June 11, 2025
Marguerite Lake
We left YES Bay at 10AM this morning. It was a minus tide at 0730 and we decided to let the tide rise a bit before we attempted to cruise through two skinny parts of the inlet. Straight up, as we pulled the anchor it jammed at 65 feet just like the day before. Fortunately, Marlene had a sleepless night thinking about this problem. “OK Greg if this happens again I want you to snub the chain as close to the bow of the boat as you can. Then, take the chain that is stuck in the windless and gently pull it up and drop it down into the anchor locker.” I did exactly that and “Volia” the anchor came up with no issue. Sharing this issue with several boating friends we believe the issue is the anchor chain is bunching up in the locker preventing the last of the chain to enter. This is apparently a known issue when you pail out 300 feet of chain. The solution next time is to bring in about half of the chain then have Anchor Girl (that would be Marlene) go to the locker in our stateroom and push the chain back so the remaining chain can easily cascade into the locker. Stay tuned on this one.
After exiting Yes Bay the waters in Behm Canal just outside of Spacious Bay were really stirred up with white caps but it didn’t last long and as soon as we passed that area the seas were as smooth as glass. As we approached the public US Forest Service Dock in Traitors Cove we were keeping our fingers crossed we could find an open space on the dock or on the one buoy in the bay. Once we were in the harbor we immediately knew we had the entire dock to ourselves. (There is now one small boat on the dock. A couple of hunters who are going camping for the night).
Once we were settled in we decided to go on the 2 mile trek to the Bear Viewing area. During the height of the season (July and August) this is a very popular spot because it is one of the few places open to the public were you can see the black bears feeding on the spawning salmon. So, bear spray and rattle can in hand we began our journey.
”Marlene, watch out. That is fresh, hot SKAT. Be BEAR AWARE!!!
No worries, we made it to the observation site and there were no bears in sight. Why would there be when two old people rattle their coke cans filled with rocks to no end and are ARMED with bear spray! Ha, ha. We then followed the signs to Lake Marguerite and were treated to one of the most amazing vistas we have encountered in Alaska. Just beautiful!
Fortunately we didn’t see any bears and actually the only animals were these three young deers who were wondering what all the racket was about!
Tomorrow we are off to NaHa Bay where we hope to score another public dock and go for a walk. After being on a boat for five days with no land it felt great to get out and walk.
