Sticky Bottoms in Double Bay

Karen pulled the anchor up this morning.  

We can talk about poor anchor platform design or icky bottoms (the seabed!!!).   Let's do the latter first...

What is called "sticky mud" is great for anchor holding, but lousy for retrieval.  It is usually comprised of fine sand/silt and loads of organic matter.  

The biggest challenge with it is cleaning everything up.   That sticky mud gets everywhere, it does not rinse off easily, and it stains the deck if it sits on there for very long.

Insofar as the anchor platform goes, this is not one of Selene's better design efforts.  All of that water Karen is spraying goes into the drains that go into the anchor locker.   Yup, we wash off the mud only to have it flow back into where the chain sits.  Doh!   There is a partial fix for that which I will affect this winter.

Coming down the outside out in the Gulf of Alaska / North Pacific Ocean.   Nearly perfect conditions.  3' swells on a 7-second period.  It doesn't really get better than this.

And look at those capes; one promontory after another until they are lost in the distance.

A peek behind us.

That white topped mountain poking out above the clouds in the distant background is Mt Fairweather.

Here, we are just entering semi-protected waters in Salisbury Sound, north of Sitka.

A typical channel marker denoting a reef on the other side and safe water on this side...

Remember, Red, Right, Returning?  Us too, but this marker is red and it was on the left as we headed into Sitka.   Go figure...

We are now safely anchored in N. Magoun Bay.   That little channel is the only route in.  It is about twice the width of our boat and only 8.2' deep, according to my depth sounder.

That is a bit tight, but it is worth it.  We have the anchorage all to ourselves again (if you don't count the horseflies).

This is another inlet into this little lagoon, but that is only passable by kayak at high tide.

Karen is still improving and I am not.  If her experience is anything like mine, I should start to feel no worse tomorrow and then be recovered on Thursday (fingers-crossed).

Not worth the photos, but we dined on leftover Irish Stew tonight, which was great, but you've seen Irish Stew before...

A bit of blogging and then off to slumberland for this author.

Good Night, and stay healthy, My Friends!