July 3. Because there were some smaller salmon jumping; we trolled around Pavlof Harbor, in SeaScape for about 30 minutes with no nibbles. Left about 9 pm on mild seas, motoring for about 4 hours into Tenakee Springs. It is a “character and quirky” village that had its roots in a cannery and a resting place for the fishing fleets. Now it has less than 50 permanent residents and many more recreational properties, mostly from the Juneau area. The wharf had electricity and non potable water. Payment was by an honor box at the head of the wharf. For us it was about $30 a night. It would have been another $15 per day for electrical 30 amp hookup. Expensive because the village gets it’s electricity from large diesel generators. It was mostly sunny so our solar was providing all the electricity we needed.
The village has a fairly well stocked grocery and liquor store with quite a bit of history. Its only open between 11am and 2 pm most days. But if you really need something; the owner’s phone number is on the door. BTW there is no cell service but wire connected phones and free phone booths in several spots around the village. There is one main unpaved road through the village and along the coast for several miles. Local bylaws and a ferry dock that was designed only to unload narrow offroad vehicles. That road is lined with lots of wild and gardened flowers. Everyone in the village gets around on ATVs and bicycles. There is one small natural hot springs that is not coincidently in the centre of the village at the main dock. It has been surrounded many years ago by a concrete and wood building and can only accommodate about a half a dozen people at a time. It is a good hot springs temperature with no tempering hoses or limits to the flow. It is free to use and maintained by taxation of the locals, volunteers and a donation box. It has been around for many years and has it’s own specific rules for use. Specifically; nude bathing only, no soap in the springs and a required wash station adjacent using hand buckets scooped from the springs. No co-ed times, just 24 hour separate use times for males and female. It was about a 20 minute walk from the visitors wharf. At 10 pm I went for a dip at the allotted male time, on July 4. It was the right temperature, authentically historic. I had the first 10 or 15 minutes to myself, then; the July 4 male celebrants started to trickle in. The drab concrete walls and ceiling made for much echoing and we tourists had trouble with understanding what the locals were saying. In particular; a local parson who for some reason was telling me all about his mechanical problems with his van, in Prince George, long ago and in great detail?! Silence would have been golden. I lasted about 30 minutes and wandered back to the boat before midnight to have a cool freshwater shower on the boat to rinse off the sulfur water. We spent two nights there.
Tenakee village humour and common swap, give away “facility”.
The Tenakee hotspring.
