Day 41 ~ Appleton Cove to Red Buff Bay

We were up around 9:00 a.m. and began our morning routine of pulling the anchor. The weather was beautiful, back to the sun screen we went. We had an easy transit to Baranof Warm Springs. It is very interesting how with each new crew member we go through retraining, where are my SOPs when I need them. We introduced Thor to flaking the anchor chain, breakfast smoothies and cranwater which he didn’t like.

When we approached Baranof Warm Springs, we noticed two rather large yachts rafted together in one of the coves. It is rare to see boats of their size and to see two of them together were quite a sight. The public dock in Baranof was full so we went to a cove just a short distance from the waterfall. After three attempts to set the stern anchor in the deep cove Dad got frustrated. He took the anchor to shore in the dinghy with three lines including the shrimp line and buried the anchor behind a big rock.

We raced over to the public dock in the dinghy with adult beverages and towels in hand headed to the hot springs. At the dock, there were several small cabins that were sliding into the bay. Funny…..they were all for sale. The locals had spent an amazing amount of energy building elevated walkways to the numerous cabins and to the public bath houses. There was also a crew that was actively working on a lodge at the base of the waterfall.

We climbed higher and higher through the woods along a beautiful walk full of lovely landscape parallel to the waterfall for about a half mile. Finally, we found a break in the railing and a hand carved note that said ‘Hot’ and an arrow. Dad offered to be the scout that went ahead to verify the note. Soon he returned announcing success… he had found the hot pools. Thor doesn’t have any feelings in his feet so it was a bigger challenge for him to trek through the woods, over the stumps, roots and rocks to the edge of the waterfall.

The magnificent pools were at least 105 degrees and they came right up to the edge of the waterfall that was raging past us, down the side of the mountain that we had just climbed. It was so beautiful up there that we took several pictures before heading back to the boat. The hike back was far easier because it was all downhill.

Back at the boat, Dad went off to retrieve the stern anchor and Thor and I prepared the boat for departure. Like a fine oiled machine everything was working according to plan until Dad started hollering at me to stop. Apparently, I departed a bit too swiftly and he wasn’t able to get the dinghy tied off.  By the time I had the big boat turned around I could see that the little boat was moving in the wind and current rapidly towards the shore. It was undesirable to go swimming so I decided that a quick capture of the dinghy line would be in my best interest. Dad and Thor moved quickly to the bow pulpit with the boat hook. Dad was able to catch the line on the dinghy. Thor, however, in the process of helping knocked off his size 14 shoe into the water. The shoe became rescue # 2, which was far more difficult. Fortunately, it didn’t sink and Dad was pretty handy with a boat hook.  

After we left Baranof I suggested that we stop and catch dinner or they were going to get frozen chicken for dinner. The boat stopped, lines went in the water and salmon was in the cooler in less than 10 minutes.

Near the entrance of the Red Bluff we had read that prawns were plentiful, so we set the prawns pots. Our desired anchorage was 6.8 miles back into the bay. We were shocked to find nine yachts in our anchorage. The most since we began this trip, so much for staying at the most popular locations. When we returned from our evening dinghy ride we found a 40 foot log entangled in our anchor chain. We roped the log and proceeded to drag it out away from the boats while tons of bugs attacked us.