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!