Thursday, August 15, 2013

Homer, Camping on the Spit, and Halibut Fishing

August 9-13

While the view at Kenai on Beluga Point was beautiful, we didn't see any Beluga whales.  We did see several sea otters and bald eagles.  Three of us hosted an evening social celebrating the half-way point of the caravan.  Luckily the campground had a very nice heated pavilion, so we could enjoy being together even in the cold rain.  Beluga Point was just an overnight stay.

Homer, the Halibut capital of the world, has a population of around 5,000.  Homer is named for con man Homer Pennock.  He set up a base camp on the spit for hopeful gold miners.  There is mystery surrounding him, and since he avoided being photographed there is some question whether it is his likeness that hangs in the visitor center.  Many of the towns in Alaska seem to have been camps either for gold miners or construction camps for the railroad, roadways, and the pipeline.

What is "the spit"?  We camped on the spit which is a glacial moraine that is constantly reshaped by ocean currents.  A glacial moraine is the area where a glacier has terminated its forward thrust before beginning to recede.  Today the spit is a 4.5 mile strip of sand and gravel which would have been washed away years ago if not for human intervention.  We could have been under water at high tide if the tide was exceptionally high.  The tides are around 18 feet in this area.  Tidal currents are swift as we learned while fishing.

The highlight of our stay on the spit was a day on the water halibut fishing.  We truly had an Alaska adventure as Chuck says to make the cold and rain more tolerable.  Thankfully we had a beautiful day the day we arrived, or we would not have realized we were surrounded by mountains and glaciers.  Our caravan had enough people who wanted to fish to reserve the whole boat.  Nineteen of us went, and sixteen fished at any given time.  We did a pretty good job of not getting all tangled up with each other unless a fish thought otherwise.  The limit on halibut in this area is two per person, and we limited out the boat.  Since we had decided to put all the fish in a pool, we all netted out about 16 pounds of halibut per person.  Chuck was the s*** a** which is our family's term for the person who catches the first fish.  He caught the first on the whole boat.  And as is customary, Phyllis caught the biggest fish...sort of.  I had my rod, and Chuck brought me a sandwich, so I handed him my rod to tend while I ate.  Well he hooked a fish which it took both of us and the deck hand to bring in.  Since Chuck already had his two fish, and it was my rod, and I helped bring it in, I got credited with the fish, which turned out to be the biggest of the day.  We were all exhausted after the trip not to mention the sore muscles.  We boarded the boat at 0630 and arrive back around 1430, and that evening we had a hot dog cookout.  Loving this adventure.
Chuck with the first halibut

PJ with the biggest--35# halibut

The biggest four caught

Driving into Homer--nice glacier view

The Spit--we were camped on little strip of land out in water.



Eagle on light post right behind our RV

Caravan Camping on the Spit and a sunset to boot

Fun around campfire
Sea Otters are big


1 comment:

  1. Typical - Dad is the s*** a** and Mom gets the biggest fish. Thanks for the Halibut you sent down our way. Have already fixed it once - very tasty.

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