Day 42-Sitka

I woke up at 7:00 to cloudless skies and bright sun…perfect!  The mechanic showed up right on time and went to work.  He started replacing the wrong thermostat cover, but I corrected his mistake and he got the work done quickly.  In retrospect I think I’d be a lot better off just doing it myself.  This is certainly a good case where mechanics are not necessarily on top of things, and if you want work done correctly you must keep a sharp eye on them or do it yourself.

Jeff got down to the boat right after the mechanic left and we headed out for Fred’s Creek.  The trip across Sitka Sound was smooth.  Maybe a 2-3 foot swell and no wind chop.  

On the way to Fred's Greek

We got to Fred’s Creek before 11, tied to the mooring buoy, and rowed ashore.  The USFS cabin there is quite nice, perhaps the nicest I’ve seen yet.   It’s big and has terrific views.

Fishing net hammock at the cabin

We wandered down the beach for quite a ways and spotted recent bear and deer tracks.  The bear tracks were big, but we didn’t actually see the bear.

Beautiful spot, beautiful weather!

Lots of flotsam on the beach, including this refrigerator 

Bear tracks

Jeff in the kayak

Back to the boat around 12:30 for a lazy lunch, and then a cruise up around Krestof Island and back down Olga Strait.  The scenery around Sitka is breathtakingly beautiful.  Countless small islands and islets, intricate passageways, soaring snowcapped peaks...it’s got it all.  The navigation here is a bit trickier than elsewhere in SE Alaska since there seem to be more reefs and rocks, but modern chart plotters make this easy (as long as the charts are accurate).

We got back to Sitka around 5:00.  The clouds had returned and the wind had picked up a bit.  Oh well.  By 6:00 rain showers begun, and by 6:30 it looks like Alaska on just about every other day I’ve been here.  Low clouds, rain, temperature in the 50’s.  At least Jeff got to see a bit of sunshine while he’s up here.

Les and Kathy at EQ Marine had looked into the leaky tstat cover more and posted some info on the C-Dory website.  Apparently the problem isn’t that common, there is no service bulletin addressing it specifically (it’s one step in another service bulletin that doesn’t effect all engines), and the leaking water  poses no safety problem.  The ECM is waterproof.  The most frustrating part of this process has not been the problem itself, but rather the inconsistent information I’ve gotton from different Honda dealers and Honda Marine.  At this point it’s all behind me, though, so I’m good to go.

36.9 nm today and 1,658.1 total