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: