June 22-23, 2013

The rain is back, but we are just so happy we had such great weather going up Tracy Arm. We leave Taku Harbor at 6:00am, arriving Auke Bay Marina at 10:30. The marina is first come first served and the fishing fleet is in and all the spots are taken when we arrive. After about an hour of milling around a spot on the breakwater opens up and we are able to get Tom & Carolyn on land to get their flight out.

We awake Sunday morning to a beautiful sunny day and realize what a gorgeous setting we are in, surrounded once again by mountains and a beautiful peak of Mendenhall Glacier. There is an eagle perched on the navigational tower not 100 feet from the stern of the boat and there seem

Majestic eagle just 100 feet from our stern.

View from our boat

What?! Eagle sitting on the top of a mast had his wings spread like this for 5 minutes, then along comes a seagull. Strange sight…

Mom & pup lounging in the sun aboard an iceberg in Tracy Arm

We awoke to a beautiful blue sunny sky and pulled anchor at 6:00am to make the 24 mile trip up Tracy Arm to one of the glaciers. We were heading east right into the sun which made it a bit of a challenge to see the smaller “bergies’, but it was absolutely gorgeous and such a new adventure. South Sawyer Glacier looked clogged with icebergs so we headed to North Sawyer. When we were fairly close (but still couldn’t see the glacier) I thought we should stop, but David kept going, navigating beautifully through the myriad of icebergs. He made the right decision, and at 9:45 we arrived at the glacier. It was that gorgeous blue color you see in photographs and totally and completely awesome. Visibility was much better going back and the rock formations and colors were unbelievable. We saw a family of seals, with one Mom and her pup fairly close, lounging on an iceberg. We had trouble finding the navigational buoys on our way out of the channel as some large icebergs floated to the entrance and were obscuring them…pretty funny. We still saw icebergs at least 5 miles north of Tracy Arm as we headed for Taku Harbor for our last evening with the Collins.

Tom & Carolyn at North Sawyer Glacier

The Captain & First Mate

June 20, 2013

We anchored in Tracy Arm Cove to await our trip up to one of the two Sawyer Glaciers (either North or South, depending upon which one is most accessible with less icebergs) tomorrow. We kayaked in the cove and approached a few icebergs, finding that it got colder as we got closer, which of course totally makes since (they are HUGE), but something I had never thought about. We were warned not to get too close as the icebergs can turn over without notice causing large waves up to 25 feet! Tommy was able to chip off a bit of ice from a very small beautifully clear “bergie” for us to use for Happy Hour. David has been looking forward to this glacial clear ice, so we had quite a celebration with our thousand year old ice. Rain started about 7:00.

The Captain is VERY happy 🙂

June 20th

On our way up Frederick Sound we saw several groups of humpbacks and at one point sat still and watched as 5 or 6 of them slowly swam all around us and leisurely dove down and showed us their tails. It was hard to keep track of them all and trying to capture it on video was hysterical. They are beautiful creatures.

Humpback in Frederick Sound 6-19-13

June 19th

Wrangell Narrows were a breeze and we only saw 2 other boats going through! We were blown away by the view of the mountains as we rounded the corner into Petersburg…absolutely awesome. The landscape just keeps getting bigger and bigger as we continue north. Petersburg is a town of approximately 3,500 whose economy is dependent upon fishing and seafood processing. The marina was mainly filled with fishing and charter boats. It’s a Norwegian town that’s very proud of it’s heritage and it’s known as the halibut capital of Alaska. We hope we’ll be able to visit here again on our way down, but need to press on.

Petersburg

Tuesday, June 18th

Tom & Carolyn are apparently weather god and goddesses as we’ve had sun or only light clouds since they arrived in Ketchikan. Our journey the first day with them from Ketchikan to Santa Ana Inlet was unbelievable with sun and the temperature in the high 70s. We were on the flybridge for the first time. We were visited by about 20 Pacific White Sided Dolphins who traveled with us for about 20 minutes darting under our bow waves crossing back and forth. Another group of them joined us about 30 minutes later and then a group of 4 again later. It was SO cool. They are so playful and joyful. We were going about 9-10 knots and they had no trouble keeping up with us and didn’t even appear to be working all that hard. They were a beautiful black and white and looked very healthy.

We were the only boat in Santa Ana Inlet and enjoyed kayaking and sitting in the cockpit for Happy Hour and dinner. With the sun not setting until after 10, our dinner time gets later and later each evening. I noticed when I woke up at 3:00am that the sky was still light… very weird.

The water started turning to a milky green color as we headed north yesterday to Wrangell. Wrangell has a relatively new Marina which is nice and it is larger than we expected. The town is about 2 miles from this Marina and it is very small and “Alaskan” feeling.

We’re now heading to Wrangell Narrows, a 21 mile waterway with over 60 navigational aids to help get through it. There can be cruise ships, tugs with loads, fishing boats and other pleasure craft and it is narrow in spots so we could have an interesting passage. We think we have timed it to have the least amount of current.

First photos attached were taken in Ketchikan: My sister & me and Jack & David.

Third photo is the of the White Sided Pacific Dolphins playing in our bow waves