Homeward Bound... Petersburg to Juneau....

Homeward bound....

     Pulling up to the dock in Juneau this morning among the towering floating cruise cities was bittersweet for both of us. The familiarity now of Juneau felt strangely comforting;   "oh, yeah, we know where the library is, the hardware store, the restaurants to avoid, and which ones the locals go to..."  But the reality of leaving the Catalyst, crew and Alaska was...  tearful.

Here is the crew:

The decision was made that Randy will not finish out his anticipated season on the boat, but instead will return with me, to get his back and shoulder checked out.  Perhaps there is something that can be done to remedy whatever is the problem.  Which hasn't been getting better on its own.  It was a difficult decision, understandably.  This may also allow him some time to see his mom in Ohio who just entered a nursing home and apparently is rapidly showing signs of dementia.  And time to visit his sister Bev in Pittsburgh, before he resumes his duties and responsibilities back at the church in July as scheduled.  So, bittersweet.  Sad to leave such an amazing part of the world, which manages to get inside of one somehow; sad to prematurely leave his place on the boat;  and also glad to be getting home.

We flew from Juneau back to Seattle today, on to Boston tomorrow. Very strange to maneuver through busy crowds and traffic at the airport instead of maneuvering through ice -floes and rainforests. The earth still sways and rocks in that wonderful, soothing, familiar way.  Probably by tomorrow, or the next day, the earth will stand still again, and it will be us that moves along with the current of the business that seems to be inevitable in life.  We will be so joyful to see loved and cherished ones again.  It seems, for me, so much longer than just three-plus weeks in the wilderness.  And for Randy, it seems longer than two months.  We are not the same, either of us, as when we left home.  This changes one forever....

 

We hope to see you soon!!
Love,
Randy and Carie

Heading south to Petersburg....

Saturday, June 5


I am sitting now in the Petersburg Public Library, the local wireless access. This is our first day of cool, steady rain, and the sun is already breaking through the clouds.  We have truly been blessed with beautiful weather.

We left Juneau a week ago, and headed south through Stephens Passage and Frederick Sound.  Except for crew, all the passengers aboard were women, and we had a blast sharing new wilderness experiences together.  Randy was very busy with much mechanical work, but he found time to go on a couple of paddling and shore excursions with us.  It was a landscape entirely different than the high alpine peaks and barren ice fiords of Glacier Bay... We paddled with curious harbor seals in green fiords hemmed with sitka spruce; skiffed to the tilled moraine outwash of a grounded glacier and hiked on the glacier ice creeping down from the mountains; oohed and aahed at the cute seal pups lounging on turquoise blue icebergs floating out from the calving Dawes Glacier; kayaked past black bears browsing on sedges in a quiet cove, and saw WHALES!

Near Brothers Islands, the currents from Stephens Passage, Frederick Sound and Chatham Strait all converge, providing a rich feeding ground for the large mammmals.  We spent two days in that part of the Inside Passage, and saw many, many humpback whales feeding, including the awesome spectacle of tail slamming and pec fin slapping.  Wow!  Randy took us out in the skiff, and we drifted (at a safe distance) among a family of four whales as they cruised the passage.  Here are just two of the hundreds of whale photos everyone took:

Stopping in the rainforest, on the way to a gorgeous waterfall:

Fellow passengers:

Other wildlife:

At Dawes Glacier:

On Baird Glacier:

Anchorages:

Glacier Bay....

We are sitting in the beautiful, modern Juneau public library, looking out over Juneau Harbor through massive windows. I know the building is on a solid foundation, but I'm sure the whole town is swaying and rolling.  I suppose this is what is called 'sea legs'....

We pulled into town this morning after the most perfect week in SE AK !  Ten days on the lovely Catalyst, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Enough cloudy days to be cool at the glaciers, and then the sun came out and burned off all the mist hanging low in the ice blue mountain peaks, and we had brilliant sea and sky.  Our final anchorage in a tidy, quiet cove even had one of the guests diving off the boat for an afternoon swim!

