Japanese Bay, Kodiak July 23, 2012 06:36 56N57 153W41

We arrived and slept. We’re anchored in Japanese Bay tucked behind a sand spit. The waters here are as calm as a Polynesian lagoon. And it’s greener here than New Zealand. The big verdant rolling hills behind us could have been used for filming the Ring Trilogy – except for the grizzlies. I think these bears would have given the Orks a run for their money, and the actors guild probably would have negotiated substantial extra risk wages. I can see why the location scouts might have written this place off, bears and the rampant putchki plants would make staging a battle scene challenging. Putchki is a local plant that is supposedly edible, but lots of folks have a serious reaction to skin contact with it. I can’t quite picture the actors rolling in putchki and using their plastic swords to fend off grizzlies. New Zealand provides a much more benign environment. Still I do think it’s actually greener here, and what amazing lighting – when it’s not raining (too much overtime the producers would say).

There’s shrubbery here, that’s new. As we moved east in the Aleutians, we saw more and bigger blueberry bushes, and by the time we reached Unalaska there were even a few stubby willow bushes, but no head-height shrubbery. Here there’s lots, all of it about the size of a standing grizzly, their own natural human blind. Still no trees not counting a small stand of five pines that look like they once surrounded a homestead. When we arrived we saw a deer on the beach, so the grizzly diet is not limited to salmon and berries. So far we’ve had only a couple bear sightings, they were all at the creek at the head of the bay, very far from our boat, so in the binoculars, they appeared as small brown logs that moved. No one seems eager to explore the shrubbery today, despite the promise of panoramic views up the hillsides. Frank and Logan who had no trouble swimming in shark infested waters, seem content to sit in the cockpit with the binoculars. How does one go about acclimating one’s fear response to new threats? My vote is to walk the perimeter of the sand spit. The grass is knee-high to a grizzly, so we should see one coming from a good distance. I don’t think we’d come across one walking in the hills on the side of the bay; it appears that they are focused on whatever is in that river, and I don’t think the blueberries are ripe just yet so nothing to tempt them away from the river there, although that may not actually be the case here. Despite our northward progress, the weather here is warmer than south of us and not just because we’re approaching August. We no longer have the winds coming directly off the arctic, and warm currents from the Pacific heat up the Gulf of Alaska (the body of water we now face), creating a fine radiant heat system for this region. Yes all things are relative, but whether from the season or the currents, it’s now 56 degrees in the cabin in the morning instead of 46 degrees – 10 degrees is a huge improvement, I no longer wear gloves inside. So maybe one could snag a few ripe bluebs’ on a sunny slope here, we would look if we could find any situated a good distance from all that shrubbery.

Gart and Deb say that bears don’t actually come hunting for humans, and that if one heard us coming it would normally run the other way unless we came between a sow and her cubs. We’re not their preferred diet. But people say sharks don’t much like humans either, that doesn’t stop them from doing a taste test now and then. I hated lamb and liver as a kid, over time, trying small amounts occasionally, I’ve actually grown to appreciate both, in small quantities. Who’s to say these bear’s buds have not evolved too? Go Bruins!

xoxomo