"Checked engine oil and transmission and battery fluids before leaving. Oil
OK, added transmission fluid, batteries OK.
"Motored up to Kritoi Basin in much calmer seas than yesterday. The wind
still on our nose from the NW. Visibility was not great due to the cloud cover but
the rock formations off Baranof were spectacular and we could see the snow-capped
mountains rising into the clouds. If it's clearer in the morning we might head up
Small Arm or Great Arm for a look ...
"Two loons greeted us as we entered the basin, and their call was all we could
hear as we anchored.
"Took the dinghy out fishing in the entrance to Great Arm. Ian caught two
rockfish. We used one as bait for the prawn and crab traps. Just after we put
the line in the water a humpback came alongside: he dove not 50 feet from the dinghy, and
then went to feed outside Ravokoi Bay where we watched him for over an hour. Luckily
I had brought the binoculars: his loud call or song was very sharp as he fed, it was the
first time either Ian or I had heard a whale call.
"Ian and I both observed how small Ilari looks in the wilderness: such a small
piece of the large picture ..."
We set the prawn and crab
traps overnight, with rockfish as bait. In the morning, there was nothing in the
prawn trap, but when we hauled up the crab trap, there was an ENORMOUS starfish attached
to it. He was trying to absorb the rockfish head through the trap's netting: he was
so big that the (large) fishhead did not seem oversized.