Glacier Bay

Skagway

8/10/10

I’m sitting here in Skagway, in a very small, dark room at a Westmark Hotel, after having walked the town, checking it out.  I had pictured a western-style town (as in crusty old miner town), with lots of western-style buildings with wood sidewalks - all surrounded by huge mountains at the end of a long fiord called Lynn Canal. And it is all of that, except horses tied to posts or really old cars rolling down muddy streets. What I wasn’t expecting is how crowded it is, especially with not one, not two, but three giant luxury cruise liners tied up.  The sidewalks were literally crawling with tourists – all walking really slow, taking lots of digital pictures at ridiculous things, rubber-necking at the shops (of course every other store was a jewelry/diamond/curio shop, with fur shops scattered here and there).  It didn’t take long for me to walk the town and the modest small boat harbor, surrounded by the huge cruise liners.  God! Do I feel like a tourist snob!

Auke Bay Super Yacht w/required helicopter

Now I’m ready to get back to my boat, and will catch a 7am ferry tomorrow morning and write more of this blog.

It's all about whales

I had decided after paying another $350 fuel bill after the Glacier Bay trip that I would go the 65+ miles to Skagway by ferry, leaving BB at Auke Bay.  The ferry system is very good here in Alaska, if a bit expensive. Unfortunately, it’s really slow, taking 6 hours to get to Skagway (if I went on BB, it would take closer to 10). On this particular trip, there was even a national parks girl who would announce descriptions of various landmarks on the way.  The ferry first stopped at Haines, then went the short distance to Skagway. 

Tail splash!

Our one captured breach

Watch out! Hey, to those guys, it's all about fish.

Chris watching for whales

The skipper watching out for whales, boats, logs, etc. etc.

Last week on Sunday, my brother Rick and his wife Chris arrived at Auke Bay.  It had been rainy the whole week before and I was hoping that it would clear for them…no such luck, but they were game for anything (and they did have wonderful weather during the last week in Tofino, BC.).

It took a couple of hours to settle into the boat.  Keep in mind that I have never had guests on board.  So where they slept, where they would keep their clothing, learning how to use the head, learning where most of the equipment on the boat was…took time.  They slept in the main cabin.  Even with the back seats in the up-position, the main cabin is still a public place, with lots of light…and Auke Bay is pretty noisy even towards 11pm.  Still, those guys were troopers.  We also went shopping that day at Safeway, taking a taxi each way, buying lots of food and some booze.  The taxi driver (both ways) had lots of information about Glacier Bay that was very helpful.  Just walking the docks at Auke Bay was a toot with all of the activity, especially the super-yachts on the end.

Monday morning (31^st of July) we left Auke Bay, weaving around a ton of recreational fishing boats, turning 180 degrees around the tip of Admiralty Island, then heading south against a south wind. Heading to Icy Straits was the choppiest of the trip, with BB motor sailing, going with the current, which, because it was going against the wind, made it rough.  Chris, who tends towards seasickness, was very good in not getting sick.  We eventually rounded Swanson Cove and headed west into Icy Straits – it immediately quieted down, getting glassy by the time we reached Hoonah. 

On the way we saw LOTS of humpback whale sightings.  In case you haven’t tried it, it’s really hard to take pictures of whales…you wait and wait for them to breach, waiting for the tail strike, you get tired holding the camera to your eye, you lower your camera, then the whale does something spectacular, you raise your camera lens to take the picture and…oops! Missed again! Breaches are especially hard; taking pictures of the tail is easier.

Hoonah is a 3^rd-world-looking-town, lots of potholes in the road, run-down looking buildings, etc. But, it has a very protected harbor, with a complete breakwater surrounding the marina.  This would be a good place to leave the boat for the winter, but the harbor master assistant said that there is no room.  Hmmm, guess I will need to check with the real harbormaster to see if I really can’t get room.

Bartlett Cove docks - 3 hour minimum stay

The next day, it was super-glassy as we headed west up the coast towards Adolphus Point, looking for humpbacks.  Again, we found a ton of them breaching, whapping their tails, with lots of whale watchers in various size boats trying to get as close as possible without disturbing the animals. We watched for a while then headed further west to Glacier Bay. 

Glacier Bay is a very controlled state park system: to get in by boat, you have to send them an application, and they only allow 25 boats in the bay at a time.  They allow only two cruise ships in there per day, but each cruise ship represents around $20K ($10 per person), so they get $40K a day, thereby letting us in for free. Nice! 

Orientation with Chris and Rick talking to the park ranger

Upon entering the bay, I made a VHF radio call to Glacier Bay center in Bartlett Cove announcing our arrival, and, with a 4 knot current pushing us onward at 11 knots, we made it to Bartlett cove in record time.  On tying up, we were greeted by VERY friendly staff (male and female – we think they were married, but didn’t ask).  We had to go through an orientation by the staff to let us know what we could and could not do - there are lots of rules!  They really work hard to protect their animals in the park and were very knowledgeable.

