6/24/2024 We left Elfin Cove about 10 am, giving the fog time to lift a little bit and the tides to be more favorable as we headed to North Bight. This is where we re-join with Second Verse who is back from their Skagway adventure. There were numerous whales in Icy Strait and while we enjoyed watching them through our binoculars they are very hard to photograph with our phone cameras.
Second Verse hosted us for a salmon dinner. This was a group effort meal using the best of all of our supplies. Kinship provided Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. St. Florian had enough lettuce to make a big green salad. Sally baked a loaf of her amazing sourdough bread. The salmon was a medly of the two fish that Bill and Mike caught near Juneau. They caught two king salmon, one was normal, but the other was a white king salmon.
The difference in flesh color comes from their genetically-determined ability to metabolize naturally occurring pigments from their food. These pigments, called carotenoids, are found in their diet of shrimp, krill, and crabs—crustaceans that are rich in astaxanthin, a carotenoid found in most marine life. Good analogies would be the orange beta-carotene found in carrots or the bright red carotene lycopene found in tomatoes. White-fleshed king salmon don’t have the genetic ability to break down their food and store the red-orange carotene in their muscle cells. (Ref: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=738)
It had been a week sine we shopped in Juneau so this was definitely what our friend Judy Labbe would call a triage meal. It was a wonderful meal, in a beautiful location, on a lovely summer evening. Glad to be all back together.
We set a few crab traps out in North Bight, but had no luck. There were dozens of crab traps already in the bay, most of them with commercial tags. We took a dinghy ride around the corner to see North bight and I was shocked by the number of crab traps there. I estimate that there were 400 traps. We didn’t go all the way to the head of the bay so that number may be closer to 500. The commercial Dungeness crab season opened June 15. I have read in local news that about 30% of the fleet is sitting out the season due to expected low prices. Last summer they ended the season two weeks early due to low catch numbers.
6/26/2024 After two very calm nights in North Bight we headed back to Hoonah for a few days of boat chores. We all knocked out laundry, scrubbed baits, and shopped for fresh produce. Our next week is all at anchor as we spend four nights in Glacier Bay and then spend a few days moving to Sitka.
Between chores we took the local shuttle bus out to Icy Strait Point.
Icy Strait Point is a privately owned tourist destination just outside the small village of Hoonah, Alaska. It is located on Chichagof Island and is named after the nearby Icy Strait. Owned by Huna Totem Corporation, it is the only privately owned cruise destination in Alaska, as most stops are owned by the cities in which they are located. Huna Totem Corporation is owned by approximately 1,350 Alaskan Natives with aboriginal ties to Hoonah and the Glacier Bay area. Many of them are of the Tlingit people. (Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icy_Strait_Point).
This is a very nicely done spot. They have converted the old cannery into a large museum and gift shop. Many of the gift shop items are produced by local artists and residents, so it has much less commercial feel than many other cruise ship stops. The museum is a nice preservation of the cannery.
ZipRider zip-line that completes its run near the tram base was constructed by the Huna Totem Corporation. Opening in May 2007, it measures 5,330 feet (1,620 m) and made claims to being the longest in the world, or later to at least being one of the longest and highest – at 1,330 feet (410 m) – in North America. (Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icy_Strait_Point)
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