As we were traveling north on our Alaskan Adventure we noticed that most Alaskan locals were wearing the same foot ware: ExraTuf rubber boots referred to as “Sitka Slippers or “Juneau Sneakers”. Fishermen, Harbormasters, women on the streets of Juneau, clerks in the stores and other mariners such as ourselves. We have succumbed and both David & I bought a new pair of boots. We LOVE them…they’re practical, comfortable and will apparently outlive us. I’m not sure it would be appreciated in Bellevue, but here in Alaska, women wear them with dresses and when it’s hot, they just roll the top of the boots down a bit, which is quite a look. They are worn to weddings, funerals, work and parties.

We discovered when Jason & Lauren were here that they were wearing our Sitka Slippers, so when we arrived in Sitka, off we went to the local store to outfit the entire family with new boots…even little Dylan.

Sitka Slippers

Fishing outside of Sitka

While on the subject of looking good, I’m adding a few photos of Sitka and Jason & family as they wouldn’t fit on the last blog.

Waterfall in Red Bluff Bay

Dylan: ready for visiting the Glacier

Our son Jason, his wife Lauren and their 15 month old daughter Dylan joined us July 13th for a wonderful fun filled week. It was thundering and lightning when they landed, but by the time they got to the boat in Auke Bay (Juneau) the sun was out and we had a beautiful cruise south to Taku Harbor. When we came up in June, it was foggy and raining on this route, so it was a wonderful surprise with the sun out to be able to see that there were glorious mountains surrounding us.

We had great weather for our trip up Tracy Arm. Three weeks ago we weren’t able to get to the South Sawyer Glacier because of the thick iceburgs, but Captain Dave managed to navigate through the ice beautifully and Lauren and Jason were able to kayak for an hour and a half getting ao close to the glacier we could barely see them from the boat! We then ventured over to the North Sawyer Glacier where we were able to see it calf three times…what a thrill! And oh, I forgot to mention that on the way we saw 6-8 killer whales!

In Red Bluff Bay (which may just be the most beautiful place in the world) we were about to have dinner when I looked out just one more time to see if we could see any bears and lo and behold there was one! Jas and Lauren hopped in the kayaks and paddled over to watch the grizzly leisurely feasting on grass, of all all things. It was very exciting though just a tad nerve racking for us to watch Jason & Lauren so close to this big creature.

On two different occasions we saw sea otters in the middle of Chatham Strait just leisurely floating on their backs eating and enjoying life. What a hoot, out there in the middle of a huge body of water…totally unexpected.

Fishing was a success with Jason catching a pink salmon (providing us with a delicious dinner), a sliver salmon, multiple baby sculpins (returned to the sea to grow up) and Lauren landing a very nice sized Dungeness crab.

Dylan is now a certified Formo Boat Baby: she loves sleeping on the boat, being outside watching the whales and screams with enthusiasm “Waaaay’ els!” as she makes the whale spouting noise with grand hand gestures. She has very good “sea legs” running around the boat with complete confidence. We celebrated Jas & Lauren’s anniversary aboard with a champagne breakfast and then they flew home. We miss them being with us.

Jason & Lauren kayaking- South Sawyer Glacier, Tracy Arm

Lauren, Jason & Dylan in their Anegada hats

Humpbacks in Frederick Sound

Grizzly bear in Red Bluff Bay

Sea Otter in Chatham Sound

Curious seal

July 8, 2013

We arrived back in Auke Bay (Juneau) the afternoon of July 4th just as the purse seiner fleet was returning from 3 days of successful fishing. We found ourselves surrounded by fishing boats that were rafted six deep astern of us and five deep ahead of us. There was high energy all around and it was fascinating to watch the crews working around their boats, repairing their nets and jockeying these huge vessels around like bathtub toys. One of the boats in front of us festively shot off fireworks at 11:00 which were beautiful against the silhouettes of their boats and the darkening sky.

Our friends Carol-Ann and John joined us on the 6th and after a full day of fishing yesterday, today we spent a delightful day touring Hoonah. Who would have thought that little Hoonah would boast the longest zipline in America and a bar voted one of the top bars in America by Esquire Magazine? We enjoyed a fabulous crab lunch at this well known establishment called The Office (Bar).

July 2, 2013

And we thought we couldn’t catch fish! How about this one? It measured 50″ which according to the book is a 60# halibut, but we don’t think that could be right. All I know is that David had a hard time even holding it up for the photo and had to drag it down the dock to the fish cleaning station. Our freezer is filling up with yummy fish!

50-60# halibut brought in by the Captain

June 31, 2013

We arrived in the small Tlinglet village of Hoonah yesterday afternoon and met some delightful people on the docks, most of whom are in this area because of the great fishing. We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning today and while heading out to go fishing saw our first killer whales (3 Orcas) cruising around. What a beautiful sight!

Orcas cruising near Pinta Rock bell, outside Hoonah.

David’s 2 halibut (21# and 23#!

Sun setting in Hoonah at 10:45

We anchored in 172′ of water, set out the rods and over the next 5 hours David caught 2 halibut (21# and 23#)and a pink salmon… we may become fishermen yet! We were surrounded by huge mountains everywhere we looked, the sun was out and it was truly an awesome afternoon. We are still amazed by the vastness and beauty of this area. We had two new friends with us who we met on the dock and after returning to Hoonah and cleaning the fish we all sat on the flybridge enjoying food and wine until 11:00 when it finally was dark. The days are getting shorter and the sun isn’t rising now until 3:50am.

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