WOW! What a 24 hours! We left Ketchikan on Saturday, June 13 and traveled just a little south to pick up the Behm Canal. We then turned into Smeaton Bay on the east side. We navigated all the way to the tip and then turned around and found an anchorage close to the entrance at Behm Canal. I was spending a lot of time with the binoculars scanning the shores. I thought I saw bears – – so we turned up a small inlet. It got very narrow and shallowed incredibly fast. The chart read 189′ – but the boat chart plotter was reading 9′. Indeed, there was a mom and 2 grizzly cubs. They were grazing near a river inlet. All of a sudden, Norm had the boat in reverse and was gunning it – very unusual for us. Note to self: pay more attention to the depth than the grizzlies! Back out into the main channel and we spotted whale blows. Slowed to a stop – yep – 5 orcas! Playing! We stayed with them for about an hour – no pics of either the grizzlies or the whales!
We also put out 2 crab traps but had no luck. In spite of that we had an awesome dinner. Risotto with mushrooms, artichokes and bernaise sauce with halibut.
Kin: a very good book. Highly recommend.