Ideal Cove
After a successful shakedown cruise, we headed back to Petersburg for a few days.
A boating friend’s daughter is getting married this weekend. We take advantage of the time at the docks to also do some more provisioning for the summer. Our primary mode of transportation is walking. Luckily the grocery store and Post Office are only a mile up the hill. Several trips are made with our loaded backpacks for the resupply.
Jeff volunteered to help set up the wedding reception tent. It turned out to be a bigger job than he expected as the directions were lacking. After a few hours of working in the rain, with the help of two others the tent was firmly in place.
The weather cooperated on Saturday and it was a beautiful outdoor wedding. Congratulations to Lizzy and Justin!
That evening the reception was held at the Sons of Norway Hall. The barbecue spread of crab and shrimp dip, King Salmon, and Black Cod was amazing. As were the wedding cakes!
We also managed to get in a few hikes while in town.
Hiking along the muskeg is one of our favorite loop hikes in Petersburg. The skunk cabbage was in full bloom.
After three days in town, we are heading out again to a nearby anchorage, Ideal Cove. The cove is appropriately named as it has great scenery, good protection from winds, and also good crabbing. As we are exiting the harbor, we see the small cruise ship, Safari Endeavor, anchored just off Petersburg. They must be shuttling people into town by their inflatable ribs.
The Steller Sea Lions seem to be fussing at us as we make our way into Frederick Sound.
It is a short trip of only 18 miles to our anchorage. We are surprised at the amount of ice flowing out of the LeConte Glacier.
Luckily, no other boats are at our anchorage.
We quickly set out our two crab pots and let them soak overnight. The next morning we are rewarded will full pots. We take only 6 male crabs as that is our limit being out of state residents. We let the others soak until tomorrow.
In another month this anchorage will be full of commercial crab pots. The commercial season starts June 15th. We are able to limit out each day and have some great dinners aboard IT. The crabs are nice and big although some are soft shell and don’t have as much meat.
While setting our crab traps one afternoon, we see another boat heading into our anchorage. What a surprise to see it is our friends Neal and Lynn on Navigator who have traveled up to Alaska for the summer from Seattle. What fun to have our two Krogens together.
We spend the afternoon with Lynn and Neal bushwhacking thru the forrest trying to find a route to connect the anchorage to the hiking trails located just a mile away.
We come within ¼ mile of the hiking trail before turning back. We don’t want to leave the dinghies too long as the tide is falling and we sure don’t want to be stranded ashore. Even though we didn’t find a shortcut to the trail, it was a nice hike thru the forrest. We saw lots of moose and bear scat but no live animals. We did come upon several muskeg meadows which were quite enjoyable.
It’s time to head back to town for a few days to attend the Little Norway festival. I’ll write more on that in the next blog. Thanks for following along.
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