July 4th

                                                    Our first whale tail

July 4^th

6:30 departure  61 degrees  sunny

What a day of wonderful sights!  Dolphins escorted and entertained us early that morning. I finally got some decent photos of them. Diane spotted some whale sprays, and we kept watch, cameras in hand. To our amazement, the whale breeched and then came closer to the boat, surfaced, rolled and waved his flipper at us twice before diving and flipping up his tail. Now, that was quite the Fourth of July surprise!

We stopped to fish at Morris Reef in Chatham Strait. David caught two baby ling cod and released them. Diane hooked a quillback rock fish and let it go. Mike spent most of his time helping the ladies (especially me) so didn’t get his line in the water much. Diane is looking for those gigantic halibut or king salmon. She has already bagged a huge salmon while fishing with the Sidles and has definitely caught the “the fishing fever”.

                                              Finally got a dolphin underwater shot

              

We planned to dock in Tenakee Springs but read that July 4^th was their busiest holiday. We took a chance that there would be space for us, and I hailed the harbormaster on the radio. We had debated on how to pronounce “Tenakee” and I chose the wrong pronounciation. I was quickly set straight by a lone male voice repeating the name correctly on the radio back to me. I just answered with a simple “Thank you”.

As we approached, David noticed there was room for us on the outside breakwater. We tied up, brought down the dinghy and motored on over to the docks.  David had read that there was a hot springs bathhouse in town so we were on a mission.

                                                         One of the parade "floats"

We strolled down the 5 foot wide dirt path that is the “Main Street” in town. There were kids on bikes and quads that politely passed us. It was so darn hot that the thought of submerging myself into a tub of hot water was becoming less and less appealing as we walked the ½ mile past homes, a closed bakery and closed mercantile. Unfortunately, we had missed the town’s 4^th of July parade but noticed lots of decorated bikes, wagons and quads decked out in patriotic colors. Most of the buildings we walked past were all decked out, as well. We reached the end of the path just as the “Tug of War” competition was ending.

                                                                       Main Street

The bathhouse was a small cottage and outside was posted the hours of use. The men’s and women’s hours were different. We arrived during the men’s bathing time and David couldn’t wait. All he said when he walked in was, “Go find yourselves a beer”.  We tried but the “Beer Garden” set up for the holiday was beer-less, but we stayed for a short time listening to the live music. 

Mike went back to tell David we were going to walk back and find a shady spot to sit and wait for him. We did not want to deny David his time in the mineral waters (after all, he is the captain). He found us about a half hour later sitting on a wooden bench in the coolest spot on the path. We went straight back to the boat to relax and break open some beer.

The baths were set in a small cottage with one cement pit about the size of two hot tubs.  There were cement benches that surrounded a natural chasm or crack in the earth.

After a scrumptious meal of ling cod (which David caught), we listened to the gun shots and firecrackers going off at the docks and on the opposite shore. It wasn’t even dark yet!