Sandman Bight is great! I woke up early this morning when the sunrise aligned with one of the portholes, stabbed me in the eye, and roused me from my sleep. I got up to see the colors and take this picture, then went back to bed (sunrise is 4 AM).
We got up later to find about 20 bald eagles on the beach next to us picking through the sand for treats at low tide.
Then while Ryan prepared the boat for departure, he heard some splashing and looked up to see a WHALE swimming around right outside our tiny little cove. It was low tide, actually a minus tide, yet this huge creature was swimming around us in the relatively shallow water, herding fish for breakfast. That ended all thoughts of leaving, and we spent the next two hours watching the whale bubbling, fin slapping, and spouting all around us. There was no breaching or sounding, since the water, as I said, was super shallow, but how magical to have this enormous creature working the little fish around us. It actually came into our bight at one point, but kept its distance. We could see the fish in the water swarming around our boat--for protection, I think!
We left reluctantly once the whale moved off; we might stay there again on the way south, it was such a treat. On the way out of the area, we saw eagles diving and catching (probably) the same fish the whale was targeting.
The other cool thing about Sandman Bight was we managed to connect intermittently with the Starlink satellite network. Ryan sent Starlink a service ticket last night when we could see we were in network, but weren’t getting any coverage. They actually replied right away and got us connected a little. Wow, what service! It didn’t give us great reception, but we were able to connect enough to get a couple blog posts off and watch a Star Trek episode.
The trip across Chatham Strait was bumpy, but nothing too bad. It was nice to have a shorter trip after so many long days. We arrived into Red Bluff Bay and found three other boats already here. Then four more boats arrived. The weather forecast calls for sun the next few days and many of the boats are from Juneau, so I think this must be a favorite spot for locals. We took the dinghy out for a little spin, and saw a few otters and a couple brown bears off in the distance in the back of the delta. It’s still overcast and chilly, but tomorrow should bring clear skies and sunshine.
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