June 16, 2022 Day 20: Mosquito Cove to Mite Cove 30 miles- 1756 total miles
We woke up to a lot of sun and it was feeling very warm. We all went in the dinghy this morning and walked around on land at low tide. Low tide makes me nervous because bears will come out at low tide to flip over rocks looking for some food, so I was on high alert. I felt a little better that it was sunny and very warm out.
We did see a lot of starfish and a few crabs as we walked the beach. In the water I saw something bright red and initially I thought it was a red rock crab. I kept watching it and it even moved like a crab. All of a sudden it darted to a different spot and I realized it was an octopus! The kids had a hard time finding it, but finally they saw it too. It was fun watching it.
When we were walking back to the dinghy we heard a loud roar sound. It scared us all to death. Chris and I both thought it might have come from the other side of the beach…or the water…? We heard it again and I am pretty confident it was a sea lion. Nothing like being on land and hearing a roar to get that adrenaline going.
The Uncruise boats, or the National Geographic boats were out here as well and some of the passengers were dinghying around the area.
We are in a really cool area that is close to more open water. This is a very good place to look for whales and other wildlife. We are also very close to Glacier Bay. There is also good fishing here so we decided to drop the lines. The water was perfect for fishing and watching wildlife. Chris told me I could fish while he watched Ellen. I dropped my line and after a while I felt something. I was thinking I would get a lingcod or a rock fish. When I was reeling it in, it put up a fight and felt more like a cabazon. I love fishing because you never know what you will pull up. When it was close enough to see I saw it was a halibut! It was a very little halibut, but we don’t have room to store fish, so if it was any bigger we would have had to release it. It was perfect! Ryan netted it for me. Chris took care of the fish and was putting away the fishing stuff. While he was taking care of the fish we were watching a humpback that was getting pretty close to us. All of a sudden that whale lunged out of the water and breached right in front of us. It was really awesome to see! Since Chris was taking care of my fish he only got to see the splash. Chris has sure made this trip easy and magical for us.
We made up halibut burritos for lunch and they were delicious!
Ellen napped in the v-berth. She is doing that more and more and it is wonderful! She is also starting to go down into her porta-crib at night awake and not wanting to cuddle Chris as much, it’s been really nice!
We decided that we wanted to go to Elfin Cove today so we continued on. As we got closer to the open waters we were getting some swells. As we got closer we saw a section where the swells looked huge. It was in a narrow section that had land on one side and an island close by on the other. The waves were huge through there and very very tight. I would guess the waves were about 5 feet at about 3 seconds. It was actually pretty scary going through there. Ryan was in the v-berth and was pretty nervous. He said it felt like flying. Plus the water was breaking over the boat so he felt like he was a submarine, with the water covering his windows. Luckily it didn’t last long and we made it through unscathed.
We made it to Elfin Cove and got gas, then we walked around the town. It is all on a boardwalk and is pretty cool. It is a fishing village and there are a lot of fishing charters. People fly in by float plane, get a place to stay, and have boats that take them out. It looks like a pretty cool set up, and if you want to fish in Alaska, this seems like the way to do it.
Chris knows I have been feeling burnt out with cooking/cleaning on the boat and I am getting tired of the food. (I’ve always struggled with eating on the boat and we are almost three weeks in and it’s just starting to get old, so I really feel like this is a win!) Chris saw there was a bar/restaurant so he went in to look at how kid friendly it was. It looked OK so Chris had us go eat dinner there. We ordered some pizzas and sprites so the kids were happy. Afterwards we let the kids get some ice cream. Ryan got an ice cream bar, the same ones we buy at home from Costco. The ice cream is covered in almonds and chocolate. Anyway that bar cost $8.00! (When we went to Costco in Juneau I checked and the whole box costs $10.50.) I would imagine getting food up here is expensive.
Our next stop on our trip is Pelican, but we’ll have to go out in the more open waters to get there, and if we left Elfin Cove the open waters is the next thing we’ll have to do. We decided to peak out and see how the water was and if we could cross that open bit tonight. Luckily we were able to. It was a little lumpy, but not bad at all. No one felt nervous or even that uncomfortable. It’s fun to say we have boated in the Gulf of Alaska!
After crossing the more open waters we went to Mite Cove to anchor for the night. It was nice to anchor and just get ready for bed and not have to worry about dinner. I’m glad Chris was insistent on stopping for dinner at Elfin Cove.
Ryan’s Thoughts: We went on the dinghy and we did see a halibut, caught by mom, a humpback breach, and otters.
Lillian’s Thoughts: Today was amazing! So we woke up and ate breakfast then we went on the dinghy! Then we fished and mom caught a halibut! Then mom cooked it! And we ate it! Then we played our tablets and went on this really REALLY bad part on the boat and I thought we were crashing 3 or 4 times! And now we docked and ate dinner. Now it’s bedtime. mmmmmm!
