Pacific NW

Expeditions

After so many days on the storm-beaten outer Kenai coast, it was awesome to wake up in the placid waters of Prince William Sound again. We headed for Chenega where we hoped to obtain a bit of fresh food and make some phone calls. “New Chenega” as it is called, is an extremely small native village. Old Chenega was sadly swept away by the earthquake and giant tsunami of 1964, and lies in ruin a dozen miles away. New Chenega, as it turned out, did not have any store whatsoever, and the telephone was out of order. As soon as we tied up to the dock we cast off again, somewhat discouraged. We made our calls via the satellite phone but are still wishing for fresh food. A short while later we anchored in a small cove in Mummy Bay. Several hours later a weekend yahoo and his sailboat came charging into the bay. He was screaming frantic orders to his wife as he threw out the anchor with forward weigh still on the boat. His hook must’ve set almost exactly over ours, and when he let out some scope our boats were practically smacking into each other. I’m not out here to find solitude, but this was just a dangerous situation. He wasn’t monitoring channel 16 so I couldn’t stop him when he anchored. It is extremely poor seamanship to crowd another boat at anchor and restrict her swinging room. We weighed our anchor and headed for another nearby bay, “Silent Partner” showing the puzzled greenhorn her transom. We re-anchored off a small stream in Copper Bay, 8 miles away. I went for an evening row and admired the solistice midnight sun. It is once again the longest day of the year, with no darkness whatsoever.