It was another fun day on Wild North! We were underway by 6:30 AM, and the first thing we did was take a closer look at those two waterfalls I showed you last night, the ones that came out of the same lake right next to each other. The water virtually spurted out of the forest, the flow was so intense. The static images in the pictures don’t come near to capturing the power of the water, but that’s all I can give you.
Left waterfall above, right waterfall below
Once we returned to Behm Canal, it was smooth sailing. The chop from yesterday was completely gone. These quiet mornings on the boat, before the wind starts to get up, are so magical.
As we approached Ketchikan, however, the fog started closing in. We had to navigate with instruments and radar, which we haven’t had to do yet this trip. At one point a boat passed us within 500 feet and I don’t think they even noticed us. We saw them on radar and scooted over to make sure there was no collision, but they did not appear to change course. Yay, radar! Here’s the view in the fog.
Once we turned the corner into Clarence Strait, the fog finally lifted and the new landscape was revealed. The coast still had a steep shoreline, but mountains no longer towered directly above the water.
We kept commenting all morning on how it seemed like we should see some whales, and finally we saw one!
Well spotted, Ryan! We also saw some porpoises in the distance, but they didn’t get close enough to photograph. We pulled into Meyers Chuck around 2:00 and found plenty of space on the public dock, with only one other transient boat here. Meyers chuck is a small village with maybe a dozen full-time residents and about 50 houses perched on the rocks around the bay. We found it delightful. There is a trail that runs through “town”, through a pretty patch of forest, and around to a beach on Clarence Strait. While we were on our walk we saw a couple more humpback whales cruise past from the beach. (At first I thought they were some sort of fast-moving flotsam, then the flotsam exhaled!) The place definitely has some personality, with funny signs (someone with a router has a sense of humor and too much time on their hands) and quirky art.
So many fun little houses perched on the rocks, some on their own tiny islands.
Left: a heron sculpture made from driftwood on the path through town. We spoke to one of the residents for a while, and his cat came out to visit us. His name is Meow (the cat, not the resident!), and he was very friendly.
While we were having afternoon tea on the dock and recovering from our walk, the mail arrived by float plane. Dinghies from every corner of town converged on the mail dock to get their deliveries for the week. It was quite a production!
We barbecued some chicken for dinner and had a sunset beach walk to cap off a fun day.
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