July 5, 2022 - Tenakee Springs

July 05, 2022

It was a lumpy ride up Chatham Strait to Tenakee Springs with 3’ seas and 30 kt gusts. We were going with the wind, but against the tide … henceforth the seas. But we were surfing with them which made it an easier transit. En-route we saw Humpback whales, as well as a group of Orca, breaching the water. As we turned into Tenakee Inlet the winds eased and we had an easy docking on the outside of the transient dock. And returning to the dock was the charter boat, Northern Dreams, who passed us heading down Chatham with his bow getting buried into the waves. Talking with the Captain, Jim, he confirmed it was too uncomfortable for his six passengers and decided to return to Tenakee Springs.

After we settled in the winds kicked up and we had a lumpy ride out to drop the pots across the Inlet to Khadashan Bay where we dropped two pots. We felt it was too lumpy that evening to return to collect them, but Jim’s crew provided us with 1 ½ crab as they had plenty for dinner.

The next morning, we collected our pots and found 7 and 8 large crabs. Not as many as last year, but all large. We kept our 3 each and headed back to the boat leaving only one crab pot to collect in the morning. After taking care of cleaning and cooking the crab, we took a short walk to the store to collect some groceries. Along the way we met a very nice local, Stan Johnson (retired forestry), who walked the way with us. Returning we met Chuck and Sandy Hagerdorn(sp) of Gig Harbor on Royal Chinook. And yes, they know Mark and Roseanne Tilden. Also, on the dock we met Bob & Lynda Braunstein on Theory and Roger and Lynn on a Bavaria sailboat.

Bought fuel for the tender, and spare cans: 17.8 gal at $4.61/gal.

As we headed out in the morning, we stopped to pull up our one remaining pot which had five crabs in it with the largest one being 8 ½” – HUGE!!!