As wonderful as Glacier Bay has been, it was nice today to have a change from glaciers and mountains. As usual, we got up early to take advantage of SE Alaska’s calm morning seas. Ryan had a brainstorm last night that we should go halibut fishing on our way out of Glacier Bay, so that’s what we did, on a promising spot off the south of Lester Island at the entrance to Bartlett Cove. The area was sheltered and there was no wind, so the waters were dead calm; and it was coming on high tide, so there was almost no current. We dropped our lines on an underwater moraine in about 90 feet of water and finally the fishing gods heard our prayers. Within moments of dropping my line the first time, I caught a small chicken halibut, which we threw back, then about 20 minutes later I got a big one - maybe 60 pounds.
We pulled that big boy aboard and that put an end to our fishing, since 30 pounds of fish meat takes up a lot of freezer space! This is the way I like to halibut fish - protected water, 15 minutes from port, in less than 100 feet of water, done in 30 minutes.
After fishing, we radioed in to the ranger station to close our park permit and headed to Elfin Cove. Elfin Cove is a charming Alaskan fishing town with boardwalks connecting all the houses instead of streets or trails.
We took a walk around town, picked up some milk, eggs and wine at the general store, then went back to the boat to process the halibut. Ryan filleted the fish while I chopped it up into one-pound pieces and vacuum packed them. When I packed the food-saver bags/rolls, I clearly didn’t have a big halibut in mind, because I used up every bag and roll that I had brought along.
We decided to push on from Elfin Cove, since conditions were good, and we knew some weather was coming which might delay our arrival in Sitka, so it would be good to have an extra day in our pocket. We are meeting some friends there in four days, so we can’t be as flexible as usual.
There were clouds and a bit of fog as we continued south, but that didn’t detract from the beauty of the rugged coastline.
Lisianski Strait was quiet and remote, a more intimate waterway than some of the other straits we’ve been in recently. We saw only commercial fishing boats along the way, trolling for salmon, which made us wish had time to slow down and put in our own lines!
We arrived at Lost Cove in late afternoon; and after anchoring, Ryan quickly poured us some wine and whipped up a fresh halibut curry. Yum!
We took the dinghy out for a row around to the back of the cove, where there is a long, hidden inner cove. It was lovely and still back there with trees growing right up to the rocky shore. That secret little cove must be how the larger cove got its name.
We saw a great big pink jellyfish on the way back - it looked like a flower.
Comentários