Klag Bay to Elfin Cove
/Today our destination is Elfin Cove, 55 miles from Klag Bay. The wind was cooperative, generally remaining less than 15 knots, and the skies were sunny and bright.
We weaved our way inside as much as possible because when we did have to go out into the ocean, the waves were 8-footers with a short period, producing what I call “hard chop”. Not dangerous, just annoying.
A little bit of follow the leader as we sneak inside.
Nice ride and beautiful scenery up Lisianski Straight.
Elfin Cove is unique and charming and certainly worth the stop. But there is not much dock space in the outer harbor, and it is always busy. Deception went in first to reconnoiter the berthing situation. There was a cargo barge working adjacent to the dock, loading all kinds of refuse from Elfin Cove residents. There were fish-boats galore. Patos, Telita and OceanFlyer hovered outside for an hour in swells while Brian and Rich negotiated with the fishermen to move boats around and make some room for the “fleet”. Everyone was great. In the end, Patos rafted to Deception and Telita rafted to OceanFlyer, and several fishing boats were rafted together in front of us.
The docks at Elfin Cove.
There was a mad dash to the little grocery store thinking that, being Sunday, the shop would close soon. The store was just as we remembered, perhaps with the stock down a bit. After we made our stop at the store, purchasing what turned out later to be stale lemon cookies, we walked the boardwalk to see what has changed and what has stayed the same. The inner harbor was packed and quite active.
The inner harbor at Elfin Cove.
We were disappointed to find that the fish smoker had retired. Our hope was for some fresh-smoked salmon to add to our larder, but we were skunked.
The Elfin Cove Lodge and adjacent Coho Bar and Grill has been rebuilt since our last visit in 2010 when it was still smoldering from a devastating fire. We were in the mood to relax on our boat rather than eat out (or drink out), although most of the fleet found their way at one time or another to the Coho Bar!
A little Elfin Cove humor. A lot of the "uphill" residences have a cart track alongside the stairs for getting groceries home.
A couple of Alaskan Amber beers onboard OceanFlyer were our reward for a long day of cruising. We had a peaceful night…and unlike our last trip in 2010, no naked men knocked on the hull at 2am!