DIY Alaska Bear Hunt- The Boat Ride- Part 4

The conversation at Tongass Marine about the rough water and windy conditions didn't faze me a bit. After all, I had boated in thunderstorms at Table Rock Lake in southern Missouri without any problems. Still, I didn't mention any of this to Paul, Gary or Warren. No need to concern them with minor details. Ben did offer us a VHF radio to carry in case we needed help sometime during the week. He tuned it to the Coast Guard channel. " If you're in desperate trouble just turn this on and key the mike until someone answers. They can come rescue you. Be forewarned, though, the Coast Guard charges for rescues and it won't be cheap!" I zipped the radio in my coat pocket, "We won't need it but it's here."
Ben gave me detailed directions to Portage Bay, " Turn left when you reach the ocean ( Frederick Sound ) and stay near the left bank until you see two islands with the mouth of a bay on your left. That's Portage Islands and Portage Bay. It should take a little over an hour. Good Luck!"
We grabbed our tide charts and headed down to the pier, leaving Warren behind as planned to take the float plane. We asked Paul if he wanted to fly in, too, but after seeing the size of the plane he decided to take his chances in the boat. It was an 18' Lund aluminum boat with a 50 horsepower outboard motor and a 10 horsepower trolling motor. We carried 24 gallons of boat gas and 5 gallons of diesel fuel for the cabin heater. After stowing our gear, we all put on our rain gear and life vests and began the trip to our beach front home for the next week. WE'RE OFF!
Gary rode up front with the gear and Paul took the rear seat. I was where I wanted to be, at the helm in the middle. We motored slowly the first mile or so until we cleared the no-wake buoys. Then I opened her up! We were cruising along at about 20 mph or better for 20 or 30 minutes, smooth sailing!
The wind kicked up a little in our faces, the water got a little choppy and the refreshing salt water was spraying us pretty good. I moved Gary to the back with Paul to get the bow up a little and throttled back a ways. This worked for a while until the wind got stronger and the swells got bigger, they were 2-3 feet high by now. I slowed down more but the farther we went the bigger the swells got. I turned to check on Paul and Gary, they were both hunched over holding on to the seat. I think they were trying to stay dry but I hoped they were praying, too. I was not quite so confident as I'd been earlier. I felt in my pocket for the VHF radio, it was still there.
As we continued on our way, a big aluminum boat came alongside going in the opposite direction. A man came out from inside his enclosed cabin and yelled to us, "It's pretty bad up ahead towards Portage Bay. You guys should turn back." I replied, " Thanks, but we're OK and besides our buddy flew over a while ago and is waiting for us at the Portage Bay cabin." He went back to his protected boat and took off and we slogged on ahead. I tried to stay about 100 feet offshore, far enough out so we wouldn't run aground on any rocks but close enough that we could probably swim to safety.
As the swells reached 6 feet or more, I was reminded of a scene from "The Perfect Storm". Just like George Clooney's boat would point skyward and then crash down into the troughs between the waves, we were doing the same thing. I would gun the engine a little to go up the waves and let off as we fell over the crest. We had a good rhythm going, gas it then back off, gas it then back off. I finally saw the two islands off in the distance and hollered back to Gary and Paul. They really perked up at the thought of stepping out the boat instead of capsizing!
Just when the mouth of the bay came into view and we really believed that we weren't going for a swim, THE BOAT DIED! "GARY, PAUL, WE'RE OUT OF GAS! SWITCH THE TANKS! HURRY! SQUEEZE THE BULB"
This was the first time I'd really felt out of control. The boat turned sideways to the waves, floundering helplessly, rolling side to side. They finally got the new tank hooked up and primed. I cranked the motor and it roared to life! After just a few more minutes, we could catch glimpses of Warren standing on the beach waving. I don't know who was happier, him or us. When they'd flown over earlier, the pilot told him that those guys in the boat were in big trouble. The pilot's words kept coming back to him as he sat on the beach. "Great," he thought, " they're going to drown and I'll be stuck here without even a gun."
After spending almost 3 hours making the 1 hour trip to Portage Bay, we pulled into the calm water and beached the boat. WHEW! We were sure glad to be on dry ground.
We still had to go about a mile into the bay to our cabin so we loaded everything Warren had taken on the float plane into the boat and cautiously made our way farther into the bay. We were really loaded down now and ran aground as we approached the cabin. Gary and I were already soaked to the skin so we jumped out to pull and push the boat towards the beach. I was up front in knee deep water. As we moved the boat along, I stepped off in a hole clear up to my shoulders! Seeing me go down, Gary moved like lightning, leaping back into the boat! After all, we were floating now, he didn't need to push any more! I was all right and I don't think I could have gotten any wetter anyway.
We beached the boat one more time and carried all the gear to the cabin, where we immediately fired the diesel stove as hot as we could. WHAT A DAY!