Klag Bay, Sitka and Peril Straights

Monday June 7th 4:00 am depart (Chichagof Village) Klag Bay.... run The Gate at slack... transit Smooth Channel and out into the Gulf of Alaska....beautiful morning with 3 knots of wind and 2 foot swell....Life is good!!!








Sitka’s natural beauty captivated us even before we were docked...the harbourmaster assigned us a slip in the Eliason Harbour. Moorage is on a first come, first served basis. The harbour can accommodate up to 320 fishing and pleasure vessels. We were surrounded by fish boats frantically working to ready themselves for the season and the music next door blared. I don’t like rap music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people, who like rap music, denigrate means “Put Down”.
Sitka (Tlingit for “by the sea”) may be the most popular of Southeast Alaska destinations. It’s lovely setting, native culture, Russian history, museums and shops draw thousands of tourist who arrive by air, cruise ship and pleasure craft. The town of 8900, whose economy thrives on tourism, lost one of its major employers when its large pulp mill closed down in 1997.
First order of business was to pick up the auto pilot part we had ordered, which resulted in a long, long walk through town and over the bridge to the West Marine Store. Not that we don’t need the exercise, but long walks of that proportion should be reserved for people who annoy us.
Mount Edgcombe -the inactive volcano.
Now as any boater knows when you walk into West Marine, you always walk out with more than you intended to buy. Just our luck the folding bikes were on sale. We had looked at them many times in the past, in Sidney and the price today was irresistible, a two for one.

Now we had wheels and could spend the next two days visiting the sights. On one of our many stops, at the liquor store, we struck up a conversation with a local native who came over to admire our bikes; he said that when he was a kid he used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then he realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way, so he stole one and prayed for forgiveness....Ya....our new bikes slept the night in the forward berth.
We spent the next morning plumbing the new auto pilot motor, and to our relief...it worked!


Back on the bikes, and off to the Sitka National Historical Park. This park is one of over 390 parks in the Alaska National Park System. Here we found on display one of the finest collections of Totem Poles on this coast.
The Totem Trail (a two mile loop) consisted of 18 poles which have been part of the Sitka story since 1906, when a collection of poles donated by villages from Southeast Alaska, were shown at national expositions in 1904 and 1905 then shipped to Sitka and erected. Traditionally the poles were allowed to deteriorate naturally, and many of those we see today are replicas. When they tell the story of Sitka....they remember the land of plenty.
Along the trail we came to the old fort site which is the location of a decisive battle between colonist Russians and Tlingit Indians in 1804. This battle marked the last major native resistance in Alaska to European domination. Here the Tlingit and Russians met, fought, and uneasily coexisted for six decades.










June 9th after laundry in the morning, it was on the bikes and back up town to view the St. Michael’s Cathedral, built in 1848 by the Russian Orthodox missionaries.

The Russian Bishop’s House also served as a seminary and school for native children. This house of 2800 square feet is impressive architecture for that era.






The Sheldon Jackson museum is an absolute gem, displaying artefacts’ from Alaskan culture, collected in the 1880’s. Displays include masks, carvings, watercraft, authentic clothing and hundreds of tiny treasures.

Along side is the Sheldon Jackson College.











June 10 depart Sitka bound for Appleton Cove. Transited Olga Straight, safely through Whitestone Narrows, motored on to Neva straight, another peek out at the Pacific and was hit by the swell and 27 knot winds coming into Kakul Narrows. Steel Eagle performed at her best once again doing 5.1 knots through the narrows, dodging the many fish boats kept Wendy busy at the helm.

Sergius Narrows next....we got it wrong!!??? We have managed to commit about all the dunderhead mistakes a skipper can make and we just made another one. We arrived at Sergius Narrows at the peak of the ebb. We both read the tables wrong. Change course and drop anchor in Schulz Cove for 3 hours and wait for slack!!!! All good, needed a nap anyway....7:00pm on Peril Straight...smooth as glass...7:30 pm drop the hook in Appleton Cove....What a day. Baranof Hot Springs here we come!!!
Veteran skippers will tell you to cross at the crack of dawn, which at these latitudes, in June can crack mighty early. Up at 3:15am and on the go, as we head to Baranof Warm Springs ahead of an impending storm.