Meyers Chuck is a very small community. There are only about 6 or 7 year round residents here. But there are a lot of season residents. There are many small cabins and houses scattered throughout the bay. This tiny community has a post office, the smallest post office I have ever seen.
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| Typical homes in Meyers Chuck. A very small community |
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| Their post office |
We enter the bay and find we are the only visiting boat. We decide to anchor at the far end of the bay, where it gets shallower. This is directly in front of the post office. Get get settled and a woman hops in a small aluminum boat and motors from the community dock to the post office. Then a man, who we think is her husband does the same. He's got a small generator and a gas powered pressure washer in his boat. They unload them, along with some gas cans and head up the ramp toward the post office. About an hour later a float plane passes low over us. He cirles around and does it again. And then one more time. We figure he is just sightseeing and they are taking pictures. A few minute later a man motors out on his skiff and tells us the plane is trying to land, and we are in his way. He tells us another spot we can anchor, or invites us to tie to the dock. We pull anchor and move to the dock. A woman comes over and tells us the float plane had her children and grandchild onboard. The plane was coming back by right now and we were still in the way was heading back to Ketchikan with all 3 of them. I felt terrible that we had anchored in the middle of a runway!!!
The plane circled once and then came in for a landing. Phew, we made it out of the way in time. I apologized to several people there and the pilot. They all said it was OK, that we wouldn't know we were in the way since it was our first time here. I've never anchored in the middle of an airport before!
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After blocking his landing when we anchored, the float plane lands.
We pulled anchor and moved to the community dock |
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| Alex watches the float plane landing |
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| The passengers have arrived to be reunited with parents and grandparents. |
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Taking off. The post office in the background. Tuesday is mail day.
This plane will land and tie up to the dock at the post office. |
We went for a walk and explored this little community. It is a small place, and it is beautiful!
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| Hiking around Meyers Chuck, AK |
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| Alex catching up with the news in Meyers Chuck |
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| Life is simple here |
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| A very simple life.... |
Later we put the small dinghy down and motor over to the post office. It is VERY small and the woman we saw earlier go over there was inside taking care of post office business. We chatted with her for about 10-15 minutes. The island has a land line back to civilization. The have a radio tower but no cell phone coverage. They have solar power. We didn't ask how they get water, but we could see hot and cold water lines under a few houses, so they must have some sort of water system here.
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| Beautiful location |
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| People here mill their own timber. You cannot easily bring in building materials. |
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| The lumber mill in Meyer's Chuck. |
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| Like Father, like Son. Poor Kevin, he is doomed! |
A huge sailboat arrives a hour or two after us and parks right in front of us at the dock. It is 80' and Alex says it's worth millions. It is stunning. It appears that the owners are a couple from perhaps Great Britain. They have a crew of two or three onboard, and they have a support boat with two people. The support boat arrived about an hour ahead of them and surveyed the bay. We suspect that this support boat scouts ahead for locations the massive sailboat can get into. Then the crew of the support boat is there to greet them and assist as needed. It looks like this couple must be paying for at least 4 other people full time during their Alaskan adventure. Owning a big yacht can get quite expensive.
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| 80 foot sailboat squeezes in just ahead of us. Stunning! |
After dinner we go walk the shoreline. It is low tide and everything has changed. The water is almost 20 feet lower now than when we arrived. Large rock outcroppings have appeared in the bay that were not there before. Islands are no longer islands. It looks completely different. You need to really pay attention to the tide levels in Alaska. With 20' tide swings and rocks everywhere, it would be easy to make a mistake. Plus, I'm sure there are plenty of uncharted rocks in these waters. We will do a lot of scouting in every bay before we drop the anchor.
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| Quaint Meyers Chuck. |
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| There is a heavy haze. I've heard it is smoke from some forest fires. |
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| Beach combing after dinner |
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| The community dock and some of the houses. Meyers Chuck AK |
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