Greetings:
While August isn't over yet, I thought I'd post what we've done since the last post late July.
The most unusual thing about S.E. Alaska this year is how warm it has been. Now many of you will laugh, keep in mind everything is relative as to temperatures, depending on where you live. This summer we have had very little rain, and temperatures have frequently been in the upper 70's to low 80's. Everyone has been talking about how unusual this is, and it is. There has also been much less rain than normal. Now normal temps are highs in the low 60's and lots of rain! So 60's vs. 80's is the extreme that we aren't complaining about, but are just unusual. As I write this though the temps have now fallen back to normal, and rain has been the norm rather than the exception. Fall is here in S.E.!!
We left Ketchikan again and headed north from here. Our first stop that first day was in Meyers Chuck. As of the census of 2000, there were 21 people, 9 households, and 7 families residing. But, there is a very nice dock here and believe it or not a U.S. Post Office too! The lady that runs the post office will, upon a phone call to order, deliver sticky buns (cinnamon rolls) to your boat the next morning. Not on our diet, but quite good. Here are a couple pictures from here.
talking. Must have worked at one time.
The other highlight of being here two nights as we were able to catch two nice Coho Salmon. Nothing quite like fresh salmon. Chuck is starting to become a fisherman. There is actually quite a lot to learning how to fish for salmon. It is interesting. Last, we had a wonderful sunset here.
Next we moved to Petersburg. Petersburg population is about 2,800 and the Scandinavian people populated this town. Their influence is quite obvious when visiting. We really like it here as the people are quite nice! There are several huge fish cannery operations here and pleasure boats like ours are the exception on the docks. Most of the fishing boats are quite well maintained. This year has been a record haul for salmon, so much so the canneries had to restrict the fisherman as to how much they can drop there. The story on the dock was that deckhands of the fish boats, mostly college kids, would be making $100,000 each for basically three months of work. If you are good at commercial fishing the money is quite good. Hard work though.
Petersburg was just voted as the number one most desirable city in Alaska to live in with a population greater than 2000 people.
After four days here we decided to head back to Ketchikan and had a pleasant journey back "home".
We will be departing Ketchikan heading into British Columbia Canada no later than around September 7th or so. We have to get south as the weather is changing rapidly and in order to not encounter rough waters, it is, sadly, time to go. We should be home by October 1st or so. Of course we are looking forward to being back with our family.
