26th July. Didrickson Bay to Kalinin Bay. 34 miles

The Duren’s had their revenge the next morning with Ben and Amber being rudely awoken by Steve and Sandy playing the Didgeridoo, harmonica and chucka-chucka eggs in their cabin. We departed for Kalinin Bay and what promised to be another lumpy ride down the coast. We took the smooth water route as much as we could, travelling down Surveyor Passage, Ogden passage and Smooth Channel before entering into the Pacific.  A whale surfaced about 300 feet ahead of us in Ogden channel only in about 60ft of water.

We tried our hand at fishing for salmon again off the north coast of Kruzof Island, a reported “hot Spot” but no luck was to be had. 

We spotted a Nordhaven motor boat in the distance and wondered if it might be our friends, Josh and Natasha, on Samba, whom we met in Sandborn Canal earlier in the summer. Sure enough the AIS confirmed that it was indeed “Samba”. I tried to Hail Josh on the VHF but no luck.

We arrived at Kalinin bay at about 3.30pm and dropped the hook in the bay with only one other boat in the bay. I think everybody was glad to arrive.   

Later in the afternoon, Josh on Samba anchored in the bay and we had a chat. Natasha had to leave to visit her mother so Josh was on his own with the exception of their golden Labrador Loxie. We agreed to meet up the following day.

27^th June. Kalinin Bay.  

We decided to have a rest day and take a hike before heading on to Sitka. Josh had told us about a great hike to Sea Lion cove which is on the west coast of Kruzof Island. So we dinghied and kayaked over to the trail head and met up with Josh and Loxie. We spotted a brown bear on the opposite side of the channel, luckily the bear was running away from us this time, it did however reminded us that we were in grizzly country and should take the necessary precautions. 

We all hiked up the trail to the lake, which is about halfway to the cove and Katya, Amber Ben and I carried on whilst the others made their way back. Sea Lion cove has a wonderful long sandy beach, a rarity in this rugged landscape. We beach-combed for a while before discovering the Sitka surfers camp site – hammocks, fire pits, rope swings and rudimentary benches. The walk itself provides a great work out after being on the boat for a few days. The trail is good and the forest service have carved steps into fallen trees and placed boardwalks across the muskeg section of the trail. It’s a fun walk as well, about 4 miles roundtrip with uphill sections to the lake.

We arrived back at the boat to find that other boats had anchored, one of which looked like an interesting sailing boat, probably home-made and painted matt black. The boat had a number of children aboard and Jude went off to introduce ourselves. She came back later with an invitation to go and eat a king salmon supper! The boat’s skipper, Alan originated from Scotland and was bringing his children and two others for an art camp in Sitka. They had caught a king salmon just on the entrance to Kalinin Bay, where we had been fishing the previous day. Well done to them. Jude, Ben, Amber and Katya went over to Alan’s boat later in the evening and chatted with the children or should I say “young adults”