Radioville. We kept hearing about it. Bill Pierre (yeah, the
guy who started Bill Pierre Ford) told us about it in Pelican. The Douglass
guide mentions it but doesn’t give a location. Kayley on ActiveCaptain mentions
it too, but similarly doesn’t provide a location (Kayley’s reviews are really
just copied info from Douglass). The Evergreen Pacific Exploring Alaska & British Columbia chartbook has Radioville
marked, though, so we used it as our guide.
The story is that a retired signal corps sergeant named Joe
Bauer once lived here and operated a radio station in the first half of the 20th
century. He relayed messages to and from the mine. He was quite a drinker,
apparently, and we were told the beach was covered in glass of all colors from
the bottles he consumed. Yes, there was some glass, but not nearly as much as
we were led to believe.
Other than the glass there was a collapsing cabin filled
with old junk. Magazines, newspapers, plastic garbage, cans, bottles…and the
creepiest part.—four or five damp, mildewy dolls.
 |
| Half the Radioville building is collapsing |
 |
| The other half is filled with random junk |
From Radioville we headed out Rough Channel into the Gulf of
Alaska. The wind was calm and the seas glassy. A two or three foot groundswell
kept the boat moving up and down, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.
 |
| Calm water, big mountain |
Leaving the west side of Chichagof Island after only a few
days is a bummer. There’s so much to see out here, but we’ve got a lot of
distance to cover in the next month.
The highlight of the trip down to Kalinin Bay was almost
running over a humpback that surfaced just in front of the boat. I quickly
pulled the throttle back to neutral and we drifted for several minutes as the
whale moved out of the way.
 |
| The whale swimming away |
Kalinin Bay was busy! We’ve been anchoring alone for the
last few days, and suddenly we were surrounded by six or seven other boats. I
guess we’re back on the inside…
28.47 nm today
2218.55 nm total
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