15th June. Swanson Harbor to Neka Bay. 28 miles

Amber and Ben going for a swim

The following morning we were told off by Katya for our appalling behavior. Our clothes smelt of fire smoke and we felt a little jaded. Ben and Amber were up surprisingly early – perhaps they were still jetlagging – and decided to go for a swim. Now I know that they are from Scotland, which is on a similar latitude but here we had snow capped mountains. We were but a short distance from Glacier Bay, so named after is many Glaciers. The water is frigid. Amber hopped in without a second thought. Everybody was impressed. Ben, brave as he is needed a little encouragement in the form of a shove from Amber. Unfortunately for Ben as he went in off the front of the dinghy the dinghy went the other way making a swim back to the dinghy quite a way. We watched on as Ben gasped for air and Amber paddled towards him to retrieve his frozen body. Again we were all impressed by Ben’s bravery all without the aid of whiskey. Hot showers and cinnamon rolls for those two I think!               

Burt the Aussie Fimo man

We departed Swanson at 10am and raised the sails soon after leaving the bay. It was sunny with a slight breeze so we decided that it would be a good day to try our luck as trolling for salmon. The trolling did not yield any salmon so we dropped the hook off Spasski Island and tried our luck at Halibut. No Halibut but Amber and Ben did catch 8 good sized Pollock, which Jude quickly filleted and would be tonight’s supper. The weather remained sunny and the temperature reached 22c which is amazing given we were sailing in waters known as Icy Strait.

We continued on into Port Patrick, past Hoonah and into Neka bay where we anchored at the end of the bay hoping to see bears. We used the remains of the fish for crab bait and I set the trap in about 25 foot of water. The midges and black flies here were so bad. Swarms would surround you if you went outside the cockpit enclosure so we stayed inside all evening whilst we ate today’s catch.