Visiting Shannyn in Little Tutka Bay, AK

The map inset on the left shows the location of the Kenai Peninsula in relation to Anchorage.  Homer Spit is right in the crease of the photo and across Kachemak Bay is Kachemak Bay State Park, which can only be reached by boat or plane.  A friend from when I was at UW in 1989, Shannyn M. was at Seattle U., grew up in Homer and now lives at the mouth of Tutka Bay.  Onions and I visited her.

So, in Alaska when you book a water taxi, you best be on time.  We arrived at 9:06AM for our 9AM boat....it left because it was scheduled to pick someone up across the bay.  We were rescheduled for a 10:30AM taxi.

Low tide.  Turns out right around 10:30AM was just about the lowest tide of the cycle.

Fishermen on Kachemak Bay.

Entering Little Tutka Bay   That's Shannyn's place right there in the center of the picture with the dock out of the water.

With the low tide (-5.5 feet) the boat driver told us he was seeing rocks he had never seen!  We couldn't actually get to the dock but had to disembark onto the rocks themselves.

Shannyn's House.  It's actually the place where her neighbor's former husband built boats.  Shannyn and her partner live there in exchange for lookout for her elderly neighbor.

The tide is starting to rise....the boats are now in the water.

Shannyn!

Gregor, Shannyn's partner on the left, is a boat builder himself and travels the world working for those who want custom boats built.  The man on the right, I forget his name, is the postman for the area.  Turns out Shannyn's house is the post office.  People drop off their outgoing mail in a bag in Shannyn's house, and the postman, twice a week, takes the mail across to Homer and picks up the mail and any packages and brings them back.

There goes the mail!

After a couple hours of catching up and before the high tide, we all took a walk in the mudflats behind Shannyn's house.  You can see that it's overcast.....can you imagine the mountains out on a sunny blue sky day?

At lot tide EVERYTHING is exposed.  I saw this structure and exclaimed, "they built a boat bottom on a house."  Umm, no, it's the other way around.  Clearly, I see the world from a land perspective.

Before the tide got too high, we walked back to Shannyn's.  See how much the water had risen?

Onions trying his hand at fishing!

When the tide was high enough, we went out for a boat ride to see the place where Shannyn and Gregor are building their own house.

We are now in the same body of water as in the picture (three above) with Onions, Shannyn and Gregor.

Their future deck.

I thought this would be the platform for the house, but it's the foundation for Gregor's future work space.  I'm actually taking the photo from where the house will be located.

Getting this house built is a logistical puzzle.  Remember no roads so everything has to be brought in by boat.  And with the tides and the weather (trying to keep things dry) there are only certain times materials can be brought in.  And then there's always the possibility of bears stopping by.....

Time to head back.

More time to fish....Onions the athlete has much better form than I do.

And of course, he is the one who caught a fish in the first 20 minutes of his fishing career!  We let this little guy go.

And then some neighbors dropped by kayak and canoe.  These are summertime residents from Anchorage saying hello.

Never a dull moment!  A dog got their paw stuck in the gap between deck boards....so Gregor had to take apart the deck to free the dog.

HALIBUT for lunch, which turned out to be 5PM.  That's what the long days do....time loses real meaning.

Our taxi arrived at 730PM and this time we embarked using the dock.  What a wonderful day.

On our way back, the taxi dropped off supplies for another customer on another island.  Life in the islands.

On the way back, Onions and I sat on the deck of the boat to watch islands become smaller as we said goodbye to what we both agreed was the highlight of our trip.  Thanks much to Shannyn and Gregor's hospitality!