Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - It was time to move on and as much as we have enjoyed Ketchikan, it was time to get away from the docks. Last night I had spent some time with Michael Mills (Kelly Bay) to get his input based on his experiences. Michael had been a commercial float plane pilot for over 20 years before acquiring the Kelley Bay a 64' custom built boat. He now provides crewed yacht charter cruises along the Inside Passage through Canada and Southeast Alaska aboard the Kelly Bay. Definitely a man with a lot of local knowledge. We had thought about back tracking south and entering into the eastern arm of the Behm Canal and the Misty Fjords National Monument and circumnavigating Revillagigedo Island which would be about 100 mile trek. Michael had suggested that given this time of year the Fjords tend to be extra "misty" and the western arm of the channel had better anchorages and shrimp and crabbing. We left Ketchikan at 9:15 am heading up the Tongass Narrows across Clarence Strait to the Behm Canal. Our destination was Yes Bay, which Mike had recommended for crab and shrimp. We were almost to the entrance when a storm came up from the west directly behind us bringing dark clouds and strong winds. We negotiated through the navigation hazards (rocks) and into the inner basin of Yes Bay. We dropped anchor and waited until the storm passed over to drop the crab pots. The storm passed over quickly and we launched the dinghy and selected two different locations to drop the pots and test out the bait were purchased in Ketchikan. We went back 3 hours later to full the pot. Bob said it was really heavy and we should have a great dinner tonight. When we got the pot to the surface only to find one of the largest starfish I had ever seen in my life. Bob had to completely disassemble the pot to get it out. We moved the pot to another location and left them out for the night. We headed back to the boat to enjoy the evening and watch the eagles and seals in the bay.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Woke up to a beautiful sunny day and were enjoying our morning coffee, when we heard a seaplane circle overhead. The outer part of Yes Bay contains Yes Bay Lodge which was getting ready to open for the summer season and perhaps the plane was checking us out before landing at the lodge. The plane circled again, landed and beached on the shore behind us which contained what we thought was an abandoned work skiff. Three men emerged, one of them carrying a very large shot gun, and went towards the boat. We watched as the man carrying the gun crouched down and began loading the rifle. We were not sure what to think. Jim and Karen had gone to get their crab pot and decided to check out what was going on. It turned out that they were from the Dept of Game and Fisheries and were here to check on the fish levels at Lake McDonald. Yes Bay used to have a tramway that ran from the lake to the bay but it no longer exists and a helicopter is used to move the work boat from the bay to the lake. Sure enough a helicopter appeared to pick up the work boat and we watched it disappear over the horizon. We all had planned on hiking to the lake on a trail located behind the lodge so we packed up our assortment of boots (hiking and mud) and headed to the lodge. The workers at lodge told us the trail was still quite wet and we definitely would want to be wearing our mud boots (a. k. a. Alaska sneakers). It was good advice because the trail was so wet in places that you would sink up to your ankles in the mud. The forest was amazing, it is hard to describe the beauty that surrounded us. We did cross paths with one of the Dept of Fisheries workers (the one carrying the gun) and found out that his job was to protect the divers from the bears that inhabited the area. He said that there were seven bears inhabiting the area and fortunately he had not YET had to discharge his gun. We continued forward to the lake but decided it may be better to follow him back down the trail as none of us had any bear deterrent with us. We headed back to the boats and on to the chore of picking up the crab pots. The pots were full of Dungeness crabs and we had at least a dozen keepers but decided to keep only half of them. We removed our bounty added more bait and then headed back to get the pot boiling and enjoy our first crab feed of the trip. They were delicious and as we were finishing up our dinner we heard a conversation over the VHF of two boats entering into Yes Bay and were trying to hail the lodge (which was not yet open). One of the voices sounded familiar and it was Bob and Cheryl (Kasekuchen) with a new Celine travel partner. We told them that there was plenty of room in the inner bay and come join us. It was late and they were tired so Bob took them over some crabs for their dinner to reciprocate for all the cookies that Cheryl had given us. We told them that we were heading out in the morning and they would have they bay entirely to themselves.
Thursday, May 25, 2006 - It is 9:30 am and raining as we are leaving Yes Bay. We have decided to head back down the Behm Canal and head further north. We may return and explore it further on our way back south in August. Our destination is Meyers Chuck on the east side of the Clarence Strait. There is a state operated float that we can tie to and a unique art gallery that features a wide variety of work from local artisans. When we arrived at 2:30 pm we found the dock was full of Grand Banks (mother duck Brian Pemberton and his brood of 7 charter boats). We met Brian at the Alaska seminar we took in March and he runs a charter company (NW Explorations) out or Bellingham, WA, which consists of Grand Banks of varying lengths. There are four legs in his Inside Passage cruise, each one with a new set of captains and crew. The first leg was from Bellingham to Ketchikan and we had crossed paths with them in Prince Rupert. It became a running joke to get to a destination before all the Grand Banks took up the moorage. This was the second leg group that was heading from Ketchikan to Juneau. Kelly Bay was also tied up to the dock, and other boats were rafted, two deep. We had no choice but to anchor out in the harbor which was some what of a challenge given its rocky bottom. We finally got the anchor to set on the second try, and decided to for go the art gallery and make it an early night and get a head start on the Grand Banks entourage in the morning as we headed to Wrangell.
