Out to the Ocean!

From Dundas Bay (part of Glacier Bay National Park), we headed to the small village of Elfin Cove. To get there we passed through the beautiful Inian Islands and saw a horde of sea lions churning up the water as they actively fished. We also had to briefly cross open ocean, but very calm on this day. Both boats got space at the dock in Elfin Cove, home to several fishing lodges. A boardwalk encircles the cove (no roads) which made a nice walk for us. We had a beautiful view from our boat of a glacier across Icy Strait. Also, we were just down the dock from the seaplanes landing to take away happy fishermen and their big boxes of fish.

Seaplane leaving Elfin Cove

The next day we headed out into open ocean again to head down to another inlet named Lisianski and went about twenty miles to another small village named Pelican. The harbormaster greeted us at the dock and described the town’s recent economic decline and how services had been curtailed. For example, the Laundromat and grocery store are now closed. The docks, however, were solid and the residents very friendly. We had dinner at the local bar and grill (the infamous Rose’s) and were shocked that it allowed smoking. Once again, “Main Street” was a boardwalk.

View from our moorage in Pelican

Back up the inlet to Elfin Cove the next day to spend more time there. Rod and I bought a 12# king salmon from a fisherman on the dock. After we got it cut up and put in our freezer, we got out the kayaks and had a lovely paddle—even peaking our noses out into the ocean just a bit.

General store in Elfin Cove

After studying the tide tables, we set out the next morning to try to catch some bottomfish, especially halibut. No luck, so on to Point Adolphus again to do some whale watching. We had the best show ever! We had headed toward two other boats that were drifting, including a tour boat with cruise ship passengers on it. The three boats soon became surrounded by 12+ humpbacks which were swimming and diving in pairs and threesomes. It was thrilling! Rod got a great video.

Humpback Whales

Back to Hoonah where the highlight was a salmon dinner. We used John and Roxie’s barbeque and the fish was delicious!

Today we start our trip down to Sitka to meet Patrick and Natalie for 4^th of July. There are lots of places to stop in the meantime.

Signing out,

Susan, Rod, and Katie