October 24th
We missed the little window we had to move south to Larson’s Bay, so we decided to snuggle into East Arm. We were able to pull weather a few days ago and during our transit we heard there is a gale coming from the south in the next couple of days. We tried to anchor in East Arms southern shore to give us some protection, but the anchorage was too rocky. We made the decision to pull up anchor and reset it a little closer in. Just as we were getting in a little closer Wade motioned for Sara to put the engine in reverse as quickly as possible. Just as Sara was revving the engine to 2500 RPM in reverse she saw the depth finder state 6 feet. For those that do not know our keel (bottom of the boat) is 6 feet below the water line. When Wade installed the depth finder he actual set it to read two feet shallower, meaning when it reads 6 feet it is actually 8 feet. Still we were lucky that our anchor did drag the first time we set it or at low tide and a wind shift we could have swung right into the rock. One more reason to not rely solely on a chart, but use your eyes.
We re-anchored further from shore but still fairly protected from southern winds. Our new anchorage is just outside a very active camp. A nice size cabin with three boats moored to a mooring ball and two mooring balls to spare and if you can believe it an excavator. Alaska is surprisingly very busy during the winter season, and we have not really been alone in any of our anchorages.
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
Unknown Bay Anchorage 51′ Sand 57$deg; 42.456N, 153° 28.210W
