Stardates 124155-7.32

Hawks Inlet to Auke Bay … and time in Juneau: 58-22.9N 134-38.9W
Monday’s transit to Auke Bay near Juneau was uneventful. Finding a slip was more interesting. This place is totally first-come-first-served, and they have a 10-day rotation requirement. Been here 10 days, and you have to pull out for 6 hours! Each morning, however, many boats head out. We took advantage of that to swap slips to be closer to shore power and took advantage of that short period to fuel, water, and pump out. We have learned just how limited the capacity Catalina 400’s holding tanks is. The hard way. Good for 3.5 days for two per tank. Gag.
Yesterday was another superlative. I’ve not weeded through nearly sixty pictures and videos taken of the Juneau ice field but attach a couple here. Asa and Frances bought us tickets to fly with them yesterday. Absolutely breath-taking (like many other things in this great state! We then bussed and walked (3-mile round trip) out to Nugget Falls downstream (today) from the Mendenhall Glacier. The recession rate is relentless. Capped the day off with a delicious dinner south-downtown at the Twisted Fish Restaurant … adjacent four huge cruise ships.
Today is blustery and rainy, so we’ll visit museums and the like. Will be off-line for a few days here in Juneau catching our breath.

Hawks Inlet dawn


Bird Notes (from Hawks Inlet) : Varied Thrush, Hermit Thrush, Cordilleran Flycatcher, Red-breasted Sapsucker (thank you Merlin), Pacific Wren, Townsend’s Warbler, Bald Eagle.

Bird Notes from Auke Bay: Bald Eagle overload!

Stardate 124150.–

Stardate 124150—
Entrance Island to Tracy Arm Cove: 57-48.6N 133-38.1W
The short, uneventful trip to Tracy Arm started with a mildly happy discovery: the new crab trap works. It would have been preferable to have landed an actual crab the first time around. This isn’t what happened.

Today’s journey presented a close-aboard cow/calf Orca and some interesting geology on Harbor Island at the mouths of both Tracy and Endicott Arms.

We thought “Seven (or Eight or Nine) Fingers Island” would be a better name than “Harbor Island”…
The primary excitement of the day came after a short, uneventful transit to the mouth of Tracy Arm and not far from Tracy Arm Cove where we spent the night. Ice bergs! Small ones that we’ve heard called bergie bits. The closest was conveniently just inside the red and green buoys marking Tracy Arm’s entrance. I very carefully maneuvered Encore alongside, and Asa knocked off a chunk too large to net, but sufficiently small to be lassoed with our port jib sheet and hauled aboard!

We then did a ten-mile round trip tour of the short leg of Tracy Arm during which we encountered several other bergs (a few bergies but a number of respectable-sized bergs), a large cruise ship, and a few smaller tour boats. That night came long-awaited whiskys and gin on berg ice!

Clearly, Puff The Magic Dragon Glacier …

Glaciers can look quite different from different perspectives

Tracy Arm tributary at the elbow to Sawyer North and South Glaciers

Bird Notes: Varied Thrush (we’ve not spent day with out hearing the unique call of these Robin-sized birds), Hermit Thrush (more prevalent), and oodles of Surf and (pretty sure, though the range suggests otherwise) White-winged Scoters in Tracy Arm Cove.