Tracy and Endicott Arm

The last two days have been days of visual overload as the weather held clear and calm, and even warm when out of the sun. We decided to take advantage of the good weather and after arriving at the bar protecting the entrance to Tracy Arm at 3:15 in the afternoon, since the day still had plenty of daylight and there were only two boats anchored in the cove, we proceeded straight up Tracy Arm.

The cruise ships had left for the day, and there were only two other pleasure craft coming back down, so we figured we would have plenty of room to anchor in the cove when we came back down, even if it was near dusk.

Julie and Kathy were blown away by the scenery, and every berg and waterfall brought more exclamations and more pictures for the memory books. The combination of tides and winds had spaced the ice far enough out that we easily got to the island at the junction between North and South Sawyer glaciers. We could have picked our way further, but it was now 6:15 PM, and we knew we needed at least 2 hours to get back down to the cove to anchor for the night. We could see the face of South Sawyer Glacier just 2 short miles away! This has been the furthest we have ever made it into Tracy Arm. Given all day, it would have been possible to go all the way to the face.

The current gave us a boost back down Tracy Arm, and we set the hook as the 4^th boat in the cove. When the hook was firmly set, we served martinis chilled with glacial ice we had collected. We fired up the grill, cooked some steaks to go with the baked potatoes we had started earlier, and completed the meal with steamed asparagus, green salads and Nanaimo bars for dessert. We tried to watch a movie, but everyone faded quickly.

May 31, Memorial Day, dawned clear and sunny and after a leisurely breakfast of eggs benedict, we headed down Endicott Arm. It is a longer arm (about 30 miles each way from Tracy Arm Cove), much wider for most of the way, but with plenty of waterfalls and lots of floating bergs. When we were in sight of Dawes Glacier we saw the charter vessel "Catalyst", home ported in Friday Harbor, steaming the other direction. They reported it was possible to get all the way to the face of the glacier, but once again, time was not on our side. We went up another mile or so, to within 1.5 miles of the head and called it quits. Lesson learned, leave earlier!

On the way back down Endicott Arm, we stopped at a very scenic waterfall just outside Fords Terror before heading back to Tracy Arm Cove for the evening. Arriving back at the cove, we set the hook and put over the tender to replenish our supply of glacial ice while our dinner of marinated pork loin, potatoes au gratin, broccoli and green salad. We put the tender away when the wind came up and thunder sounds approached. While dinner was completing cooking, we finished the movie from the night before. After dinner, we watched "Avatar" on blu-ray. It would have been much better in 3-D.

After 31 days, we have logged 1262 nautical miles, so we are about 1/3 of the way through our planned distance for the summer.

Photos when we get to Sitka.