The weather was iffy today on Kodiak Island, but Steve and I headed out anyway to do some scenic driving and some fishing. Linda and Esther ended up staying at the rental townhouse and immersing themselves in a jigsaw puzzle.
We drove out Anton Larsen Bay Spur over a small pass and to the bay on the other side.
We noticed ripening berries and bear scat on the road, but we didn't see any bears along the way.
Along the bay, locals with remote houses and cabins that can only be reached by boat park their trucks. When they need supplies, they boat over to the bay, and then drive their trucks into the town of Kodiak.
There were some boats anchored on pulley systems waiting for the folks that were currently running their Kodiak errands.
We walked around a little before heading back.
On the way back, we stopped at a little public boat dock we had passed earlier.
We fished off the dock for a little while. I managed to snag a small halibut that I released.
It was calm, quiet, and pretty out there, but we didn't have much luck with the fishing.
We returned over the pass ....
to Kodiak Island's main road, Rezanof Drive. We heard that some salmon were biting lures at Russian River, so we headed that way. We didn't really like the looks of that, so we continued on another twenty miles to the Olds River where we got word some Sockeye Salmon were moving.
At the Olds River, there was a really nice pool and we could see fish flashing, but just like yesterday nothing would bite. I snagged a nice Dolly Varden that I also released. It was cold and windy out there, so we turned around and went back.
We again stopped at the Russian River where we saw a bunch of Pink Salmon swimming around under the bridge. We watched the other fishermen try to coerce them to bite, but it just wasn't happening.
Eventually, we went back to the Buskin River where we fished a little yesterday. I caught another Pink Salmon, but we didn't get anything else, so I released it. The rain picked up, and we decided to call it quits for the day.
On our way back to the rental, I got a text message from the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS - the ferry). It said:
"Due to the IBU strike, the MV Tustumena sailings are cancelled through July 30th, 2019. Please call to reschedule or refund your travel."
Yikes. Who is IBU and what strike? Turns out that's the Inland Boatman's Union and the ferry workers went on strike July 24 right after we were unloaded off the ferry in Kodiak a couple days ago.
We were scheduled to sail back to Homer on July 29, but apparently that's not happening.
When we got back to the townhouse, Esther had gotten the same text and called to see what was going on. The AMHS said that they weren't sure when the strike would end and service would be resumed. To be safe, they re-scheduled us for two weeks out on August 12, but said they will resume service sooner if the strike is resolved quickly. However, we may or may not be able to get on earlier sailings if that happens.
Linda and Esther called the owner of the townhouse, and she said we could stay there until August 4, but then she had new renters coming in. Technically, we could have found new lodging and stayed until August 12 if we had to, but that was going to get really expensive, so we started considering our options.
We took a "wait and see approach" hoping the strike would get resolved in the next day or two, and we could sail back to Homer on time or just a day or two later than planned.
We called the Harbormaster Office in Homer and explained our situation since our RVs were in the free 7-Day parking area and it looked like we weren't going to be back within the 7 days after all. They said we could purchase a one-week parking permit for $30, and they would inform parking lot security that we couldn't be there to place our permit on the vehicles. We told them we'd call back and do that if necessary.
Sheesh. Kodiak Island is nice, but I was a little disappointed in it thus far. The road system fishing wasn't as good as we hoped, and the more remote areas just weren't accessible without booking an expensive bush plane or float plane charter. We could have stayed until August 12, but none of us really wanted to do that. The big issue was our Jeeps. We could easily fly back to the mainland, but what about our Jeeps?
I guess we'll see what happens.
In the meantime, we had another delicious dinner, and Linda made a maple-bacon cheesecake.
That was the birthday cake for me and Steve, since his birthday was July 25 and mine is July 29. We managed to save just a little for tomorrow night.
Comments