back to the Behm

Ahh, a good nights sleep does wonders. Well worth the push. As you can see on flickr the waters couldn't have been calmer for the crossing of Dixon Entrance and Chatham Sound. We had a little trouble getting our Navigation Lights running, but Ron finally got things squared away before we ran through Venn Passage.

...okey dokey. Back to the blogging...

We left Meyers Chuck and headed for the Behm (pronounced beam) Canal. Along the way we got to see a small pod of humpbacks bubble-net feeding! A beautiful day followed us to Naha Bay in the Behm. There we met Jim, Carol and Joani on their sailboat and had a lovely happy hour with them! We got their numbers to touch base with them in Ketchikan (more on that later). We had a nice hike along the Naha River Trail and saw a bear forging for salmon. Salmon carcasses lined the trail with only their bellies and brains eaten by the bear and the rest left to rot. We had a nice short hop up to Traitor's Cove and met Jack & Bev and Bernie & Lynn who joined us on the lovely walk (Ron and I's legs were still sore from the hike of stairs back in El Cap!) to the bear observatory platform and salmon spawning grounds. We enjoyed another improptu happy hour and combined dinners for a fun evening with new friends.

We continued around The Backside (aka Misty Fjords National Monument) of the Behm and the weather held beautifully. The towering granite walls made you feel big and small at the same time. We enjoyed a day entirely to ourselves down to Walker Cove, not seeing another sign of people presence. Punchbowl Cove made up for that by being THE destination for flightseeing tours and fast sightseeing boats. Bleeck! But it was beautiful nonetheless and the evening and morning was quite between the tours. We passed rowing ashore to New Eddystone Rock because of the seals sunning on the beach and the killer whales waiting in the waters.

We mosied back to Ketchikan on a beautiful summer day and rang Jim and Carol. They invited us over to their place, overlooking Clover Passage on the Western side of the Behm Canal, for a BBQ and then put us up for the night in their spare room after a soak in their hottub under an amazing blanket of stars! The next morning we had a nice hike to take in the views along Clarence Strait. Jim loaned us his truck for the day, which really helped with provisioning - we really stocked up on beer! (we are heading back to Canada after all!)

So that about catches y'all up. We're pulling out of Prince Rupert in the next few minutes and will hopefully be down around Vancouver in the next few weeks. We'll keep in touch and hopefully plan the rendezvous in the San Juans sooner rather than later.

Love and hugs to all,
Alison, Ron and Juichi