June 23, 2008 ~ Monday

Got up and headed back further into the bay to do more bear viewing. Spotted 2 brown bears eating on the shores. Checked the shrimp pots we’d set out last night and were very disappointed, only 3 shrimp. We opted to pick them up and move them to the last spot where we had better luck yesterday. It is a farther run to go check them, but has to be worth it if our catch improves. After setting all of the pots back out we went back to Tenakee Springs where we topped off the tanks. The fuel docks were not floating so we had to park against the pilings. The wind and current made it difficult to dock and it took all 3 of us to pull off the fueling process. Jeff and Shanna had to hold the boat off the pilings so that the barnacles wouldn’t gouge the hull. With fueling complete we motored over to a vacant float plane dock at the advice of the lady working the fuel dock.

As we headed up the ramp to make our way to pay for the fuel a man yelled “Do you have any high antennas on your boat?” He said he had a float plane landing and wanted to make sure that the wing wouldn’t clip our antenna. The boat was far enough forward so it became a non-issue. John paid for the fuel and we asked if the store was open. The reply was “no”. We mentioned we really needed some paper towels and asked if she knew where we could get some. She ducked into a back room and came back with a roll of paper towels. We asked what we owed her and she said “nothing, why don’t you make a donation to our fire dept.” We thanked her and headed back to the float plane dock. They were just about finished unloading the plane’s cargo which consisted of the mail, and numerous packages. Three of the area dogs walked around the float plane dock marking their territory. An older man loaded the cargo onto a small trailer pulled by a 4-wheeler and headed up the steep ramp. The pilot yelled “who’s going to Juneau?? A small girl and young lady acknowledged him and they headed for the plane. He gave them what appeared to be a dock side safety briefing and they all climbed in. The DeHaviland beaver cranked up it’s radial engine and steered away from the dock. Shanna had the video camera running and took video as it revved up it’s engine and took off.

We motored over to the harbor and tied off on the transient dock and went in search of ice. The day before we’d spoken with a commercial fisherman who’d offered to give us ice from his trawler, but we were never able to meet up with him. We made contact with him again and met his deck hand. We filled 4 five gallon buckets of ice and transferred them back to the boat. We were completely out of ice and really needed this to get us through the trip.

John really wanted to go bathe in the hot springs as he thought his trip wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the springs. While John went to the hot springs, Jeff and Shanna went to burn trash on the beach.