5/15 2015  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
Going to play a little catch up on the blog.  Seems I got ahead of myself with the last post.  When we are in Ketchikan we like to moor at Bar Harbor for a couple of reasons.  Ktn does not stand on formality..in fact no where in AK can you be snobbish.  The pleasure craft are moored right alongside and with the fishing vessels.  It does tend to give you a sense of the flavor of the state.  Thomas Basin downtown is a bit more of a "yachty" environment BUT at Bar Harbor you are right there at Safeway and the laundry for easy shopping and wash.  And after you have been aboard for 2 full weeks you need a lot of groceries and trying to get all of that back to the boat when you have to take a bus or cab is just too hard for me.  I'll take Bar Harbor anyday and if the office is closed (and it is on Sat andSun) the harbormaster will give you a form to fill out.  You can then call the office and pay over the phone.  We actually went in there three years ago with a credit....to our surprise.
We also take the local bus system around AK and BC when it is available.  The schedules are posted at all the stops and there is a free shuttle to downtown Ktn from Bar Harbor.
So on 5/11 we got away from the dock at 0730 and headed up Behm Canal for Misty Fjords.  It was a beautiful day and w e were cruising along and saw three boats coming toward us.  We monitor 16 and 68 on a regular basis.  One of these boat drivers said to one of the others....Greg, do you see that boat coming at us?  The white one?  I've never seen one of those.  Do you know what it is?".  Greg replied, "The ugly one?  I know those boats.  Tom, don't even look at them they are so ugly"

                                                     This is the ugly boat they referred to.


.  Gary just said...."Hello there" at which point Tom said"  I think the owner is on the radio".  That was the last we heard from them but needless to say, they put a bitt of a pall on our morning.  I wanted to offer them radio etiquette lessons but Gary said no.  I do hope to run into them again along our path.
We pulled  into Marguerite Bay at 1300 and put out a couple of crab and prawn pots and tied to the lovely and secure USFS dock, nestled right next to a huge rock.
We got some nice crab the next morning and moved on to Vixen Harbor, a favorite anchorage of ours.  Gary is having some dinghy motor issues and having a small bay to test it out in was good.  Pulled a few more crab out and made a quite nice Pesto Prawn Gnocchi for dinner.  Going to try it with crab next.
The next morning we tried to go to Frosty Bay but the float there stated it was for USFS cabin permittees only.  The bay is not well charted and what is charted is deep to we moved on to Berg Bay.  Still waiting to see a bear on this trip.  Saw a whale yesterday.

                                                                      Berg Bay

Anchor up at 0640 today and on to Wrangell to finish the bills and try for the dinghy repair one more time.  Gary is taking me to dinner tonight to the Stikine Inn.  We asked about dress and they laughed...it is Alaska!!  We are tied up to behind a large seiner who doesn't look like it is going anywhere anytime soon.  There is a very nice grocery store here.  Sage, the checker, asked where we were from.....she is from Anacortes.  Here with her parents for one year and heading back to Atown at the end of the summer.
Forgot to mention that when we were in Ktn, we ran into a couple cleaning a fish on the dock.  She also asked where we were from (we must have tourist stamped on our foreheads) Her mom is Betty Wilson in Shelter Bay.  We know Betty...talk about small world.