Around Revillagigedo Island (continued)

Where there are brown bears-NOT

Rudyerd Bay is another long inlet, but while it notches its way to the east, there is a cove that connects it called Punchbowl Cove.  That’s where I decided to anchor.  It would allow me to take the dinghy and visit the other parts of Rudyerd at a much faster pace than BB.

Island Packet motorsailor

Which is what I did…after anchoring in somewhat deep water near a boat that was tied up to a government buoy (which is much more civilized).  This boat was a Island Packet Cruiser, a motorsailor much like mine, but much newer.  He had the biggest solar panel configuration I've seen on a boat, putting out something like 450 watts – mine just puts out 160 watts.  But it took up a big part of his roof top.  The Island Packet was one of the boats that I was considering purchasing, but I ended up liking the style of the NE400 better.  The IP is the same length and same horsepower, but narrower, probably getting better fuel mileage.

Happy driver

Rudyerd Cove was so big, that driving through it in my little 10’ dinghy, moving along at 15 knots or better, surrounded by towering, waterfall-lined cliffs going up thousands of feet, was intimidating, as well as awe-inspiring and humbling. The whole place made Yosemite feel like another day in an average national park.  Around every corner that I would turn, there would be another fantastic display of fiord-land. I took a lot of pics, but, again, they don’t do justice in how small I felt compared to these huge and dramatic glacier-made works of nature.

In turning towards the very end arm, I saw from very far away what looked like a couple of small boats.  As I got nearer, I found out that they were large boats – cruising trawlers tied up together under one anchor line.  Since there was virtually no wind, that wasn’t a problem.  I met the two captains cruising around in their inflatable and we stopped and chatted. They mentioned that there was a brown bear in the valley, but he/she just left: "you really missed it."  Damn!  I was too late – and here I had my telephoto lens and everything.  Well, as they say, doing nature photography is 80% patience, and 20% skill…sadly, both of which I am lacking.

There was a large contingent of ocean kayak paddlers, roaming Rudyerd, obviously in good shape because the bay was a good 8 miles deep – and they all were camping out in Punch Bowl.  They had a lean-to, and all of their kayaks were beached.  It looked like they were well organized and had a nice camp.

The next day (June 8^th) was cloudy and bleak, compared to the beautiful day before, with a goodly south wind.  BB went out to the middle of Behm Canal to look at one of the famous landmarks called Eddie Stone Rock, reminding me of the song my Dad used to sing to us when we were kids (and I think my brother Bill used to sing to his kids as well) called the "Eddie Stone Light".  In fact, Vancouver named it after that lighthouse in England, built in 1698, the first light house to be built on an exposed rock barely above sea level.  In certain angles, the rock does look like a lighthouse.  I thought I'd share the song with you (helping make room for all of the pics that I'm attaching).

Looks like a lighthouse from here

Oh, me father was the keeper of the Eddie Stone Light

And he slept with a mermaid one fine night.

And from this union there came three:

A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me.

Chorus:

And a yo-ho-ho...the wind blows free

Such is the life on the rolling sea.

One day as I was a-trimmin the glim*

Humming a tune from the evening hymn

Hmm, from here it looks like a big....

A voice from the starboard shouted "a-hoy!"

And there was my mother a-sitting on a buoy.

Chorus

"Well what has become of my children three?"

My mother then she asked of me.

One was exhibited as a talking fish

The other was served in a chafing dish.

Chorus

The phospherous flashed in her seaweed hair
I looked again and me mother wasn't there.
But her voice came echoing out of the night
"To hell with the keeper of the Eddie Stone Light!"

Chorus

Our last anchorage on my round-Revillagigedo-tour was Shoalwater Passage; an appropriately named place, especially when passing slowly over one of the shoals, I hit a rock.  Not hard, but enough to jar the boat.  No leaks, but I think on the next sunny day, I will need to don my wetsuit and take a good look below the keel to see how bad the dents are that I'm collecting on the keel.  The anchorage in Shoalwater is around a small island in the passage where there is a little wood cabin on shore.  Since the wind was blowing hard out of the south, I decided to chill out and read.  Another 3 boats had the same thoughts and joined me in the cove.

Rudyerd Bay - bad shot

The next day, at about 5:30am (at absolutely high tide), we left and headed out in a grey, overcast day heading against a slight SE wind.  I left the Misty Fiords in a lot of mist, but thankful that the most scenic of the area was spent in beautiful sunshine.

40 miles later, I’m back here in Ketchikan to pick up another set of kayak racks that I had ordered, to change the oil, to get a bit more groceries, and to send this blog.  I’m docked next to a bunch of commercial fishing boats, all of them getting ready for the start of commercial king salmon fishing out in Sitka which starts in July.  Lots of activity! 

When I climb up the steep ramp (low tide), I chat with the nice harbormaster guys there and describe the beautiful weather that I had at Misty Fiords.  One of the guys looks at me and says: “Did you have a lot of bugs with all of that sunshine and warmth?”  I say no, and then he smiles and says: “then you really had a good day!”

My next port-o-call will be Wrangell.  I’m sure to have lots of places to see in between.

* Old English word meaning a source of light such as a candle or oil lamp.  Wicks of whale oil lamps were frequently trimmed to ensure the light shone steadily without flare-ups which could be misinterpreted as a flash and to reduce the carbon deposits on the interior of the lamp’s lens.  The fresnel lense would magnify and brighten the light enough to be seen from 24 miles away.