Return to King Cove

Only 1 sailboat amidst a crowd of fishboats

We passed by King Cove at midnight on Monday ... the wind was blowing at 40 knots directly down the channel towards us. We made our way to a wilderness anchorage reputed to be good in a nearby Bay and using a mix of motoring and sailing to combat the on/off 30+-knot winds. We anchored in Captain Harbor at 0200. It did turn out to be a quiet refuge. We made the final adjustments to the genoa (which involved a trip up the mast for Larry) and had a good rest. You can tell an anchorage is terrific when it takes energy and effort to dislodge the anchor ... the anchor finally came up covered in oozy smelly mud ... 'highly' recommended!

Our arrival here on Thursday was in beautiful summery sunshine. We met up with our friend Bob from last year and he took us on a berry-picking and bear-watching trip. I don't bake, but was able to turn the berries into a 'Summer Pudding'. This is a trifle-like cake and involves layering a pan with sponge cake, slightly cooking the berries in a sugary sauce, pouring it into the cake-retaining walls, placing a top layer of cake and crushing the whole business under a dive weight. After 8 hours in the 'fridge, it is an excellent dessert.

Red salmon-berries and yellow 'Russian'-berries

On our first day here, the salmon-fishing season was interrupted by a closure due to the lack of rain which kept the salmon streams from flowing. This denies the spawning salmon entrance up the streams and bodes ill for the future of the fish if too few are spawning this season. All the fishermen were out catching up until the 6pm closure.

Luckily, we were sitting outside when fisherman Henry Mack walked by the boat with a beautiful 5-lb salmon he wanted to get rid of. I went over to the Harbormaster's office with a gift for Henry on Friday morning - that's when all the talk and gossip amongst the fishermen takes place. I was told that the season has been good for salmon fishers. The price of fish is high this year and those who are still in the business will do well.  It was also very good for the crab fishery after we left last year (it opened on October 15th).

Henry with gift from Hawaii

Picking berries with Bob

We asked the fishermen about safe anchorages further East along this coast as the wind has started howling once again ... so we are likely to need safe anchorages. Perhaps there will be rain, and that will be good for the salmon. We never did see any bears out with Bob, so we're heading towards Geographic Harbor - we know they are there - we saw masses of them our last visit there eleven years ago!.

Coffee hour at the harbor office