Sanak Island

August 20, 2014

Pavlof Harbor, Sanak Island, Alaska

Anchor: 54 27.301 N 162 41.806 W (very shallow and rocky bottom)


We're having a banner time at Sanak Island, great fishing, beautiful scenery and super awesome weather. We spent 2 nights at Salmon Bay and it's aptly named with the bay full of many thousands of Pinks and for the very lucky cast a few Sockeye. Watching hundreds and hundreds of salmon swim up the small ankle deep creek was truly a priceless experience, best viewing is at high tide. Seals and sea lions were feasting on the salmon and one sea lion swam into shallow waters until he could stand on his front flippers and then just waited for the perfect salmon to snatch as hundreds of unwitting salmon swam around him. We tried to catch some Dungeness crab, but no luck as we only have a hair crab pot and it has an open top that the acrobatic Dungeness can easily escape from.

Yesterday, we explored Canton Harbor, entering via Devils Pass and leaving via Lida Anchorage then made our way to Northeast Harbor.
Northeast Harbor on a calm clear day was a striking scene with aptly named Eagle rock as it's centerpiece. We found fish jumping and fishing superb for bright silver Sockeye. It was hard to leave Northeast harbor after only a few hours, but with so many coves to explore we pushed on toward Pavlof Harbor.

Entering Pavlof requires calm settled weather and a little luck as the chart is cryptic at best. Isolated dangerous underwater rocks line the starboard side and rocky boulders lurk laying wait for the unwitting in extensive shoals on the port side. Once inside it's bliss if not for the extremely shallow rocky bottom. We spent 15 minutes trying to get the anchor to hook to anything, again a calm weather anchorage with very poor holding. On the plus side there is an abandoned village to explore and the harbor is conveniently located within a mile of the islands namesake mountain, Sanak Peak. We're hoping we might find blueberries on the ramparts of Sanak Peak and that's the plan for this morning, then we'll pull our crab pot and then maybe back to Northeast Harbor to catch another Sockeye for dinner.

Our weather the past few days has been Alaska's finest, warm (60F), clear skies with calm winds and flat seas.

That's it for now.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com