April 29. We made it to Tenakee early this afternoon with the weather window on Chatham Strait closing rapidly for it's projected 30 knot blow tomarrow & not much better Sunday. Today at 15 knots on the bow not to bad except in the tidal rip areas, where the big Boss anchor was getting a workout when it & the bow buried themselves in the on coming very steep short spaced waves.
There's only about 80 people here in Tenakee this time of year & we saw much less than that as we walked up & back from the harbor, the narrow one lane street going from the harbor to the the other end of town making for a nice 2 mile+ walk. Beautiful planted flower gardens are in bloom along with the wild ones & this along with the unique houses & the view looking out across the waters of the Inlet with the snow capped mountains beyond made for a very pleasant walk. We are now relaxing in the boat for the evening with it facing out toward the inlet, the town across the waters to our right & the same, but now unobstructed view in front as we had in town, as we watch the sun making its way toward the horizon with alternating blue sky's & rain showers passing overhead. There is a hot springs here located in a building near the very center of the town, but to me it's dungeon like & not appealing. We will wait for for one of our favorite hot springs do do our soaking, which is in Warm Springs Bay, where we plan to be in 3 or 4 days depending on weather.
The Tenakee Marina doesn't have restrooms, but the town does provide near its middle & just off to the side via a boardwalk out over the tidal zone a public restroom. It's in the form of a little one seater outhouse with a opening in the bottom to the tidal zone below. Just in case anyone reading this makes it up there & needs to use it, remember to bring your own paper as none is available there.
Fellow C-Brat, Steve Parsons emailed a long time friend of his who had moved here to Tenakee over 20 years ago, that we would likely be here today & Pete came down to the dock & we had a good visit with him here in the boat, where he shared interesting information about Tenakee & some of his experiences of living in this remote setting.
Day 11, 66 miles today & 546 total.
April 30. We were awakened early at at our dock space providing the previous evening beautiful view by being bounced against the side of the dock from our exposed to the wind & waves that had increased overnight. With having to move anyway decided to head out early to check out some of the other inlets toward the head of Tenakee Inlet. The waves weren't bad with them on our stern for a few miles, but then the wind & waves both increased & our checking out inlets turned into a search for a good safe hidey hole. We found one about 16 miles from Tenakee Harbor in a nook off the head of Seal Inlet. Twice we left the anchorage to check & see if we could proceed on up the main inlet, but both time were greeted by some big steep waves brought up by the very high winds now on the main channel. This was forecast for Chatham Strait, but not Tenakee Inlet. Made the best of it by relaxing & reading the day away, which at one point was interrupted to our enjoyment by a very young deer swimming by just a few feet off the bow of the boat as it crossed over from one side of our little nook to the other.
Tomarrow if weather allows we will continue on up to the head of Tenakee Inlet with needing to be back in Tenakee to top off fuel on Monday, which is one of only three days a week the fuel dock there is open. From there we must make it last till eventually reaching Sitka.
Day 12, 23 miles today & 569 total
May 1. We awoke to zero wind & smooth water, so with a quick pull of the anchor, we were off to explore the rest of Tenakee Inlet in the misty rain & have our coffee & breakfast while on the move. No whales or bears, but plenty of birds & an occasional deer along the shoreline. What really kept our interest was the ever changing views of this Inlet caused by the misty rain & fog over the waters & gold rimmed tidal zones, backed by the many varieties of trees in different hues of green with an occasional break through of the higher mountains & snow covered peaks beyond.
Upon reaching the head of this Inlet we found ourselves less that a mile away from where we anchored & took a nap at the head of Port Fredrick several days ago. By going out Port Fredrick, up Icy Strait, down Chatham Strait & then up Tenakee Inlet we have made almost a complete circle on the water of over a hundred miles & then became just separated by a narrow strip of land from where we started.
Just after reaching the head of Tenakee Inlet, the winds picked up causing us to seek shelter until they died back down in the early afternoon. When they did we made for Saltery Cove, which is the nicest one, we have seen on Tenakee Inlet & only 7 miles from the Tenakee fuel dock, where we plan to be in the morning at 10am to take on fuel.
Les/Sandy & Kevin/Laura, tonight we were visited by those ornery transducer wire eating muskrats, but as you know, we were properly prepared, so we will leave here in the morning with the Depth Sounder still working unlike you guys last year on Yellowstone Lake.
Day 13, 52 miles today & 621 total.
May 2. We made it to the fuel dock as planned at about 9:45 am, but the strong wind coming directly across the bay was driving 2 to 3 foot waves directly in to the creosote soaked pilings we needed to tie to for taking on fuel. With it looking likely the winds would continue to blow past the the 2 pm closing of the fuel dock & there not opening again for a couple more days, we decided to head out toward Chatham Strait & to find a nook to hide until the winds on both Tenakee Inlet & Chatham strait backed off & we could make for Angoon for fuel. We found the nook we needed, dropped the anchor & settled in watching the birds close by, when a short time later the only bear we have seen on our entire exploration of Tenakee Inlet showed up close by us on shore. About 3pm, I noticed the whitecaps were off the waves passing just off from our protected spot, so decided to make the three mile run out to see if Chaham Strait was now doable too. It was, with the waves left, being big, but smooth after starting to settle back down from the past three days of high winds. So we made the 24 mile run down & across Chatham Strait without incident. Just after getting into cell phone range of Angoon our friend, Les Fisher called & gave us a weather report for the next few days, which was all good for a change & told us it was good we waited out crossing till this afternoon, as it was small craft warnings here most of the day. We have found the normal access to VHF radio weather reports spotty at best with many days without any at all. From just after leaving Hoonah, we didn't have any reports, until shortly before reaching Angoon today.
Day 14, 47 miles & 668 total.
