Fougner Inner Cove Sea Otter Cove

It was a quick one-hour cruise over to Sea Otter Cove, and the day started with sunshine. We could actually see up Burke channel toward the mountains there, unlike yesterday’s low clouds and fog. For a moment we were tempted to change our destination to Kwatna Bay, but there was little guarantee the sunny weather — very nice to have for Kwatna exploration — would hold. So Sea Otter Cove it was.

Karen heard about this anchorage while doing laundry at Shearwater.  There are three arms in Sea Otter Cove, and our plan was to anchor in the South Cove, opposite the “opening” which provides a view into Fitz Hugh Sound.  We knew from Marine Traffic and AIS that there was a sailboat at the head, which would leave us our target spot — right across from the “opening” — to anchor.

After a bit of calculation to determine exactly where to drop the anchor to maximize our view out the cut, we anchored in 60 feet. We were well away from the other sailboat, and it was nice to give them space.

looking out into fitz hugh sound from sea otter cove, south

s/V Aurora II at thehead of sea otter cove, south

looking south at the head of sea otter cove south

As soon as we arrived, Karen spotted a pair of sandhill cranes on the spit of low-tide shoreline where the cut to Fitz Hugh was. They were frequent visitors to this area throughout our stay.

sand hill cranes looking out to fitz hugh sound

Later in the day, we launched the dinghy to explore the other two arms of Sea Otter Cove. We quickly determined that we preferred our current location, the south arm.

One note is that in the dinghy, using Garmin Navionics charts, there was a bit of discrepancy in the location of the drying areas that extend from shore in both the west and north coves.

Add to this the fact that there were a couple of big boulders under the water at the edge of some of the drying areas reminds every mariner to continually monitor the charts and compare that to what you see around you and on the depth sounder.

On our way back to OceanFlyer we chatted with the folks on the Sailboat Aurora II. They were trying to get weather for their southbound rounding of Cape Caution and we happily offered up our Starlink connection.

there is a drying arm at the head you can explore at high tide in your dinghy or kayak