Finally we are free of King Cove. The weather has mellowed, though there’s still a 15’ swell out there. Our next 70 miles are inside of the Shumagin Islands, so we’re sheltered from it. We continue to pass volcano after volcano as we move up the AK Peninsula. Kevin and I start to look for surf. As we get towards Unga Island, we see something that looks like surf. Unfortunately, it’s too small and peeling for a short time before wasting on rocks. Given the late hour and the small size we continue on towards Zachary Bay and Coal Island for the night, choosing to wait out a 20 knot ‘on the nose’ wind.
We see a huge volcano ahead, Pavlof, surrounded by a couple of smaller cones sitting high above the clouds. It tops out at 8,261’ and is covered in snow and glaciers. It looks like the north side is in shadow, but we can’t really see it yet as we steam up the coast. Finally, as we near it, we can see that the entire north side is covered in ash, and small steam clouds are visible coming from the summit. We excitedly take a ton of pictures before turning to lunch.
Suddenly Kevin yells for everyone to come up. Pavlof, now just to the south of us, has actually erupted! A cloud of black ash has issued, probably 2k’ high. 15 minutes later another cloud is belched out, and another 15 minutes later, the biggest one along with huge amounts of steam. So freaking cool. We get one final view near sunset of the steam in the caldera lit up before the clouds close up and we say goodbye to Pavlof.
As we approach Coal Island, it becomes clear that it is the home to an INCREDIBLE amount of seabirds. Puffins are swimming everywhere, Albatross fly above us, and thousands of gulls are nesting on the small island. We come us close and hear the protests of the gulls all around us. Fortunately somehow we avoid the back end of the birds…
We throw down anchor in Coal Harbor. Like many places it’s named a harbor because you can anchor safely there, not because there is any sign of human impact. It’s another beautiful place, as the Shumagin Islands don’t disappoint. Brian and Josh start fishing for halibut, but are only successful catching sculpin (the fish, not the beer) and we let them go.
Tomorrow we begin the sprint to Kodiak, our second to last ocean passage. Trip is starting to wind down. Sigh…
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