Pacific NW

Expeditions

We resolved to get the boat under weigh early this morning before breakfast. The decision was revoked, however, when I pulled up the crab trap I’d set yesterday. In it were three flounder and one giant purple-and-orange starfish, that had 19 arms. Two of the flounder were big enough to eat! The cockpit became slaughter-house, and soon we had fresh filet of sole in our frying pan. It was delicious! After our unexpected meal we steamed out of the bay and into the sunny calm waters beyond. It is unbelievble how tranquil this entire sound is! All across the waters and up and down the beaches were millions upon millions of birds. We passed by endless strings and rafts of sea otters, and of course a few whales too. Everywhere we look there are animals in great number. Entering into St. Matthews Bay we passed through a swarm of bald eagles and Kittiwakes. When there are so many birds together they don’t seem to be afraid of us or the boat, and get alarmingly close. St. Matthews Bay is another gem of an anchorage. Again we ran into more bear hunters. They were extremely polite and told us they’d come back tomorrow so we could have our “peace and quiet”. I made a failed attempt at telling them we would not mind the presence of other people for a change. Perhaps it is a weekend and we appeared to be weekend boaters looking to “connect with nature”. At any rate, they left after warning me that there were a lot of brown bear up the river. I pulled Modulus up the river at sunset but didn’t see any bear. But I found lots of animal bones–salmon skeletons in the tundra everywhere and a huge bear’s femur bone.