We took a day trip with the Boxlers on a gloriously calm, sunny Sunday.  We hit the 10:30 tunnel to Whittier, along with many other people.  There were long lines at the launch!  We were also surprised that all the fee stations now took credit cards instead of cash envelopes.  It’s still $20 to launch/retrieve.

We headed to the rookerie to look at birds before dropping shrimp pots in Shotgun Cove.  We saw a leaping minky whale in Passage Canal.

We planned to sightsee our way to Hobo Bay, but the beach was occupied by a large group of campers and kayakers.  We headed near Harrison Lagoon instead.  The shore was nice and there was lots of driftwood for the kids to explore.  They also waded in the ocean to cool off since it was nearly 80 degrees!

The tide went out rapidly and before we knew it we were anchored in uncomfortably shallow water, so we bolted out of there quickly.  Once we were in deeper water we motored slowly and ate a late lunch.  We saw a humpback whale and two porpoise.

We fished at Pigot Point and brought up around 20 fish:  little Pacific Cod, kelp greenling, rockfish, and an Irish Lord.  Lots of bottom fish, but no keepers.

When the kids were done fishing we pulled the shrimp pots – we had 73 in the few hours they soaked, so not bad.

We trolled for salmon on the way back to Whittier but didn’t have any luck.

The retrieval went well, especially since a teenage boy took the lines and helped us land.

We left Whittier through the 10 PM tunnel.  The drive back to Anchorage was incredibly scenic with crazy pink skies.  We would later learn that the stunning sunset was the result of smoke from the Sockeye wildfire, which started near Willow at 1 PM that same day.

It was a memorable day on the water, and fun to share the boating experience with friends!