Batteries, goddamn batteries. I totally forgot to charge my camera’s battery for the whole trip, and today it finally pooped out. And as my camera takes a special rechargeable battery, it’s not like I could just stick a couple of new AAs in that sucka to get it working again. This was particularly unfortunate as I saw some of the most beautiful scenery today.

As I’ve mentioned, Andy runs a marine outfitter company called Orcas Unlimited. They do fishing expeditions, kayaking, hunting charters, etc. Andy normally operates his boat, The Celeste, out of Kodiak’s main harbor, but tomorrow has an expedition in Anton Larsen bay. This requires taking his boat around the coastline, so Matt and I accompanied him.

It turned out to be a really fantastic trip! It was a bit choppier than I thought it would be initially, the harbor leads directly to fairly unprotected waters. I spent a lot of time topside, and once I tried got too cold I went into the cabin and started to feel slightly green. But the waters calmed as we got past Manashka Bay and so did my stomach. We played some cribbage and listened to some tunes.

When we got closer to Anton Larsen, Andy dropped anchor and Matt and I hopped in some kayaks. We paddled around for 45 minutes or so. The water was dead calm and we visited some of the rock outcrops where gulls and puffins make their nests. It was really nice, too bad Andy decided to stay on the boat to keep Gauge company.

Then we continued towards the public dock and Anton Larsen. The weather cleared up towards the end creating some beautiful scenes. At a few points the sun just lit up the mountain faces on the edge of the water way. After we tied up, the three of us headed over to the OPH to meet up with Betsy and a group of friends. But because of a lack of chairs and the fact that the group was already finishing up, the three of us got our own table. We met up with the group at a bar called Tony’s and stayed for a few beers.