Meyers Chuck, Ketchikan, Prince Rupert

Our trip from Anan Bear Reserve to Ketchikan was a pleasure of typical Alaskan sites: fishboats that generously share their catch with us, and are friendly and kind at the docks; humpback whales that visit our bow and make us stop to watch them; totem poles in Ketchikan,and the small friendly docks of villages like Meyers Chuck.
We enjoyed a hot sunny day in Ketchikan, our final Alaskan port of call. Also thankful to get a brief opening of clear seas to make a ten-hour dash to Prince Rupert before the big storm hit the coast.

We are enjoying being on Canadian soil again! Familiar shopping for the provisions to get us closer to home, and dear friends to share good visits and good meals here. We both got caught up with long-overdue hair appointments -- but poor Kaiser has yet to find a groomer along the way, and is getting woolly all over.
On Sunday afternoon we were fascinated with a visit to the North Pacific Fish Cannery south of Port Edward, that is now converted to a fish cannery village museum. When I worked in Prince Rupert in 1962, I visited this village which was an active community of 1000 people; all the buildings built on stilts at the edge of the sea. It is sad to see it abandoned but we were pleased that it is being used now to 'tell the story' of an industry that is dwindling.
As soon as the storm passes, we will be heading out of Prince Rupert, hopefully Tuesday. Thanks to many who are sending a comment or an email. We love hearing from you, and envy your summer weather. It is cold, windy and rainy here today.

Week Nine - Sitka to Ketchikan

What a wonderful week we have had with Hugh and Barbara on board with us! We have enjoyed quite a number of the 'typical alaska' sights, including the cool, rainy weather. Several days have been heavily socked in with pelting rain and low clouds. However, as I've said before, this seems to settle the water and gives us pleasant cruising conditions.

We have eaten seafood everyday! from our own catch of halibut, as well as the generous gifts of crab and salmon from neighbouring boats. So healthy! and SO GOOD.

As we work our way south, we returned to Wrangell and repeated our Breakaway Adventure tour into LeConte Glacier. This time we were fortunate to be able to get a lot closer to the glacier face; sometimes if felt too close for comfort as the calving cliffs of ice crashed into the inlet waters creating large swells that rocked our little boat. I'm including a picture of an accompanying tour boat to show what it takes to manuevre through the floes to get closer to the Face. Very interesting and thrilling.

After Wrangell, we anchored in Anan Bay so that we could tour the Bear Reserve Conservatory Park. We were escorted by rangers and a guide, note his rifle close at hand, along a half-mile boardwalk to a secure observation deck where the bears roamed freely around us. From there we could watch the roaring river that teemed thick with salmon heading upstream, and bears 'scampering' around the boulders to little eddies where they scoop up the salmon and chew them up recklessly. Quite a sight, so close at hand. We were able to get into a photography 'blind' hanging right above the river for some very exciting viewing.

A mother sow 'Virginia' took her baby twins down to the river for lunch; you can see them returning up the fallen tree with the salmon in her mouth. It was all routine for them, but an exciting day for us.

We are now in Ketchikan harbour, a nice touristy little city and our last stop in the USA. We arrived at noon on Thursday, and enjoyed a rare warm sunny day. Hugh and Barbara will depart from here this evening, and we hope the now stormy sea abates before Saturday morning so we can start working our way into Canadian waters, and Prince Rupert on Sunday.

We feel now like these two months have gone by so fast; we are grateful for good health, good cruising, and SO MUCH wonderful adventure.

Week Eight

Sitka and Baranof Hot Springs

Sitka and beyond

We haven't posted a blog for a while, so here goes - trying to catch up. More pictures to follow.

We arrived in Sitka on Monday, July 14th. We LOVE Sitka, and we had such a wonderful time there; it is a beautiful city, the first 'capital' of the state of Alaska, and where the transaction took place for the US purchase of the state from Russia, for $7,200,000. There are many interesting historical sites that tell the story of the Russian occupation, the native indian presence, and the transition to american society.

While there we reconnected with dear YWAM friends, Gary and Coke Oines who showered us with true Alaskan hospitality. Coke gave us the use of her VW van, so we could see the extent of the city as well as get some of our errands done; she also introduced us to their son Cleve who was our chef on board one evening, and we had such a wonderful meal together. Prior to this, Dan's brother Hugh and our sister-in-law Barbara flew in from Seattle, so we have been able to share this experience with them as they are travelling with us this week.

When departed from Sitka on Friday morning and are now working our way south - that means we are heading home! it is a great feeling, and especially to be moving closer to 'summer' weather. This must be a year of record rainfall and cold temperatures for Alaska. Need I say more.

Along the route from Sitka, we have retraced some of our journey, particularly through Peril Strait (appropriately named for the tricky narrow winding passage); we got to a beautiful inlet called Baranof Warm Springs Inlet, so named because of the hot sulphur springs that are available for travellers to enjoy. The little village has constructed a nice bathhouse with piped in sulphur water into nice clean tubs, where you can relax in your own private chalet overlooking the waterfalls and the ocean. Very spectacular, and therapeutic. We had a wonderful hike to the actual natural hot springs pools, about a half mile up the mountain and right at the side of the rushing river. Of course, Dan had to experience those pools as well.

Today, as we travelled toward Petersburg, we acquired the help of a young native fellow, named Chevy, to come on board and show us where the best halibut fishing grounds are. True to his word, he led us to the very spot, and in a short time, Dan and Hugh had landed four lovely (read ugly) halibut, the largest about 26 pounds. We enjoyed a large fillet on the barbecue as we cruised away from that spot.

