Saturday, June 15, 2013

#2013-24 Whale Bay's Small Arm is a new favorite anchorage.

Coast Pilot states "The depths are too great to afford anchorage."  The Douglass guide states "Small Arm may offer reasonable anchorage...".  Sounds discouraging, however in our opinion, Small Arm is one of the finer anchorages in SE Alaska, especially for the magnificent views..  We anchored in about 6 fathoms on the south side of the bitter end, tucked just behind the small peninsula.  It was out of any wind and quite secure.  We asked others who have anchored there and they too have had great experiences.

A pretty morning in the Small Arm.
Dave takes in the morning sun.
Amazing views of snow-capped mountains.
Shore excursion shows westerly view up to Small Arm's elbow.
We're up at 7am and with the crabs collected last night and today, we're ready for a crab breakfast. Fresh sweet crab is quite good when cooked with Pappy's seasoned saltwater.  Served with butter and mayonnaise, Sid reminds us he has extra and will sell us gout tablets for $100 each!

Crabs in a cage.
Crabs a cookin'.
What patience to pluck all the crab meat before a taste!
Even with all this sunny morning's activities, we are still able to get fishing by 9am. We troll back and forth across Whale Bay in warm weather and flat waters. We have a lazy day of fishing shagging a King or two and a few Cohos, but there's talk of crab enchiladas tonight, and a possible Alaskan trifecta.  The trifecta is three species caught on the same day.  Today we've caught salmon, crab and, if our traps don't fail us, prawns. The last trifecta on Wild Blue occurred in 2009 at Lituya Bay when we caught salmon, halibut and prawns. By 2pm we're headed back up the Arm to pull prawn traps.  The champagne is on ice.  Is it a trifecta?  A BIG no....the prawns aren't in the Arm for us.  Hopefully we can suffer through the rest of the day on fresh salmon with sweet crab enchiladas.  Hey Sid, any of those gout pills left?

Chef Dave preps his famous crab enchiladas. 

So good the crew demanded a repeat performance for tomorrow's lunch.

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