It would truly be impossible to describe all the magnificent and breath-taking sights.  It was non-stop, the glory of this wilderness.  We have seen the majesty of the glaciers, calving into the sea. We have seen black bear close enough to scratch behind their ears as they scraped barnacles off the boulders on the beach and licked them up with their huge pink tongues.  We have see 1000 lb.grizzly bears, tearing into a dead whale carcass on the beach.  Some even saw a rare glacier bear (a blueish-gray morph of a black bear) but I missed that one.  I was taking a nap.  We have seen sea otters, a paddle length away,  mother giving her baby a bath; curious harbor seals that come very close to the kayaks; huge sea lions groaning and rolling on the rocks and cavorting in the surf; seven humpback whales indulging in lunge feeding frenzy, showing off their baleen and volkswagon-sized tongues, complete with the range and variety of sounds that I never knew whales could make; and two putting on a delightful show of exuberant breaching (leaping out of the water with their whole body, and then falling back sideways).  We saw sea birds and shorebirds beyond number, including the grand bald eagles. Glacier Bay is without doubt one of God's glorious cathedrals.

[A week later, and we're adding SOME photos...]

At Glacier Bay Headquarters

At Johns Hopkins Glacier

Walking at Reid Glacier

One of hundreds of oyster catchers on the beach

A brown grizzly bear gorging on a dead whale at low tide.

Randy at his post, setting the anchor.

You can view a beautiful album at the Catalyst's facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/PacificCatalyst

  Or you can find the rest of our photos (sorry, very unedited!) on our photobucket album:   http://s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx31/lubberlines/Glacier%20Bay/

on to Petersburg....

May 12, 2010

After getting some needed parts and supplies in Ketchikan (right), we headed out early for a two day repositioning trip north to Petersburg.  Ketchikan did seem pretty touristy, but also kind of sleepy since it is early in the big cruise ship season.







 It was nice to get underway again.  The big challenge for this next leg was to time our passage through Wrangell Narrows and not get hit with a six knot current against us.





 Here's a happy guy on helm watch!

 So, we had a long run yesterday and anchored in a beautiful cove behind Turn Island near Wrangell Island.  It was utterly silent, except for a few eagles screeching, but they soon settled down.
 The late sunset (9:30pm) gave a pink hue to the snow covered mountains we could see from our protected anchorage.

This morning we were off early and had a great run past Wrangell and into Petersburg.  Petersburg is a real fishing town, with lots of serious work boats in the harbor.  It's pretty funky, but feels more for real than Ketchikan.  We have a one day lay-over for rest, repairs and re-provisioning before departing Thursday morning with guests aboard for the next leg to Juneau.


So, expect to see some pics of Baird Glacier and Ford's Terror in the next post!
And when I figure out how to do it, I'll post a video clip of cruising with the porpoises....

To see all the photos, you can view the album at photobucket -- http://s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx31/lubberlines/Ketchican%20to%20Petersburg/

the indescribable....

May 10. 2010               

Ketchikan, AK

How do you describe the indescribable?

Hopefully, some of these pictures will convey  the thousands of words needed to describe the grandeur and intensity of the first ten days aboard. We left Friday Harbor, WA, aboard the M/V Catalyst on April 30^th with eight guests, some from as far away as the Netherlands.

We have seen transient orcas, mink, otters, Stellar sea lions, a very rare elephant seal, too many bald eagles to count, and a pod of Dall porpoise zipping along with us at the Catalyst's bow wave.  

We have chugged past countless 

waterfalls,   hundreds of islands and passed through majestic fjords.

For the most part, the weather has been beautiful as we've threaded our way up through the inside passage of British Columbia. We did have two very rough days of heavy seas crossing areas exposed to open ocean, but found safe anchorages for each night. Many days we have had the anchor up by 5 A.M. in order to connect with favorable currents and tides later in the day.

We stopped one afternoon at an abandoned fish cannery and it's tiny village, Butedale. The one resident was there to greet us and give us a tour of what was left after years of neglect. Looks like a great MDS project site!  

