miles from the the nearest island. The main rock is 500 feet long and 90 feet high. The Navtech Eletronic charts show Lighthouse
Rocks about 0.3 miles north of where they really are. The paper charts are correct. In case you find youreslf in the area,
Lighthouse Rocks are at 55°46.6N, 157°24.5W.
Lighthouse Rocks had hundreds of thousands of common murres, a black and white seabird. There were also a bunch of Steller sea
lions. We didn't see a lighhouse. The big rock is spectacular, coming out of the ocean with vertical (almost) cliffs on three sides,
a hole through the center, and a huge cloud of birds flying around it.
I was pretty nervous about getting too close, because the charts were a little flaky, and even on the paper chart there was almost
no depth information. But we got within a few hundred feet and the depth was more than 100 feet except for the east side.
Some of the sea lions were high up on the rock, maybe 30 feet, in places that looked impossible for them to climb. Birds covered
almost every flat surface. Other than birds, sea lions, and moss, the Lighthouse Rock is bare. If there ever was a light house
there, I didn't see a trace.
From Lighthouse Rocks we headed northeast to the Semidi Islands. These are a group of small islands about 30 miles from the Alaska
Peninsula. We met a fog bank on the way, and by the time we got to Aghiyuk Island we had less than 1/4 mile visibility. The chart on
our chart plotter was about 1/3 mile off for the Semidi Islands, too. I think they were trying to trick us into ramming a rock.
There were a lot of murres on Aghiyuk, and some cliffs a few hundred feet tall. We went to the next island south, Kateekuk, and went
out in the dinghy. There were puffins, murres, ducks, guillemots, auklets, seagulls, harbor seals, and lots of strange rock
formations.
We went out into the thick fog again and found our way to Chowiet Island. We went into a couple of coves to anchor, but the water
was too deep too close to shore. We did see a tree, though. Only one on all the islands.
Next, when we were motoring along near Suklik Island, I saw some birds off to the right, standing up in the water. I turned left a
little and was taking their picture when Fullerton said there was something up ahead in the water and told me to turn right. I
figured out that those birds and what he saw must have been a shallow rock, and put the engines in reverse and stopped real quick.
Then I saw that my rock was really a couple of logs in the water -- one for the birds, and one for Fullerton.
Some really cool rocks were sticking up out of the water at Suklik. There were a lot of birds there murres, fulmars, and some etc.
The fog was burning off when we headed for Chirikof Island a few hours away. I slept and Fullerton fished unsuccessfully. We got to
the island about 30 minutes before sunset. We planned to go to shore and check it out.
When I reversed the motors while lowering the anchor (is weighing anchor coming in or going out?), a fish hit on the fishing pole. I
grabbed the pole. It was a big fish. It swam under the boat. The fishing like was wrapped around the prop. We're using the other
engine now. It was too dark by the time we finished the fun-filled anchoring activities, so we headed out to Tugidak Island, just
southwest of Kodiak.
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1 comment:
Perhaps you should delay fishing activities until you both get your new eyeglasses in Kodiak!
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