Afternoon on the Boat

Today was one of the rare days it didn’t rain & since we were both off work for the holiday, we decided to take the boat out to do some fishing.  This was my 1st time out on our new boat, or any boat since we arrived in Sitka.  This was Kolt’s 1st time taking his own boat out on his own without his friends who have been helping him.  However, we were going to meet up with some friends who were already out on the water & tie the 2 boats together.  We also took Gunner out with us & it was his very 1st time on a boat.  Getting Gunner on the boat was challenging, he dug his nails into the dock & layed down so we couldn’t get him in.  Kolt ended up getting out of the boat, picking him up & then climbing in the boat with him.  Once he was in, he didn’t seem to mind it.  He was looking over into the water & sniffing everything & could not sit still.  Once we started moving I had to put him in the lower cabin with a bone to try & calm him down.  He did not know what to think of being on the boat when it was moving.  It has been cold here & the snow has slowly been creeping further & further down the mountain closer to land.  We are replacing the canvas that encloses the main cabin so as of now it is open, which means when we are moving it is COLD.  We stayed close to land since we were only going to the other side of the island.  We met our friends in Silver Bay which is where there are a couple sight seeing pullouts on the road as well as the Whale park which has gazebos with whale information & lookout scopes for whale watching.  This is where we saw the pod of Orcas just a couple weeks ago & I have heard that during these winter months whales frequent this bay.  Once we arrived in Silver bay, we immediately saw whales.  We could see them cresting the water & sometimes they were so close that their spouts were really loud.  It was beautiful.  Kolt & his friend fished a little bit but it was so cold that we didn’t stay out too long.  Gunner seemed to like it as well, putting his front paws up on the side of the boat so he could see more.  On our way back in Gunner finally layed down in the lower cabin & got comfortable.  Our friends followed us back in & I turned around one time to see how far behind us they were & between our boat & their boat, a whale surfaced the water…. It was AWESOME!  We weren’t out very long since it was so cold but we had a good time.  We are both VERY excited for the spring & Summer so we can spend more time out on the water.  It will be a little warmer & we will have more daylight.  As of right now it is completely dark by 4:30pm & it is really throwing our sense of time off track.  We have gotten a little bit of snow last week but we are supposed to be getting more next week.  The weather forecast is predicting snow Monday - Wednesday & on a couple days the highs are only going to be in the 20’s.  However, there has been a severe winter storm passing through Alaska & we have managed to avoid getting hit by that.  I think it mainly effected the west part.