Moving closer to Glacier Bay we stopped in Hoonah, a small
900 person town and home to the largest Tlingit settlement in Southeast
Alaska. It is now on the cruise ship
circuit and construction of large dock and shore facility is underway. We docked at the municipal harbor and found
the harbor master friendly and gracious.
Mostly a commercial fishing port, they made room for us and treated us
very well. She took time to explain the
map of her city and hand write her favorite spots for us. The harbormaster dog and Keela got along fine
in the office.
We got the “Cruise Ship Special” treatment at a small local restaurant,
sausage-eggs-toast $19.95. I’m sure the
locals have another menu as just can’t see a fisherman paying $20 bucks for
breakfast and $2.50 for coffee.
Time had come to change the oil in our genset and get a
sample sent off for analysis. Also took
time to change our 24V alternator that takes care of engine start, bow thruster
and windlass batteries. Carry a spare
and even though it has the same part number on the box it was a bit
different. After borrowing a torque
wrench from a fishboat to remove the pulley nut had to go the library to
download enough tech data to apply the replacement alternator. For the gear heads the new alt was isolated
ground and the old one was frame grounded.
Very small difference in the appearance.
Back underway we headed for Glacier Bay to rendezvous with
the Kramer family. Friends of ours for
years we visited them in Vancouver on the way north. Tom, Fiona and their two kids Aiden and Tiege
(10 & 8) joined us for the trip to the glaciers. WORKNOT has not been that noisy for a long
time.
The kids found a kindred soul in Adam of Antipodes and they
played video games and hung out for the next week.
After an orientation at the ranger station we were cleared
to head up into the Glacier Bay National Park.
Passing the narrows at slack tide by luck rather than planning we were
greeted by dozens of whales spouting in all directions. The kids had a blast counting whales and
trying to identify the type.
Our first glacier viewing was at Reid Inlet where we were
able to beach a dinghy and walk ashore to tour the area where the glacier melt
runs into the water. Randy took and
extended hike and found his dinghy high and dry on return. He managed to drag it about 50’ back into the
water with the help of his crew. All
this occurred in less than 2 hours of shore time. Notice WORKNOT dinghy FLOATING in the background.
Next morning both boats headed to Johns Hopkins
glacier. This is a true tidal glacier which is calving
into the bay at 10-15’ per day. About
every 5-10 minutes you can hear the glacier creaking and growling as stress are
relieved and new ones compressed.
We pushed thru the ice and got to within about ¼ mile of the
face. It took about half an hour to go a
few miles but it was worth the effort.
Things were pretty calm and we decided to transfer Adam to
our boat for some kid time. Twice we
had the boats lined up in calm water for the transfer and the glacier calved aggressively. The first one sent a 3-4 foot wave across
the bay and we had to move the boats apart to prevent damage. Second calving happened just as we got lined
up again. We need Adam to keep going
from boat to boat.
This arm of the park does not allow cruise ships to enter
the inlet and they “see” the glacier face from about 4 miles away. Our view was much better! Only 25 boats a day are allowed in the park
and cruise ships count as a boat. We
are very fortunate indeed to get the opportunity.
Our glacier viewing was not over as we went to Tarr Inlet
and viewed the Margerie glacier and the Grand Pacific glacier.
Have many more pics of the Glacier Bay trip but the connection here in Sitka is slow. No box score as we messed around in Glacier Bay for 4 days with lots of idle time and return trips.
If you get the chance to come up to this amazing place do it!!!
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