July 18, Ninilchik

July 18  The alarms went off at 3:30 a.m.  Peggy and I were both up and at 'em!  We were on the road to the Ninilchik Charters shortly after 4:00.  We arrive and checked in.  We would be on a charter boat to go halibut fishing with 4 other clients plus the boat's captain.

The boat was towed by the captain to the Deep Creek launch.  I had described the method by which boats are launched into the Cook Inlet in an earlier blog.  Once we began heading out to the fishing grounds it became apparent that this was not going to be a comfortable ride.  The wind was blowing very strongly out of the south and the swells were increasing in frequency and size.

The following best describes the remaining events and feelings as I posted them in Facebook:

Damn, Mother Nature, damn! How dare you bum us out like this.

Here is a photo of our fishing boat that had to cancel our charter due to high seas with pending small craft advisories and warnings. We went 6 of the 12 miles out into the Cook Inlet to halibut fish only to have to turn back and return to the dock. 

I knew we were in high seas when I looked out the front window of the boat and all I could see was the sky. After a couple of those huge swells our captain chose to return to the dock as did the rest of the fleet with Ninilchik Charters. And although disappointed, I know he made the correct decision.

Now I feel snake-bit as our ocean charter in Florida last year was canceled due to the weather. Waa Waa! I'll have some cheese with my whine!

We could not reschedule for a charter tomorrow as all spots were booked. We may consider a time in August when the tourist season wanes to see about trying this again. The good news is we got a full refund...and we are safe!

So there you have it...no halibut fillets from this trip.  But hopefully there will be other opportunities.  During the excruciatingly rough ride I kept asking Peggy if she was OK.  And each time she'd smile and say, "You bet!".  What a trooper!

We got back to our camper about 9:00 a.m.  Since we had an early rising, I promptly took a nap.  In fact I took a couple of long naps up to lunch time.

After lunch we decided to get out and take another round of self-guided tours in the Ninilchik area.  We drove around the old town of Ninilchik and the shoreline area of it.  We also went to the Ninilchik River overview along with the two Deep Creek viewing areas.  When we were there we just so happen to run into Tim who was a client on our boat!  His buddy Clay was back at their rental cabin resting his back after our jarring boat ride.  Tim was going to fish for salmon in Deep Creek.  It was good to see him trying his hand.  However, when the salmon run you can see them in the water, and we saw nothing.

We then went out to the Deep Creek boat launch.  On Tuesday when we were there the lot was full of boat trailers.  Today there were only 4 trailers because the rough Cook Inlet was preventing any sensible fishing.  However, while we waited 2 boats came in.  I'm sure that those passengers were well beaten up by the waves.

Back at the cabin we talked about tomorrow.  We decided to take a wildlife ferry tour from Homer over Kachemak Bay to Seldovia, a Russian village by origin.  Seldovia is isolated as has no roads leading to it.  Access to the town is by boat or airplane only.  Peggy called and made the reservations with our departure time at 10:00 a.m..  

The tour will take us by bird rookeries, hangouts of sea otters, and hopefully if they are in the bay, whales.  This is a large boat with a capacity of 150 people so if the winds hold it should still be able to safely handle the waves.  The tour to Seldovia and back will total about 7 hours.