls that we have been experiencing.

As we lie on anchor we could see salmon jumping around the boat. The rain had started while we were fishing but that didn’t stop us from fishing off the back of the boat while Chief took a nap. When the tide changed, we noticed that our anchor wasn’t holding well as we wanted, so we move to the other cove in the bay that reportedly had better holding.   

The other bay was more exposed, but our Alaskan experience had taught us that the wind that we were experiencing should be short lived. After dinner Wendy and I headed in the dinghy to get the crab pots under darkening skies and with severe wind. After several course debates, we arrived and found them without any keepers.

The rest of the evening was spent training our new crew member and selecting our next destination, Tenakee Springs in Tenakee Inlet. As we prepared to hunker down for the night and things got quieter we could hear the chain dragging across the rocks as we swung around. Our anchor was well set and we had almost 200 feet of chain laid out. As the wind was swinging us around, the chain was dragging across the rocks on the bottom of the bay and the sound was resonating up the chain. The storm that was upon us was the worst that we had experienced since our departure and the sounds from the chain were ominous. Dad and Wendy decided to stop the noise by applying an anchor bridle. It was a good call because once we were all hunkered down the sounds of the water slapping on the boat could be heard by everyone. Wendy said that she thinks they sound like ‘fairy kisses’. Shortly, we were all mesmerized by the rhythm of the ‘fairy kisses’ and fast asleep.