#19 - Rocky Pass to Big John Bay, Hamilton Bay or Kake

We have a lunch date with the high tide at the Summit of Rocky Pass.  That translates to high slack water occurs in the middle of Rocky pass at 12:30PM and it's best not to be late!  So we pull the traps early harvesting 8 large male crabs and start'em cooking.  Just past 7AM we are exiting Exchange Cove with steamy windows and the faint aroma of seawater boiling crab with Pappy's seasoning....yum!

Our route from Exchange Cove to Kake

Once the crab was cooked and cooled it was easy to enlist crab pickers.  The entire Wild Blue crew volunteered to pick, as they knew what all crab pickers know: pickers can taste as much as they pick!

Who's picking and who's tasting here?

By 11:30 we entered the south end of Rocky pass northbound for Big John Bay.  Big John was selected for it's voluminous crab, but with a boat full of crab and  low fresh water tank levels, we decided to anchor close to Kake, a good water source.  And after further discussion Vince needed more garlic to complete his crab pasta dinner creation, so Kake became the day's destination.  In any case we still had to finish our lunch date at the Summit and we were running 20 minutes late. About 3 miles from the Summit, the "current" middle of Rocky Pass, the tide switched and we began slowing,but soon made it past "Devils Elbow" and the Summit where the current returned to favor our northerly direction.  By 4PM we were docked in Kake, a small Indian village with a good market.

Pretty Rocky Pass

Devils Elbow in Rocky Pass

At the dock in front of Abyssinia, a kayak charter boat. 

The sun shined in Kake while it continued to rain.

Vince's fresh crab pasta with garlic, olive oil and Parmesan.