Due to weather and to commitments in town I was unable to get out on the boat during February.
Finally, a period of excellent weather corresponded with a gap in commitments in town, so I planned a 3 day and 2-night excursion into George Inlet and Carroll Inlet.
Here is a map snippet that shows my route for this trip. I first went into George Inlet to a little cove I had seen on other trips called Bat Cove. I spent the first night there, and then the next day I moved over to Gnat Cove, which is in Carroll Inlet.
After spending the night in Gnat Cove I stopped in briefly at the Shoal Cove USFS so that I could get to shore and fly my new/replacement drone.
Total trip mileage was about 66 nautical miles.
I pulled out of my slip in Bar Harbor at about 7:15 AM on Saturday morning. The weather was very good with only a very light NW breeze blowing. It's late March so it is still pretty cool in the mornings. Two eagles eye-balled me as I left the harbor.
Deer Mountain towers over the downtown area.
There is a trail that goes up Deer Mountain but even though I have been in town for over 40 years I've never gone up there. I'm too old to make the trip now, I fear.
It was a beautiful day to be out on the boat.
Right in front of Bat Cove there are 2 huge mooring balls. I assume they are leftover from the days when they were doing a lot of logging in the area and they needed a place to moor the big log barges.
There is another slightly smaller ball closer to shore.
In the very back of Bat Cove there is a wanigan of sorts. I checked it out up close in the raft, but I could not figure out what its purpose is.
Here is the obligatory photo of Faraway at anchor in Bat Cove. It's a neat little cove that is very well protected from the weather.
George Inlet can be a very beautiful place on a sunny and calm early Spring day.
I set my 2 crab pots overnight and pulled them in the morning. I only got 1 crab, but it was a legal male, so I kept him in a bucket until I set my pots in Gnat Cove. It's not worth the effort to cook 1 crab, but if I got more in Gnat Cove then he would go into the pot too.
Here is a panoramic video of Bat Cove from my anchorage.
George Inlet was beautiful on this sunny and clear calm day as I made my way from Bat Cove over to Gnat Cove.
It's days like this that really invigorate me and make me appreciate the unique environment in which I am privileged to live.
I made my way into Gnat Cove and got securely anchored. I have spent time in here before but it has been at least 10 years or more, so it feels like a new place for me.
I launched the raft and set my 2 crab pots in about 50' of water. I had intended to leave them soak overnight but I got antsy and went out and pulled them right before dark. I had no crabs in one pot, but 3 in the other pot, 2 of which were legal sized males. Now I had 3 legal crabs, so it was worth the effort to cook them.
Dungeness crabs have a reputation for being somewhat "grouchy" and aggressive. You want to keep your fingers away from the claws, even if you have gloves on.
This guy and the 2 others that I got ended up in my cook pot on the back deck.
I really didn't want or need to get back to town very early on Monday, so I decided to go a little out of my way and spend a few hours at the Shoal Cove USFS dock. I had crashed and sank my first drone out at Margeurite Bay in January, but the company sent me a new one for free. I had not had the time or opportunity to fly the new drone, so I decided to try that at Shoal Cove.
Up on the logging road there was crusty snow, and the deer tracks were everywhere! I knew there were deer in this area because I've been here before, but seeing all those dozens of tracks frozen into the snow really emphasized how active they were. If I were staying here overnight, I would have set up my 2 trail cameras to record their nighttime activity. As it was, I saw no deer during my brief stop here.
I found a big clearing near the old log sorting area and set up to try out my new drone. I am very inexperienced in this, so I took it pretty slow, not wanting to lose this drone like I lost the first one. I took a few photos and a few videos. I'm still learning, and I hope to get some more good shots and videos on future trips this year. What I really want to do is fly it from the boat while I am underway, but at this point I doubt I'll ever have enough confidence in my flying ability in order to do that.
Here's a shot of the boat at the dock from about 50' in the air.
I experimented with shooting video, but there wasn't much of interest in the area to shoot.
It was getting time to head back to town and all the realities that that brings. I had started the engines and was just waiting for them to warm up when I noticed a boat approaching the dock. It was straight on so I could not get a good view of its profile. It did not head in as if to tie up to the dock, but instead headed for my stern. I went out on the back deck and then saw that it was an Alaska State Trooper enforcement vessel. The pilot opened his side window and said they had found some drift fishing gear floating out in the inlet and wondered if it was mine. When I replied in the negative, he wished me good day and they went on their way.
After they left, I pulled out and headed back to town, arriving into my stall at Bar Harbor just before 4 PM. It was a great trip and I'm already planning my next destination. My goal for 2023 is to try to go mostly to places I have not been or have not been for many years.
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