A Change of Plans

We left Baranof Warms Springs about 8 a.m. after one last quick soak in the tubs. It seemed everyone else was doing the same and only one of six boats may have been staying on. Our plan was to go to Angoon, a small Tlingit village on Admirality Island, and take on fuel before entering Peril Strait to Sitaka. By all accounts we were looking at 120 miles one way and the forecast for Sitka was smoke. As we were approaching Angoon we began to reconsider the cost of taking a 120 mile side trip and decided instead to mosey our way up Chatham Strait to an anchorage closer to Icy Strait. Since Angoon had been the most expensive fueling stop we had made in 2007, we decided to go on to Tenakee Springs so we could look around and take on fuel there. For reasons yet to be explained we lived to regret that decision.

Tenakee Springs is a small town where people from Juneau spend their summers. Their claim to fame is the hot springs that provides water for the bath house in town. Many boaters enjoy stopping there for a soak in the tubs. According to our cruising guides there is fuel at Tenakee Springs and we had heard so much about it we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to see someplace we hadn’t seen before.

As is normal any time you enter a port that you are unfamiliar with we had a difficult time identifying the fuel dock. After talking with some other boaters at the dock we were pointed in the right direction. What we did not understand from the cruising guides was that the fuel wasn’t actually on a dock but at the ferry terminal and in order to take on fuel we had to tie ourselves to the pilings of the terminal. This was no easy task with wind and current besides having to retire our dock lines after we peeled them out of the creosote on the pilings. The fuel hose was lowered to the boat and after fueling, Don had to climb a ladder in order to pay. Needless to say, our first impression of Tenakee Springs was not exactly positive.

After fueling we still wanted to see what the attraction was, so we docked, got our bikes out and rode the half mile down the main street, which is actually a gravel road. There are no cars and only two trucks in Tenakee Springs, a fire truck and a fuel truck, both ¾ ton pickups. On our way into town we passed several people and every single person we passed said hello to us. In town there is a small post office, a mercantile, a bakery (which was closed on Wednesdays), and a café. We had hoped to have lunch at the café but when we asked one of the residents, he said that the way the cafe worked is that you tell Rosie in the afternoon if you want to have dinner and she tells you what time it will be ready. We decided to make lunch on the boat. The people in the store were very friendly and on the way back to the boat we saw a half Malamute half wolf who was groomed to look like a lion. Her owner said that with the heat she wanted to give her some relief from the heavy fur, but a poodle cut just didn’t seem appropriate.

After leaving Tenakee Springs we continued our journey north and decided to check out Pavlof Harbor in Freshwater Bay on Chichogof Island. We had heard that it might be a good place to view bears. As luck would have it we missed a sow and two cubs by about five minutes according to some people we met coming out and by the time we got there the tide had fallen enough that the fish were no longer going up the falls. So we continued on.

All day we had been blessed with smooth water. Chatham Strait, which is where we were beat up in 2007, was like glass and Icy Strait was also very smooth. As we traveled we could see through the haze hill after hill, sometimes of rock and sometimes tree covered, all of it obscured by the smoke. It was disappointing to know that we were in one of the most beautiful, pristine locations on Earth and we couldn’t fully appreciate the beauty. In Icy Strait we saw about 8 to 10 humpback whales and we ended our day in Hoonah, the largest Tlingit Village in Alaska. We traveled more than 130 miles in just over 12 hours.