Bird watching

Big sea-lion colony

Harbor dolphins in Sandy Cove

Since time was running out to take advantage of a flood current (and not be beaten by a strong ebb against us), we left immediately after the orientation and headed to North Sandy Cove. Rick and Chris, being the enthusiastic bird watchers that they are, kept a sharp lookout for the myriad types of birds to be seen, including puffins at South Marble Island; we saw a lot of sea lions, some more humpbacks, and a few sea otters to boot. 

North Sandy Cove

North Sandy Cove was beautiful, super quiet, and had a lot of different animals.  We saw a black bear on shore looking for tidbits, small “harbor” dolphin looking for food, seals, and we heard wolves howling (as per advertised in the pamplets).

There was a pretty sunset (nice because we could actually see the sun).  But….

Rick & Chris

Rick next to Reid Glacier

The next morning it was raining and dreary, with low clouds hiding all of the mountains around us. Not surprising, it was an unstated decision to stay in bed and read.  About 10am, the clouds started to rise and it was time to head to Reid Inlet. The first thing we saw was a very large passenger liner heading up to the glaciers, followed by a second one.  The further towards the glaciers, the milkier the water would


look.  We finally came into Read Inlet/Glacier and anchored.  First thing we did was to launch the dinghy to explore the monster glacier that dominated the head of the inlet.  We first beached the dinghy about halfway up the inlet, walked almost to the head, but, because of the rough terrain, not making it all the way.  So we trudged back, got into the dinghy, and headed back towards the glacier, where we could get in much closer…in fact, Rick got in very close indeed, feeling how hard the glacier is and noting how wet everything was around it.  The ice was like crystals…it had scratches of bright blue in it, accentuated with the sun actually coming out – actually it was still cloudy, but high enough that the weather was quite pleasant.

The Great Explorers - har-r-r!

A word on our organization on Blue Bossa: I was, of course, captain.  Rick was my first mate, taking watches when needed, working the lines and fenders when docking, working the anchor when needed.  What a luxury having crew!  But the real luxury was having Chris aboard.  Let me tell you about Chris’s culinary skills: she has a unique improvisatory gift of cooking, with basic ideas for each dinner, and then varying different dishes to suit what’s actually on board.  The result was dinner after dinner of scrumptious meals.  And of course leftovers were just as good, being added to different ideas the next night or eating them for lunch.  It gave me lots of new ideas.

The next day (8/3) we rounded the corner to John Hopkins Glacier, wanting to go all the way up to the glacier, but unable to due to the heavy berg field.  We were hoping that a massive cruise liner that came up behind us was going to plow through the field to allow us to get closer, but they apparently felt the same way – too hard on the hull and props! Well, the views were still magnificent, the glacier huge, and it was very cold -  I even had the heater on to keep us warm.

John Hopkins Glacier-note the packed ice

I'm outta here!

King of the Beach, moving stones the size of VW bugs...easily

We decided to go around Russell Island, hoping to see some wildlife.  We struck gold, seeing two grizzlies.  We were so captivated by what one of the bears was doing, that we may have broken some of the Glacier Bay rules (don’t get too close to the wildlife that it affects their actions).  The bear was visibly annoyed at us and stalked away, turning every now and then to glare at us.  (see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgHLHU9YXJQ).

I felt like the idiot in the commercials with the Sasquatch - Ha ha!  Sorrrrrry!

Paddling in Shag Cove

After exploring some, we anchored in Shag Cove (I’d be interested to know why it was named that…), another steep-sided, deep fiord-like cove.  Rick and I kayaked around the cove, seeing a lot of young salmon in the water, explored small rivers, and kayaking out towards the middle of the long inlet – great scenery and great exercise.  We met a couple that came up from Japan (Brian & MaryAnn on Shibui). They were true blue-water cruisers, having had a lot of offshore adventures on their Norseman 447.  In their early years, they circumnavigated the planet, but this trip they decided to cool their heels and “only” circumnavigated the Pacific, finishing up in Glacier Bay, Alaska, before continuing south to Seattle.  Brian was very friendly and talkative knowing some common friends such as Stan Honey.

8/4 – on a totally rainy day, we left early to make tracks back towards Auke by taking advantage of the tidal currents.  After a quick 3 knot current burst, we stopped at Bartlett Cove for some quick showers, then out of Glacier bay before the current would turn against us, and to take advantage of a just-turning flood going east. Navigating through SE Alaska is all about timing with the tides.

Swanson Harbor - watch out for the slippery docks!

To break up the monotony of motoring, we stayed at Swanson Harbor, actually tying up to a public dock (slippery – watch out Rick!) that had no access to land, but nice since it was pretty deep.  Swanson Harbor is the point between Catham Straits and Icy Straits, sticking out pretty far, with low lands around it.  It was a nice change from the huge and steep mountains of Glacier Bay.

The next day, we got back to Auke Bay, put the boat away, and rented a car to explore Juneau and do the touristy things that tourists do…except go in diamond stores and buy furs.  Anyway, it was great fun for Rick and Chris (despite the iffy weather), as it was their first time in Alaska and the first time on my boat.  It was great fun for me as they were wonderful company, they were my first guests, and it was nice to have some extra hands on board to share some of the work involved in working a boat.  Not to mention that Glacier Bay was beautiful, despite the rainy weather.