Monday, July 3, - Tuesday, July 4, 2006 - We lifted anchor at 8:15 am and head into Ernest Sound. Rather than return to Meyer's Chuck (see Chapter 6) we headed across Clarence Strait to Thorne Bay on the eastside of Prince of Whales Island. We had read an article in Pacific Yachting and it was described as being "off the beaten path" so we decided to see for ourselves. I also forgot to mention that we are have had sunshine for 4 days now and it is forecasted to continue for a few more days. Entering into Thorne Bay, you pass by a number of floating homes and fishing lodges where float planes are their main source of transportation. The "city" of Thorne Bay is located in the northwest arm of the bay and we moored at the Thorne Bay Harbor Dock at 11:45am. We were pleasantly surprised to find space available given the long holiday weekend. On Tuesday morning we launched the dingy and set out to explore the area. We headed to McFarland's Floatel and Baskets and Bullets the store that had been mentioned in the article. We greeted by Jim McFarland the owner and were graciously invited in and offered a cup of coffee. His wife Jeannie is a Northwest Fiber Artist, well known for her Pine Needle Raffia Basketry. The Floatel consists of beachfront cabins, a lodge with a meeting room, kitchen and sleeping quarters as well as the charter boat services and skiff rentals. If that was not enough to keep them busy, the also own and operate an Evinrude/Johnson outboard sales and service facility for the area. We chatted with them for about an hour and they invited us to return later and join them in their 4th of July Pot-Luck with some of their other neighbors. We had a relatively quite 4th of July and enjoyed watching all of the families set off their fireworks from the beaches that evening.
Wednesday, July 5, 2006 - We departed Thorne Bay at 7:15 am under beautiful sunny skies and headed back across the Clarence Strait through the Tongass Narrows and into Ketchikan. We again were treated to numerous whale sightings and and beautiful day. We arrived in Ketchikan at 12:00 noon and were assigned a slip in North Barr Harbor, this time with power. Our only navigational challenge was avoiding the "Duck" Tour Boat that entered into the water at the head of the harbor. As we were approaching our slip, we were berthed next to our friends Bill and Dianne (True Love) and had dinner with them that evening at the Bar Harbour restaurant (another we would highly recommend) and got caught up on their travels. As we were eating, Dave and Heather Ballaine (Gypsy) entered the restaurant and we introduced everyone. Gypsy and True Love had conversed over the NW Boater's Ham Net (which I shamefully admit, we have not done) but had never met. The weather was about to change and a storm was heading in this direction so we planned on leaving early in the am as the forecast for Dixon Entrance East was light to moderate SE winds with seas of 3 feet or less.
