This morning, we woke up to a pretty nice day. We wanted to head up El Capitan Pass and find the caves but the cruising guide said we needed a reservation with the Forrest Service. We had been trying to call them whenever we had a cell signal but couldn’t get an answer. It was 1 hr. each way and, although, it would have been scenic ride, we decided it wasn’t worth it only to get denied access. So, we decided to head for Craig and do some Halibut fishing along the way. Val just had to have her Halibut fix…she loves to catch Halibut and has been asking for days to go again. I told her we have to wait until we can get it frozen and shipped home. Our little boat can only handle so many frozen fish and we’re already at capacity.
As we cruised out of our little cove, Tanner spotted a deer swimming between islands! We cruised up beside him and got some video and pictures. He was pretty freaked out so we left him on his commute and continued on our way.
Half an hour later, we had our anchor set in 150’ and drifted back off the knob to about 300’ of depth. Val and I dropped our Halibut gear. Much to Val’s surprise, I actually caught a fish! Yes, even me! (She got skunked!) Sure enough, within 15 minutes, I was reeling up my catch. It turned out to be 4.5’ long and weighed 73 pounds! The harpoon worked great and it thrashed around beside the boat and splashed us all. We had a good time getting him bled and inside the boat. High fives around! 
As we were fishing, the whole time, there were half a dozen Orca Whales (Killer Whales) swimming not too far away. Val saw them do a full body breach a couple of times. I was busy cleaning my big Halibut. Catching Halibut is fun but it only took 30 minutes to catch him and land him and 2 hours to clean him, clean the goo off the boat, package him up, and get him in the cooler. That’s big work! (But still fun!)
Our boat smells really fishy, for some odd reason!?!? So, Cody and I got out the buckets, soap, brushes, and started cleaning. We opened all the hatches, scrubbed the bilges, and got all the blood, scales, and goo off the boat. Now it only smells moderately fishy!
Cruising to Craig, we saw many more Humpback whales, dolphins, seals, and sea otters.
The clouds and rain are here again, which I don’t mind…it cleans the salt off the boat.
We got to Craig mid-afternoon and took on fuel and water. Val and Cody went to the Laundromat and Connor and kept working on cleaning and organizing the boat. I can tell we’ve been on board for over a month already. Surprisingly, everything is working great, everyone is getting along wonderfully, and we’re all having a great time. This has been the best vacation ever, by far, at least for me.
The boat is clean. The laundry is done. The fish are being frozen overnight at the grocery store. (We’ll ship it all home from Ketchikan.) All is well in our world. We hope it is in yours too!
Once we got out into Chatham Straight, we could run on plane but had to use radar as well. We had about a 70 mile day planned and I was hoping the fog wouldn’t come back. Every mile we cruised, it got brighter until the sun broke out at the ocean turned to flat glass. Wow! What a nice day this turned out to be. 
Then we headed for Warren Cove to check out a beach I had read about in the cruising guide, but, as usual, the day got away from us, again. Whales, right in our path, just had to be visited. We sat right in the middle of a couple of pods of Humpbacks feeding. They bubble fed time and time again. 
Several of them swam right beside our boat, within maybe 70-100 feet. The sounds and sights are amazing but the smells are kind of disgusting. Every time they blow, it smells like rotten fish…bad breath! (Of course, by now, our boat smells like rotten fish too. I finally threw all the rotting fish heads overboard. I had been saving them for crab bait but I’m giving up on catching crab until we get further south.) 
Mom and Cody played football with the dogs. Connor made sand castles, bridges, and dams. I walked around with the cameras capturing it all. The sun was warm and it felt great to go for a nice walk and stretch our legs. The dogs ran like wild animals! The tide was rising over the warm sand so Cody decided to go for a swim. He did it…not for very long but he swam in the Alaskan waters! He also found a hidden treasure…a rope that was attached to something buried in the sand. He dug and pulled and rigged up levers to get that treasure up. He finally concluded it was just an old fish net but it kept us intrigued for quite a while. 
It was after 7PM and we hadn’t even found our anchorage yet. Val had a wonderful halibut meal planned for us, so we found Cyrus Cove, about 30 minutes away and were anchored securely by 8PM. The days are sure getting shorter the further south and east we go. It’s dark here now by 11PM. 
After our crab and “leftovers” lunch at the dock, we cruised about another hour down to Red Bluff Bay. It was really foggy and we ran on radar most of the way. Red Bluff is an amazing bay. It reminds me of Yellowstone and also of Ford’s Terror. We set our hook on the first try at the head of the bay beside a waterfall and a river. 
By the time I got back to the boat, the boys had the shrimp and crab pots down and were finished with the dinghy so I thought I’d try powering up the creek. The tide was out and the current proved too much for the dinghy. More rocks on the prop! Ouch! I drifted into the shallows and waded up the stream pulling the dinghy. I finally beached it and walked as far as I could before giving up. My goal was to make it back to the lake and try for some Cutthroat Trout. There were fresh bear tracks everywhere!
As I walked back to my dinghy, I could see salmon running up stream so I started casting. What do you know? I caught two nice salmon but, again, I wasn’t sure what kind they were and I didn’t know if they were any good if they were spawning. That was so much fun; standing in the creek with my boots on, in the rain, casting for those salmon. When they hit, they fought hard jumping out of the water, flipping around, and running downstream. What an adrenaline rush.
So, back to the boat to check the book and butcher them to see if they were any good. Darn it! We found out they were Chum Salmon. I think they rate about like the Pinks. The meat looked good so we vacuumed them up and stuck them in the cooler. I hope we don’t end up with a bunch of yucky fish. I really want to get into the Kings, Cohos, and Sockeyes! 
Well, it’s 9PM. Time for devos and poker. Have a great night!
We really had a lot of action. We fished for about 3 hours and ended up keeping 2 Rock Fish, 4 Cohos, and 2 Kings! We must have lost half a dozen others and threw back that many as well. We all took turns fighting the fish while the others pulled up the down riggers and netted the fish. It was a great team effort and everyone really had a great time, except Tanner who was leashed up in the cabin. He’d have been in the water in a split second at any sighting of a fish. Boy, did he whine! He could hardly stand it; he wanted to be where the action was so bad. 
These are really the first ocean-run salmon we caught this year. While we appreciate the “sympathy salmon” from Ken, these were ours! We caught them! Wow! Finally! We had to wait long enough, but God answered Connor’s prayer for “lots of salmon today.” The Kings were an extra special blessing! 
After fishing, we had another 45 minute cruise to our beautiful little anchorage in DeGroff Bay, (where we left the crab and shrimp traps on Monday,) and Val cooked dinner while I cleaned the fish. We feasted on crab and recounted the day, play by play. What a great day it was. Everyone rated it amongst the best of the trip so far.
