Snettisham 2009-1

Snettisham 2009 - 4: Low Tide
May 30-31

Eagles on Seal Rocks

I'd returned from a three day weekend at Snettisham (the work party/Memorial Day weekend) late on Monday night. The rest of the week did little to revive me, so I had no plans for work down at Snettisham the next weekend. But, Rory had just finished his performances of O Lovely Glowworm and had one weekend free before heading out of town. So, we decided to make a quick overnight trip on Saturday for our third annual spring Snettisham weekend.

We met up at the harbor at about 1:00 pm, loaded up the boat, and bailed her out. The bilge pump that was installed last summer wasn't working, and the recent rain was seeping above the floorboards (I'd bailed it earlier in the week, too). Chris and I bailed and pumped her out until the floor was dry while Rory returned the harbor cart to the ramp, then we were off with leaving-the-harbor beers in hand. The skies were partly cloudy as we left and we chased sucker holes on the way down while bucking 1-2' seas from the south. It was quite choppy in the channel, but calmed enough in Taku Inlet to encourage us to continue on our way. For some reason we were burning more gas than usual and stopped to switch tanks north of the Seal Rocks and had to add a bit of fuel just shy of the homestead. Later I discovered that I hadn't actually run out of gas in the first tank (I think the hose had vibrated loose) but we still burnt more than usual. We passed whales on the way down including a small individual at Seal Rocks, but the weather didn't encourage stopping. There was a bait ball in the middle of Stephen's Passage that was crazy dense with gulls, and Seal Rocks--which normally are host to no eagles at all--had at least 17 sitting on top. It started to rain south of Taku Harbor and was pouring mercilessly by the time we reached Snettisham, the droplets stinging our faces. Rory wore the mustang suit and sat in the front seat; Chris heroically sat on a cooler behind the seats all the way down.

We reached the homestead at about 4:15 on a rising tide. I dropped everyone off, then anchored the boat. We were all a little wet and, for myself anyway, a bit chilly, so we gathered inside the lodge and built a hot fire out of the old cut-up pallets. These burn so fast and hot that for the first time this year it's turned cherry red at the bottom very quickly. To help warm us up I made Mexican hot chocolate and we spiked it with Rory's brandy. In exploring the potential games for the night (I've gathered a healthy selection over the last year) we pulled out Imaginiff which my aunt game me for Christmas. It comes with a set of cards, each with a scenario and six possible answers, and you're supposed to classify the other players into one of those six categories. For example, one card said something along the lines of "Imaginiff that player X was a home. What home would player x be?" Options included a highrise condominium, ranch house, southern plantation, beach house, and treehouse. We didn't play a formal game, but went through a bunch of cards and tried to classify each other while we lounged around the living room and while Rory started to cook dinner. Interpretations were pretty interesting.

Rory made a magnificent dinner of Philly cheese sandwiches. First he wrapped a bunch of onions and peppers in tinfoil and cooked them on top of the wood stove. When those were ready, he toasted rolls on the range and we filled them up with condiments, roast beef, cheese, and veggies, then wrapped them in tinfoil to toast on the wood stove. They were delicious and we drank ample red wine (from a box) while we ate. Afterwards, we at jiffypop popcorn and played Cranium with a brand new game that Amanda gave me for Christmas. It included four game piece figurines in the shape of the four cranium category characters and a bag of snap-on hats and hair styles with which to outfit them. Since there were three of us, we teamed up pretty fluidly. Chris won. Afterwards we chatted until late and finished Rory's bottle of brandy.

The next morning I slept until about nine, then headed over to the lodge. The tide was in, so I kayaked out to the boat and moved it to deep water since we wanted to leave right at the bottom of a low low tide. I cruised down to about where the dropoff is, then turned on the fathometer to get a better reading. That is, I tried to turn on the fathometer. Turns out that it's not working either. Thankfully I know the area pretty well and managed to throw the anchor in water shallow enough for the anchor line, but deep enough that we wouldn't go dry at low tide. Returning to the lodge I was pretty hungry, so Rory started making French toast while I puttered around outside. I'd spent Saturday morning running errands, including stopping by Don Able for two 2x10x8s to nail to the front of the deck and two PT stair treads to lead up to it. I'd hoped to get both attached that weekend; of course, my truck was in the shop, so I had to borrow my dad's truck (it was a long and stressful morning). I also wanted to move the stack of interior siding for the ceiling off the small porch of the lodge and down to the new deck below, but all I managed to do in the end was cut the 2x10s, paint the cut ends with treatment, and begin nailing in the decking where I wanted to move the lumber (it was still only nailed in at the ends). But, the day was beautiful and clear and I managed to enjoy sitting on the edge of the new deck eating French toast instead of working. Unfortunately (for me), Nigel also enjoyed this. Just as I started to eat I noticed that my little finger was bleeding pretty badly, so I went inside to put on a band aid. I returned to find Nigel wolfing down my breakfast. He was severely reprimanded and, thankfully, there was enough bread for another batch.

Rory came out and joined me to eat his breakfast in the sunshine and we caught up a bit. He went for a kayak with the seals while Chris and I cleaned up. When Rory got back we decided to go for a kayak too. The tide was dropping pretty fast, so it was a haul to the edge of the water and then the river was shallow for some distance. Nigel panicked at our leaving, even though he's been calm all summer when I've kayaked out to the boat. He could tell there was something different about this, I guess, and howled mercilessly, wading out into the shallows after me. I couldn't go on, so I stayed behind and drifted around at the edge of the sand, eventually nudging back up to shore

and slogging my way over the mud and sand to finish packing up at the lodge. We left shortly after Chris returned. I carried some gear with me in the kayak, and Rory and Chris managed to haul the rest all the way down the beach to deep water. I brought the boat into shore and drug the kayak far up the rocks and stowed it behind a big log, tied to a branch while the others loaded gear. The water was so shallow that we had to pole our way out for a bit before we could drop the engine.

Unfortunately, we paid for the gorgeous clear weather with a breeze from the west running straight down Stephen's Passage. It was hard to argue against the sunshine, but the going was a bit slow and tedious. Just out of Snettisham, we beat our way into the wake of a fishing boat which calmed the seas a bit. I only had the patience to stay there for about 15 minutes, though , before I ventured back out into the seas to see if I could make any faster headway and still be comfortable. We could, so we slowly left the fishing boat behind. By the time we reached Grand Island the seas were, oddly, diminishing, and we picked up speed all the way to Arden. There we had a whale lunge feed 50 yards in front of the boat and immediately fluke, so we stopped to see if he/she would repeat. As we drifted there we started to see more whales around us--at least six were cruising the area from Arden north (I suspect there were more) but all were moving very erratically and we never saw another lunge. The seas kicked up again coming down between Admiralty and Douglas Island, so we moved more slowly until we hit Gastineau Channel, then had a brief reprieve before bucking the chop again all the way back to the harbor. It was an exhausting ride, but beautiful, and I wound up very sunburnt. All in all, it was much too short a weekend!

Entering Stephen's Passage from Port Snettisham (Admiralty Island)