Hoonah to Elfin Cove

During our short stay in Hoonah we rode our bikes into town, had lunch and provisioned. Our Alaska summer has finally reached us and for the first time on our trip we had to pull out the long pants, coats and socks. I called Glacier Bay National Park and was able to reserve a permit to enter the park on August 10 for just one day. I’m hoping we can extend it, but for now that’s all I could get. Since that was four days away and we were already very close to the park we decided this might be a good opportunity to get some fishing in. We decided that our best bet for a good time would be a fishing charter. One of our goals on this trip was to make it to Elfin Cove to see our friend and fellow C-Brat, Ken Ecklund, who is a captain for Eagle Charters in Elfin Cove. Don called Eagle Charter to see if they would have any room in any of their boats, hopefully Ken’s, and the owners said, “Yes, we do, come on over.” He said that he would not tell Ken we were coming so it would be a surprise.

We left Hoonah late in the afternoon after fueling and as we made our way through South Inian Passage, the fog became thicker and thicker. Our visibility was only a hundred to two hundred feet and we couldn’t see anything around us. At one point we saw a fishing vessel heading the same direction so we radioed and asked him where he was going. He said Elfin Cove so we asked if we could follow him. We did for a while, but the fog became so thick that it didn’t take long for us to lose sight of him.

We continued to travel slowly, relying on two GPS units and the radar. Even with all that, we were very disoriented as we got closer to Elfin Cove. It is a tricky harbor to enter the first time without the fog. To make our fears worse, we had spoken with a local fisherman in Hoonah who said that sometimes things can be dicey going to Elfin Cove and he suggested that if we got out in Icy Strait and it looked like popcorn, just go back to Mud Bay and wait for a couple hours and try again. The trouble was, with the fog as thick as it was we wouldn’t have seen any “popcorn” until we were in it. Thank goodness it was smooth and all we had were swells.

Finally, we saw a sail boat and could begin to recognize navigational aids and we knew we were there. As we pulled into the dock, there was Ken looking for the “Yachties” his boss had said he should go down and meet. He said that he had a hunch it was us because a C-Dory and not a yacht would come through to the inner harbor at low tide like we did. We actually got down to 4 feet of water at one point but we made it. When we arrived the lodge had set aside dinner for us and we had a wonderful plate of salmon, teriyaki prime rib, red potatoes, salad and chocolate cake. It was a very welcome and delicious end to a stressful boat ride.