 

The last evening of the trip was, of course, the Captain's Ball.  We dressed up in the fanciest duds we had aboard.  Some more fancy than others!

 

After clearing customs this afternoon, the guests departed and the crew walked in to Ketchikan for parts and supplies. Even after such a relatively short time in the wilds of coastal British Columbia and Alaska, it was disconcerting to see “civilization” again. The solid ground doesn't feel quite right under foot.

We are off again tomorrow for Petersburg to reposition the boat for the next group of guests. There is still room!  

If you would like to view ALL the photos, they are posted on photobucket.   http://s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx31/lubberlines/Friday%20Harbor%20to%20Ketchican/

 Missing you all with fondness, and wishing there was a way to share this all more directly. I'm not sure when we will next have availability to the internet, or even cell service, but I'll keep you posted as I can!

girl interrupted...

The smell of creosote pilings and salt water; the sound of gulls, bell bouys and fog horns; the sight of deep misty green mountainsides and endless ocean swells.  Orcas, otters, eagles.  Just six days until the great lines are cast off, and the beautiful M/V Catalyst heads out at 6 knots into the Puget and Queen Charlotte Sound, and the stunning coast of British Columbia.

And Randy, when he gets the chance, will wipe the engine oil off his hands, and the sweat off his brow, and grin from ear to ear.

We expected to be giddy at this point, six days to go, in expectation, planning and packing.  But it has not gone exactly as we planned.  Still, we trust that even as we "make our plans" it is God that "directs our steps."   With much thought, counsel and prayer, our steps are being slightly adjusted.

Due to Carie's Bell's Palsy, she will postpone her part of the trip by 3 weeks.  We are hoping that this will give her more time to heal, regain some strength and stamina, and especially,  recover some blink-ability in her eye!  Who knew that such a small thing could have such a full-time, non-stop impact!

So, Randy flies out on Tuesday, April 27,  and steps aboard the Catalyst in Friday Harbor, WA  on Wednesday the 28th as the new Engineer.  Carie will join them in Juneau on May 20th, for the trip into Glacier Bay, and two more weeks aboard, exploring between Juneau and Petersburg.

Bon Voyage Randy!  Keep us posted !!

It's Official !

Wow! It's for real now.
There he is, Official Crew Member, Engineer, Chief Launderer and Overhead Clearance Specialist.  {*bump* :: OW!!}   Shannon Bailey, the office master of the business, put Randy right in there with all the rest of the fabulous crew. You can find him on the "Crew" page on the M/V Catalyst website.

Naturally, a photo of Randy with Pierre the Pig was chosen to inspire confidence in the new Engineer's abilities.  Anyone who can hobble Pierre, obviously, can coax a huge engine to do its best!

One week from today we arrive in Friday Harbor and stow our gear on the beautiful boat.  Right now, gear grows in various piles around the house.  Will I need this extra sweater?  How many pairs of socks? Which hat?  wool or fleece?   Do these rain pants still fit?  Binoculars, check.  Camera, check.  Bird guide, uncheck.  They have plenty.
                                 How will this all fit in my duffel??

Actually, I think, the organization is coming along fairly well. There is a lot to prepare for to be gone into the wilderness for so long, especially as both Randy and I are suffering right now with those unexpected physical setbacks. Without strength of our own just now, how dearly we cling to the One who is our strength. Randy wants to have the major outdoor chores done when I return without him, and we are blessed beyond measure by the kindness of our church community, which has overwhelmed us with offers to help.  It has already made a tremendous difference.  How we love you all !

My onset of Bell's Palsy has been daunting, but I should fit right in on the open sea :)  I am practicing my pirate Yaaaarrr!  with the black patch over my unblinkable eye.  Please continue to pray that I will heal quickly, and be restored to full function soon. 


We deeply believe that God has indeed led us into this Alaska adventure, and so trust that He will provide us with everything we need to fully engage with everything that He has in mind.