Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundogadventures/sets/72157631075930862/detail/
Certain trips you look forward to all year and our annual Green Island trip that the Fosters have turned into a tradition is one of those trips. Laura Foster gets up at 5 am exactly 6 months before the trip to compete online to book the cabin for her family for the week. Green Island is about 70 miles from Whittier and that is a good 8 hour day at 7kts and the trip out was calm and mostly sunny with only a bit of socked in fog traveling through the northern passage of Knight Island. So with boat full of gas, extra gas for friends boats, extra coolers with lots of ice and more food than I can ever imagine needing we were finally underway and what was a plan is now an adventure in motion. Around evening on Wed the 8th we settled into Gibbon Anchorage alongside of our boating friends in the “Our Escape”, “Sea Spine” and “Margaret Anne”. Since we would be at the island for 6 days I set a stern anchor line to a buoy that we could simply tie off to each day as we came in from fishing and hunting which sure beat tending anchor.
Once tied up the experience on the Sundog is like a small invasion as dingy’s get launched and bows, guns, knives, hot dogs, marshmallows, and 5 kids literally exit like a well turned Jack in the box. This trip went quite a bit smoother since we Shanghaied Hannah Banana Montana, fee fi pho….. – seriously she was a real blessing and allowed Cathy and I to have more time together alone than I think we have had on a boating trip in, well – maybe ever since Caleb was born. Green Island is really one of the better family friendly locations in the sound with no bears on the island and a great beach in front of the cabin and a perfect sheltered anchorage to boot. It is hard to describe the unadulterated joy and freedom the children enjoy running freely around the island, rowing kayaks and zooming around on the tenders. Nowadays kids are so sheltered and kept indoors and over protected. I understand of course and also fight the fear of the kids running around the neighborhood in town with all what whackos running around and that is why out on the islands it is such a special time for the kids. Other than an occasional knife cut, or hook buried into some part of the body we manage to keep the injuries to a minimum and having a couple nurses along and a doctor does not hurt.
While being checked by a state trooper we learned that a family had hit the rocks out boating and swamped. The father with 3 children survived but the mother drowned. Hard to imagine such tragedy on a day that was as flat and calm and sunny as they come in PWS. Really is very sobering and make my heart sad for the family. It also makes me mentally revisit all of the safety precautions we take to ensure safe boating. Let’s face it, boating is not as safe as tent camping or rving and it only takes a few mistakes to be in big trouble and often very far from help. Having 3 toddler triplets on board even makes the risk factor higher and requires a village to keep an eye out.
Like most great trips the time moves along to quickly and this morning I rose early to get 3 hours of driving back to port in before the crew awoke so it would not be as long a day on the water for them. The sunrise sparkled over the water and lit up the sky in a way that reminded me of my times down around the Florida keys. How different this northern country is than Florida, Deep green waters, high mountain peaks and an abundance of wildlife and open uninhabited spaces. I have to admit I would not mind the warmer waters especially when we finally get so tired of being smelly that we leap into the sea. The sunshine was so nice and seas so calm that we anchored on the outside beach in front of the cabin and went to the top deck in swim suits and slowly got up the courage to leap into the freezing clear green water. With the music turned up loud the party was on and a steady stream of kids and adults took the 12′ leap off the aft cabin splashing, screaming and laughing.
As I write this I am just off the west edge of Perry Island and the Sundog is holding a steady course allowing me to type and occasionally adjust the wheel towards Culross. It is hard to capture all of the great experiences while out for the week but I will close with a few highlights that stand out.
Here goes…..
• Joshua hooked and landed a 25lb halibut with his salmon rod and was very excited about the fish. He is really starting to love fishing and with a middle name of “fisher” I am glad to see it.
• Taking the triplets putting around in the dingy and seeing them catch small cod from the boat.
• Paint peeling team – thanks for working on the windows -hopefully next trip out we will get the pain on.
• Fighting through the schlepp of not catching halibut to finally fill up the cooler with some nice chickens. It was so bad that the “Our Escape” crew brought over a couple bucket loads of buts to break the ice. We finally figure out what the bad fishing Ju Ju was and got her done.
• Shore time on a small island off Green that was covered with seals and a long gravel beach to explore
• Fires on the beach
• The evening light as we filleted fish and shared some adult beverages
• Hanging out with some mighty fine folks that make it all worth while!
If you are still reading, glad you could come along vicariously. As I sign off this trip post Dall porpoise are dancing along the bow and the Alaska Marine Ferry is off in the distance working it’s way into Whittier as well.
Until the next adventure – Sundog Out!
A little side note from our Shanghaied sitter:)
This is Hannah Bananna. I’ve been kidnapped and turned into a swabby and window scraper when I haven’t been forced to watch three crazy two year old boys. Somebody help me!!! The captain even forced me to walk the plank, help, help!!
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