Petersburg-again

So it is South we go.

We left Juneau three days ago as the sun was trying to shine. It failed. Again we faced the Douglas Bridge, this time clearing by at least a foot. See the video on the gallery site. It is rated PG-13 for language. Sorry about the orientation.

I had adjusted the ISO on my camera because so many of my pictures were dark. Most of the last two day’s pictures are bright but grainy. There is always a trade-off.

The first night out of Juneau we revisited Taku Harbor. The same fishing tender, The Island Dancer, was docked there again. This time the 4 boys were jumping off the boat and the dock into the water. The dad came out and yelled, “Bear”. Everyone looked down the shore and saw a big black bear near the water.

There was a group of people at the picnic table along the shore. They got up and looked down the shore to see what all the shouting was about and then calmly went back to their dinner. The black bear was just 400 yards from their table.

Later we found out that they were Italian and only spoke a little English. They didn’t understand, “bear”. They wanted to see my photos of the bear when they found out what had happened. All six of them, two couples and two guys, came aboard Kiata to see the pictures. I transferred the grainy pictures to their memory stick. I have since restored my ISO setting to finer grain.

The next night we went to the State Dock in Entrance Harbor. No bears, no bergs, just a drunk lighthouse keeper on leave, and a nice couple from Victoria with their furry dog, “Missy.”

Last night was spent on the hook at Portage Bay. It was very scenic, dark, and quite.

Today, as we continued on to Petersburg, Mark had a chance to put the sails up for a while.

Tonight we are at the southern dock in Petersburg. It is newer and has a lot less activity. The sun was able to cast shadows today but then retreated behind the clouds.

“Life on a boat is a fluid situation.”

Earlier in the week I had noticed that some of the bags in the V-berth were moldy and began to pull everything out of there. The sides above the mattress were covered with mold and everything touching them was moldy. Wonderful.

The source of the problem seems to be a recurrence of the leak in the anchor locker. We had it “fixed” last spring. Mark removed three buckets of salt water from the space under the bed. Now besides the clean up, there will have to be another repair. All the stuff that was stored in that berth is now in our spare head (bathroom), and the moldy stuff bagged for the laundry.
Today, Saturday, August 02, 2008 we woke up to bright sunlight! And now at 6pm in the evening, I can say that it hasn’t rained all day!