Sitka Soaks

We had to get to Sitka. It's just a place that represents SE Alaska. Sitka sits among lots of little islands and inlets just off the Gulf of Alaska. This is the furthest west we will venture on our summer circle. 

From Tenakee we rounded into Chatham Strait and turned west into the Peril Strait -- another one of those names that makes you think you have bitten off more than you can chew. The Peril Strait is a narrow stretch of water between Baranof and Chichagof Islands. It was a nice-ish day, and we made the 6-hour journey to Appleton Harbor, greeted once again by a grizzly in the grass flats at the head of the inlet. Lots of boaters use Appleton to rest, sleep, or wait for the tide and current to change in Sergius Narrows. About the size of a big river, the 20-mile stretch down to Sitka has to be timed carefully. We've been through a few tidal rapids, and Kelly always gets the timing just right. She did this time as well. The problem was we overslept. We couldn't get to the rapid in time for slack water, and that meant we had to wait another 6 hours for the next window. We drifted along, caught some rock fish for dinner, and took Jay to a beach. Still, we arrived a little before the water went slack. Conveniently a local boat passed us towing a giant canoe...and he was heading for Canoe Passage (imagine that!) .... a sneak route through the rapids that the "book" says "do not attempt without local knowledge." We fell in behind him and followed a tribal canoe boat through the whirlpools and around the rocky areas. Flushed us right out at the bottom of the rapids, no problem. 

Pushing on until 8 PM, we found ourselves in a slip in Sitka surrounded by some really big and odorous fishing boats. We were too tired to do anything, so we had a brinner (breakfast dinner), and went to bed. But first...Jay did get a quick trip up the dock for a well-earned patch of grass. He had a long day of boating and fishing, and at some point during the day, he decided he'd just do a poo-pee on his artificial grass door mat on deck. He pees there all the time, but never a poo-pee. I think he was surprised when he got a treat for taking care of business in such an unnatural way. We now have a cow dog that pretty much shits and pees on command...almost anywhere - could be useful, right? 

All was good in Sitka. It rained, or should I say soaked, the world for 3 solid days. Not the kind of rain you can protect yourself from. This was like being in a cloud. It rarely dropped like rain; it continuously soaked you from every direction. Still, we got a lot of boat stuff done, laundry, shopping, a couple of wet walks, and a very nice meal at a gourmet restaurant.  (Kel: tarragon prawn pasta; Ralf: Alaskan seafood paella with crispy black squid ink rice). A sign in the city park warned everyone that an active brown bear was in the woods. The smell from the big fishing boats got worse every day. Russians built some of the houses. Gotta love Sitka. It soaked so much, I don't think I took a single picture. Just picture yourself in cloud. 

We came back through the Narrows and Peril Strait to the east side of Baranof Island. The east coast of this island gets a lot of praise, so we want to see what it's all about.