Kukak Bay

Wednesday, 18 August: Part III

We left Geographic Harbor around 11:00a; destination: Kukak Bay. The Shelikof Strait, as Lee described it, was “blowing 25.” Conditions weren’t that bad really, but after being anchored in calm waters for two nights, the movement of the Single Star was decidedly noticeable.

Left: Kukak Bay is marked with a green star.
Right: Google map showing our anchorage in Kukak Bay.

By mid-afternoon, we were anchored in the bay and on our way to shore shortly thereafter. We set up on a gravel berm overlooking a shallow creek and settled down to wait for the bears to show up.

We’re all bundled up; it’s windy and a bit chilly here.

The only bear around is pretending to be a boulder!

waiting for the salmon to come in on the tide is boooring!

It was indeed a slow afternoon at Kukak Bay — both for the bears and for us. A few bears came by to see if there was anything of interest in the creek, but their visit was rather short. Obviously, we weren’t appealing enough to keep their attention for long (and that’s a good thing!). A couple of bears took naps nearby, rousing themselves briefly to look around before resuming their second favorite pastime. There was at least one sow with cubs, but the family remained in the distant rocks, looking a little nervous … maybe they had heard of the incident at Geographic Harbor!

Hello to you too.

A few more visitors to brighten up our day.

The bear behind Eberhard gets up and looks at us,
but doesn't come to visit.

Do you know what time the salmon will be here?

When this bear started digging in the mud after sniffing around
for a while, we were sure he was after a clam. We were wrong.
he was just scratching out a comfortable seat for himself.

While visiting with the only other person on the beach,
Eberhard has a close encounter of the bear kind.

Since the bears were not cooperating, I turned my attention to a Greater Yellowlegs wandering around nearby. I was afraid to scare the bird off as I inched my way down to the edge of the water, but my concern was for naught. It just went about its business as though I didn’t exist.

can you guess why this wading bird is called yellowlegs?

the bill of the greater yellowlegs is twice as long
as the diameter of its head.

After a while, concluding that the action wasn’t going to get much better, we called Lee to pick us up. The hot bouillabaisse that he and Lindsay had concocted for dinner was the perfect thing to warm us up after our rather chilly outing.

Our anchorage for the night.

Intriguing cloud formations at kukak bay.

It was a quiet afternoon for us. But you know, I welcomed the change of pace. After all the bear action at Geographic Harbor, it wasn’t so bad to just sit back and relax on the beach for a couple of hours. Now to get a good night’s rest!