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Shake Down Cruise 2022
It is a rare blue sky day for Alaska as we push away from our stall in Petersburg Harbor. We are heading out for a few days to a nearby anchorage. Since Idyll Time has been winterized for the past six months, we want to test all her systems aboard before we get too far away from home.
The resident sea lions are lounging in their usual spot on the sea buoy. It seems a little top heavy today with sea lions taking up every available spot.
Out in Frederic Sound, we are all alone enjoying the calm seas. Most of the cruisers coming up from Seattle for the summer haven’t arrived yet. They should be here shortly and I am afraid it will be a busy year. Most of the pleasure boaters didn’t come up for the past two years because of the boarder closings due to Covid. Talking with other boaters, it seems everyone is heading to Alaska this year.
It’s not long before we see our first whale sighting of the season! A lone Humpback is feeding along the shore.
We have a short trip of 35 miles today to our anchorage in Portage Bay. We travel a mile up the channel and anchor near the head of the bay. It’s a beautiful spot with the snow capped mountain in the background. Idyll Time preformed great today with no issues emerging from her long winter nap.
Our dinghy, Time Out, is soon deployed to set out our two crab traps.
Surprisingly , we are getting a high temperature alarm on the dinghy motor. Up until now our dinghy has been trouble free. Jeff finds that the engine is not spitting out exhaust water as it should. Further investigation finds a clogged exhaust port. He is able to get the gunk out and now we have water flow again. But we are still getting the alarm!! It’s getting late and we need to get our crab traps out before dark so Jeff hops on the paddle board to deploy the traps. We will work on fixing the dinghy tomorrow.
It was a windy night. Portage is not very protected for SE winds and it blew 20 knots during the night. We didn’t choose our anchorage very well. More attention should have been paid to the weather. We were both up several times during the night to make sure we weren’t dragging anchor. We pull the crab traps this morning only to find them empty. That is disappointing as we know there are crabs in Portage.
With no success at crabbing and the wind still blowing, we weigh anchor and move 10 miles across Frederick Sound to Thomas Bay. It is a rough trip with short period three to five foot seas on the bow. The wind and tide are working against each other today. UGH!!
Thomas Bay provides us with two days of peaceful anchoring in the protection of Ruth Island. We enjoy the serenity while watching a group of Eagles feeding along the shore and a lone whale feeding in the harbor.
We have anchored in Thomas Bay many times and this is the first time we have ever seen a whale inside the bay. Pulling our crab traps, we have only one nice size male. That is so disappointing as we have always caught our limit of crabs here. Not sure what is going on with the crabs. On a positive note, Jeff finds a loose wire on our dinghy motor and also flushes the engine with Salt Away. She is now running like a champ.
We’ve had a good shakedown cruise. It’s now time to head back to Petersburg for a few days to attend a friends wedding. We will be back out on the water soon. Thanks for following along.
