Endicott Arm Reprise

Sea Lion Rookery
You need to look carefully, there is an eagle on the berg

Dawes Glacier up close and personal

The obligatory photo op in front of Dawes Glacier

Bill & Ruth enjoying the spectacular scenery

Just another Dawes Glacier view after calving on the right side

Even the bare rock is stunning

Miriam is piloting Spirit around the ice

A candidate for our boat card pictures

Friday, June 25, 2010

We knew that today would be a long haul, so the anchor came up in Red Bluff Bay at 0642. We stopped in the outer bay and retrieved the shrimp pot (5 dozen) and put the tender back on board before heading out into a foggy Chatham Strait. The seas were relatively calm, not like the day before and by 1000 the fog had disappeared and the sun peeked out. We were treated to numerous whale sightings and Dall porpoise played in front of the bow as we turned up Stephens Passage and set course for Tracy Arm Cove. We anchored in a rain squall centered over the cove. Bill and Patrick headed out in the tender on a glacial ice expedition and then we had a dinner of curried prawns and black cod before inviting Bob and Jo, the new owners of "Josie", (ex Jeanie M), the first Selene 53 built, over for drinks and fresh baked brownies. "Josie" is the first Selene we have seen since leaving Port McNeil 7 weeks ago. The rain continued all night. There were 13 boats anchored in the cove overnight.

Today we ran over 78 nautical miles and the log is at 2065 total.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

We pulled the anchor at 0840, and after looking at the fog and the AIS which showed a large passenger ship in Tracy Arm, stopped by the fog, we voted to go down Endicott Arm. The rain let up about 20 miles in, and as we picked our way through the ice about 5 miles from Dawes glacier, we passed two other boats coming out, one of them "Marjorie Morningstar", the other "Safari Quest". Both had AIS, and we could see they had made it to the glacier face. We slowly made our way through one final band of ice, and then it was clear of ice and full speed for the last 4 miles. We reached the final mass of bergs and launched the tender for some pictures. The views were spectacular and we were glad we made the decision to go back to Endicott Arm. While we were there, the glacier calved twice, the last one taking hundreds of feet of the right hand face into the water with a loud thunder and spray several hundred feet high. The glacier has receded a lot from what the charts show. Both chart systems on board showed us several miles onto dry land (ice).

On the way back down Endicott Arm the rain started again, but we stopped for photos by the waterfall south of Ford's Terror entrance anyway. We then went up to the narrows at Ford's Terror to get a feel for entering, but we were well past high slack water so we just looked for the rock obstructions. As we made our way back to Tracy Arm Cove we heard Ernie from "DX" talking on the VHF. We had last seen Ernie over three weeks earlier at Baranof Hot Springs. After a dinner of roasted marinated pork loin and garlic roasted potatoes, with steamed asparagus we invited Ernie, his son Eric and another friend Harold over for dessert and drinks to catch up on our respective travels and trials. Ernie had spent 12 days tied to the dock at Auke Bay having some failed batteries replaced. The rain continued hard all evening and the wind briefly piped up to 25 knots.

The log now stands at 2135 nautical miles on day 57.