2017-06-07 Glacier Bay Trip

I apologize in advance that this is such a long post.
It was a trip of over 3 weeks in duration, and a lot happened during that time.
You might want to read it in segments.

In June 2010 Lisa and I took Faraway to Glacier Bay.
It was a wonderful trip and one that we wanted to do again someday.
As it turned out, this was the year that we did it.
This time we had additional crew.
It was a somewhat complex plan, but one that ended up working.

We left from Ketchikan with grandson Tyler, age 12.
He accompanied us up to Juneau, where we met the plane and picked up his siblings Aliyah, age 8, and Bryan, age 10.
From there we all went into Glacier Bay for about a week.
Then it was back to Juneau, where Aliyah and Tyler took the plane back to Ketchikan.
Bryan then accompanied Lisa and I on the boat from Juneau back down to Ketchikan.

We left Ketchikan on June 7th, and returned on June 29th.
We logged a little over 800 miles on the boat during that time.
For those few interested in this type of minutia, the engines logged about 120 hours.

Meet the crew.

Captain Mike

Lisa

Tyler

Bryan

Aliyah (with siblings)

'Bina

We were concerned about taking Bina on this trip because dogs are not allowed ashore inside Glacier Bay, except at the initial entry point, Bartlett Cove.

At home Bina uses puppy pads inside the house to do her business, but when we are on the boat she seems to want and expect us to take her to shore.

As it turned out this was a non-issue.
We kept puppy pads on the floor of the head on the boat and even though we took her to shore on the trip up to Juneau, by the time we got there she had started using the puppy pads.  So it all worked out OK.

The first phase of the trip, from Ketchikan to Juneau was enjoyable, and we had no real issues.  We used the "standard route," that is Ketchikan to Wrangell, Wrangell to Petersburg, and then Petersburg to Juneau.

In Zimovia Strait (south of Wrangell) we saw this deer swimming across the narrow channel.

On this north bound transit we did use Canoe Passage, which had been recommended to me by a friend.  It was beautiful indeed, but was a little scary.
My friend had assured me there was enough water to make it through, however my new Whoop-Dee-Doo Garmin GPS chart plotter showed otherwise.

In Wrangell we were moored at the Heritage Harbor, on the transient floats.
There are two 150' transient floats and boats can moor on either side yielding 600' of moorage.
It is a nice facility, although it is a bit longer to walk to town for laundry or groceries.

Heritage Harbor - Wrangell

Faraway at Heritage Harbor

One of our neighbors on the transient float

This little island is just outside Wrangell.
Can you guess its name?
Yep - Two Tree Island.

We made our way up through the Wrangell Narrows to Petersburg the next day.
The Wrangell Narrows are a very narrow channel of water that is about 21 miles long and contains about 60 navigational markers along that route.

I had Tyler up on the fly bridge with me to help identify the markers as we went through the Narrows.  It is imperative that you stay on course through this area.

Wrangell Narrows

While in Petersburg I walked the floats and looked at boats as I always do.
I came across this unique vessel, the "Polar Bound."

There was no one around, but propped up in the window in the wheelhouse was a book entitled, "The Frozen Frontier."  I made a note and later bought it on Kindle.
I'm still working my way through it, but it is the account of the vessel's voyages through the Northwest Passage, and also down into the Inside Passage.
A great read, and I recommend it highly.

We only stayed in Petersburg for one night and then continued northward into Frederick Sound.

The next three nights out of Petersburg were "remote," in the sense that we were not in a community.

The red line on the above map shows our general route out of Petersburg, over to Pybus Bay, and then up to Gambier Bay.  After that it's north up towards Juneau.

The first of those three nights was in Cannery Cove, in Pybus Bay.
It was an idyllic setting, very beautiful.
It was dead calm in there, so we had a great evening for our first night on the anchor.

Cannery Cove, Pybus Bay

Faraway at anchor

The next day we only motored about 22 miles, up to Snug Cove in Gambier Bay.
It was a nice anchorage, but a little more exposed, so we had some chop rolling in which slaps on the hull and makes it difficult to sleep in the forward cabin.