As we cruised on, we had the excitement of watching spectacular whale shows for miles in Frederick Sound. One huge humpback would not get out of our way, and was so close under our bow that the captain had to put engines in reverse to keep off him.

So amazing. We have also seen many playful sea lions, and look closely at the green marker buoy where 5 sea lions are snoozing...

And now we are in Petersburg, for the second time, having been here exactly one month ago on our way north! All is well; we are enjoying having company along, and have had to eat seafood every day for the past week, there has been such an abundance. Can't eat too much seafood!

Hoonah and Tenakee Springs

July 9th we left Elfin Cove, across Icy Strait from Glacier Bay. Along this route we saw fantastic whale shows, particularly the fascinating event of humpback whales 'bubble-net' feeding. About six of them leap around, blowing great bursts of steam, creating a 'net' of bubbles; then they all rush in a small circle around the bubbles and open huge mouths to capture all the fish they have surrounded. My biggest regret on this trip, is that I do not have a camera adequate for the task of recording what we have seen.

The entire area in this region is loaded with whales; many breaching and sounding right before our eyes. As well, there are many sea lions and sea otters to be seen.

We spent a night in a fishing village of Hoonah - an interesting fuel dock experience there. It was low tide for us, and the fueling float was at least thirty feet below the wharf!! hmmm. Dan had to climb up this ladder to pay the bill. Might I add that fuel in these parts is as much as $5.35/gallon. ugh.

Before arriving at Hoonah, we stopped at a popular halibut feeding ground and were successful in catching two halibut, albeit smallish ones, which have room in our little freezer now!

On the 11th, our 16th anniversary, we are in Tenakee Springs - a lovely quaint little seaside village where we are at least able to find internet access to update this blog.

One of the highlights is finding new boating friends on the docks; we never know who of our new-found friends will be on the dock when we pull in. In this case we enjoyed the company of two couples that we have come to know along the way, and we celebrated duly with them at Happy Hour on our boat.

Glacier Bay

I have posted pictures that we took in Glacier Bay several days ago. We were able to get our three days permits, and enjoyed the sights in this vast bay that is about 65 miles in length, and has many arms projected out from it, most of which end at the face of a massive glacier. We were able to get close to Reid Glacier, where we anchored for the night.
You may have heard about the grounding of a cruise ship in Glacier Bay -- we were there! It is a smaller version of a cruise ship, actually a tour boat about 200 feet long with only about 50 persons on board. It was an interesting exercise listening on the VHF radio, to all the rescue boats and helicopters rushing to the scene. There were no injuries to persons, nor damage to the ship, and they were able to float off the sandbar at next high tide, so it was a good outcome.
The 'arms' of the Bay are loaded with small ice bergs, bergy bits and floes of ice that often close the passage for boats to get very close. We loved this little chunk of glacial ice with the two eagles going for a ride!

Week Six - Glacier Bay

We have arrived!! Our highlighted destination has been Glacier Bay, and we pulled in here at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, July 6th. We are so glad we didn't skip this place, and are looking forward to having three days of cruising in this spectacular nature park. There are many inlets with glaciers, and lots of wild life. Boaters need to register at the Rangers office and get a permit to be in Park waters.
The unexpected treat today was getting a beautiful Sunday Brunch at the wonderful Glacier Bay Lodge, right next door to the check-in dock.

We had the spare propeller installed successful by a diver in Haines, and we left that fair town in the afternoon of the 4th, after doing one more walking tour of the town, observing the many community celebrations and events for US Independance Day. By 3 pm we could not resist the calm waters, and we cruised south for 5 hours before setting in St.James Bay for the night. It took another nearly 10 hours of cruising to get to Glacier Bay this morning. Along the way we got numerous fantastic whale shows, especially the humpbacks 'bubble feeding' (look that up on the web for descriptions!) near Couverden Island. What a sight. Another excitement is watching the many salmon jumping and leaping all around the boat in these waters! Makes you want to just stop and drop the hook....

We were able to secure two permits for a couple of days in this Park, and will post pictures later in the week. Meanwhile, all is well, and again we are so very thankful for good travelling conditions. The weather is often overcast, but that seems to ensure placid waters, so we're good with that. The temperatures are warming up slightly, and we can peel off at least one of the many layers of clothes we've been relying on till now.

Canada Day in Haines, AK

Sending down a diver to look for our lost propeller!

We have been in Haines since Monday afternoon, expecting to leave the following morning. However, when we tried to leave the dock on Tuesday,we discovered that we had lost one of our propellers somewhere in the depths of the sea. We have been 'marooned' in this lovely little town for four days, waiting for parts to arrive from Seattle, and hopefully all will be put in order for our departure on July 5th. Meanwhile we've enjoyed the community, the lovely sunshine, and especially Myrtle's contributions to making July 1st a jolly celebration!

It looks like we'll experience July 4th festivities in this town tomorrow: a build-your-own-raft race; bbq in the park; and fireworks off the breakwater... watch for more pictures in a few days.

Town of Skagway, our most northerly destination. We are now on our southward return trip.






Since our own crab trap is always empty, we purchased four big ones on the dock in Skagway. Dan learned the alaskan technique for killing and cleaning in one easy motion. Yummmm.










The Crew: Myrtle, Neil, Mimi, Dan and Kaiser at Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau










Pretty port of Auke Bay, just north of City of Juneau.

Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau, AK
Hike with Sniders to Mendenhall Waterfalls and Glacier, far left corner.