Tracy Arm Cove to Cannery Cove

Blessed with another beautiful sunny day, we made our way out to Holkham Bay where we met by a few sea otters leisurely floating on their backs. Pigeon guillemots, gulls and terns glided along the water’s surface and flew overhead. The granite spires of rock form, what resembles, a giant leaning picket fence between the forests and shore. Later, a small pod of Dall’s porpoise raced towards us to play in our bow wave and wake. Darting and zigzagging they rapidly and powerfully moved through the water creating a distinctive, “rooster tail” and delighted us as we tried to get pictures of them.

Turning into Pybus Bay is a small group of rocky islands where many animals congregate to rest in the calmer protected waters. Eagles, pigeon guillemots, Arctic terns and marbled murrelets are scattered about and a few curious sea lions surfaced nearby. Cannery Cove and a fishing lodge with the same name is tucked in Little Pybus Bay. It is truly enchanting scenery with dramatic verdant green cliffs falling from peaks over 3,000 feet above. Waterfalls cut deep gullies into the mountain side and chartreuse meadows cling just below the towering peaks. At the base of the cliff, a narrow shelf of spruce and hemlock forest is surrounded by large areas of sedge grass rimmed by rocky edges covered with orange rock weed.

Although this cove is a well-protected anchorage, it doesn’t have many opportunities for shore tying so everyone anchored out with only Eldean rafting to Deception. Salmon were leaping from the water all over the bay so, naturally, Ken and Miles went fishing. Others dropped crab pots and Ashley and Lindsey procured the kayaks and were off on an adventure to the stream at the head of the bay. Meanwhile, the crews of Bonum Vitae, Thea, Arctic Star and Dale and Debbie of Eldean all went ashore. Lydia is celebrating her 11^th birthday today and she was keen to check under rocks for shore crabs. As she found larger crabs, the smaller ones were returned to the shore. As she learned to differentiate the sexes, she kept one of each carefully contained inside 2 large clam shells. Before returning to the boats, she set the shore crabs free.

Ashley and Lindsey returned with excitement about their experience of being surrounded by huge schools of salmon in the stream, eagles perched in the trees and ravens with their myriad of interesting sounds. We all returned to our boats for a quiet evening looking forward to the opportunity to sleep in for tomorrow’s lay day and explore this beautiful place more closely.

P.S. Is Alaska on your bucket list? We can take you there! Reserve your spot on our 2022 Mother Goose AK Flotilla today.