SY Sari Timur: Juneau to Taku Bay to Gambier Bay to Warm Springs Bay

Taku Bay Anchor N 58 d 03.82 W 134 d 00.99
Gambier Bay Anchor N 57 d 25.34 W 133 d 58.12 (Snug Harbor)
Warm Spring Bay Dock

We Left Auke Bay at first light for two reasons. First it was a long haul for the day and the second was the weather was supposed to turn foul soon. The breeze was non-existent, which considering 40 knot gusts were forecast for the next day, was a blessing backing out of the marina.

We had scattered showers and between them some wind, so we hoisted the main to give us a power sailing boost. Between one set we had enough wind to put up the two headsails and turn off the engine. Father Tero was impressed we were doing six and a half knots under just three sails for a little over an hour before the next set of rain came and we were becalmed.

We tucked into Taku Bay before dinner and took the dinghy ashore. Taku Bay is famous for three things; the scenery, the bears, and the ruins of a cannery. We didn't see any bears but we did see a pretty fresh salmon carcass by one of the streams. A twelve year old girl had been coming to Auke Bay every summer and she decided to do a project and researched all the ruins. She posted pictures of the ruins in their original state and described what life in the old Libby's Cannery was like. An organization has restored two of the bunk houses for guest cabins and the Forest Service built a cabin for people to stay free of charge as a refuge next to the old caretaker's house and named it after him.

Taku Harbor

We knew we were going to layover the next day because the forecast was for gust up to 35 knots from the wrong direction so we hunkered down, read books, watched movies, and monitored the wind gauge. We saw gusts of up to 38 in our very protected anchorage so we were very happy to be there instead of out trying to beat against it. Just before dinner the weather cleared and we took another trip ashore to finish our sightseeing. We had dressed in rain gear but quickly overheated plus the winds had knocked off all the loose water so we shed our jackets and continued.

The following day was scheduled to be over 9 hours and we hoped to sail part of it when the wind was scheduled to come up sometime late morning early afternoon. So we got an early start for Gambier Bay. The scenery in Stevens Passage is pretty but we hadn't seen whales since we left Auke Bay. Just after noon the breeze filled in and we were sailing for nearly three hours before it dropped so much that we were going too slowly to get to our anchorage before dark. So we fired up the engine and started motor sailing. We had barely started the engine when we saw our first whale spout. At first Father said they are pretty far away and he was talking about his exploits with them very close. As if on cue, a pod of five popped up about 50 metres on our starboard side just silently cruising on their way past us. The whales just kept increasing to the densest concentration any of us had ever witnessed. We had over twenty spouts in the water at the same time off the starboard bow with additional spouts everywhere we looked. We know that all of the whales don't spout at the same time so we must have had an enormous amount of whales in the vicinity. We were a bit concerned as we had to travel through the area with the highest concentration. But as we got closer they stayed away from us and we made a conscience effort to not crowd them into any dead ends as we turned for our bay. We arrived just before 17:30 and we opted to have Saturday Night Mass rather than Sunday as that would be another long day. So Father prepped the foredeck for mass and we had the every first mass on board Sari Timur. Pretty nifty knowing we couldn't be late for church!

Snug Cove, Gambier Bay

another view of Snug Cove, Gambier Bay

Sunday Morning was another early start as we wanted to make Warm Springs Bay in one shot and sit out the next system passing us with access to the famous Baronof Hot Springs. We had to motor sail the whole way as the winds were contrary and we had too much ground to travel. We did get rather too close to a sleeping whale before she surfaced and we were able to do a quick turn to starboard in order to not hit her. But she didn't seem too disturbed and just cruised alongside as we passed her. We arrived in Warm Springs Bay and tied up to the dock. A word to those sailors who follow, the dock is about 250 feet long. If any weather can come in, it will be from the east so you want to turn around before docking. There is a large waterfall at the head of the bay. For us this meant we needed to be making nearly two knots to maintain steerage. Luckily the dock was empty and we made it in the first pass. If there would have been others on the dock it probably would have meant a second shot at it. After a dinner of burritos made by Mark, we headed up to the bath houses at the top of the ramp for a nice relaxing soak before bed. We will add more on Baronof Hot Springs later as we have to sit out today with foul weather. We will take the time to explore this place later.