I took no pictures here, but I did manage to ding the prop and break the shear pin on our relatively new Torqeedo electric kicker on the raft.
If Tyler had done that I probably would have yelled at him.
Fortunately when I bought the Torqeedo I anticipated that this might happen and I had bought a spare prop and shear pin at that time and I was able to replace it to get the kicker operational again.

The next day we transited up Stephens Passage on the way towards Juneau.

During that transit I heard something on the VHF radio that I have never heard before.
The USCG (Juneau base) came on the radio and announced that they were "Off the air" until further notice.  They gave no reasons.
They recommended calling "your local Coast Guard" if you were in dire need of assistance.
Not sure exactly what this means, but was glad I didn't have to find out.
In any case our "local" USCG would have been Juneau, which was off the air.

Our next destination was just a brief side trip, not an overnight stop.
In Tracy Arm there are at least two glaciers, the Sumdum, and the Sawyer.
The Sumdum Glacier can be seen from the entrance, but you have to go way back in Tracy Arm to see the Sawyer Glacier.
We just went a little way into the entrance, took some pictures of the ice, and went back out, continuing on our journey north to Juneau.

Sumdum Glacier

Tyler took the pictures of the ice because I was busy driving.

The current is extremely strong at the entrance, and we fought through it both upon entry and exit.

We continued northward to a neat place called Taku Harbor.

Taku Harbor

It is the site of a long abandoned cannery.
The buildings and much of the remains of the equipment are still there.
There is a large dock with room for numerous boats.
It's a good place to get out and stretch your legs.

The next day we made our way up to Auke Bay, which is north of Juneau.

Statter Harbor is there, which is mostly transient moorage, first come, first served.
You just cruise the docks looking for a good spot, and pull in there when you find one.
We had covered about 286 nm to get to this point.

They have good facilities here, with rest rooms, showers, some stores and eateries nearby.
It is a busy, bustling place.
They run numerous whale watching and other tourist activities out of this harbor, so there are tourists coming in by the bus loads, walking down to board the boats.

We had a good night's rest and the next morning took a taxi over to Fred Meyer's and got a huge load of groceries and other provisions.
We were preparing for a little over a week with 5 people and a dog on board, with no opportunity for running to a store to pick up anything that may have been forgotten.

In the evening we took a taxi to the airport and picked up Aliyah and Bryan.
Now we had our full crew aboard.

Here was our route from Auke Bay over to near the entrance to Glacier Bay.

Access to Glacier Bay is very strictly controlled, since it is a national park.
They limit the number of private boats that can be in the bay at any one time.
I have heard the max is 25, but not certain of that.
You must have a permit to enter, which cannot be applied for more than 60 days ahead of the desired entry date.
They only allow 2 cruise ships a day to enter the bay, and they don't stay in overnight.

You must time your arrival into the area such that you do not enter even a minute before your appointed time.  They take this very seriously.

We anchored near Gustavus the night before entry, only a few miles away from the entry point to Glacier Bay National Park.

Entry is made at Bartlett Cove where an orientation session is required.
They also advise you of "Whale Waters" restrictions, and any areas of the bay which may be off limits for whatever reason.

Sometime after we were here in 2010 there was a whale that was killed by a cruise ship.
Funds were obtained to reconstruct the entire skeleton, which is on display here at Bartlett Cove.

Sea Lions on South Marble Island

As you leave Bartlett Cove and head up into the bay you pass South Marble Island, which always has hundreds of Sea Lions hauled out.  It is an impressive sight.  And if you pass closely enough you can hear them, and even smell them.

Here is our route out of Bartlett Cove, destination North Sandy Cove.
South Marble Island is highlighted along the way.

There are only so many places within the bay where boats can safely anchor, and everyone knows where they are.  Even though the number of boats inside the bay is controlled, sometimes the anchorages get crowded.

I have no way of knowing how many other boats were in the bay at the same time we were, but we saw very few boats during our time there.

In 2010 when we visited here we travelled with Paul & Donna Downes who were on their boat the Sea Star.  Coincidentally, they were here in the bay during the same time we were, now on their new boat Reflection.  We had some radio contact with them, but did not actually see them until we were both checking out at Bartlett Cove on the day we exited the bay.

When we pulled in to North Sandy Cove there was only one other boat in there so we were able to get a good secure and safe anchorage.

It was a good thing because the weather blew up the next day and we were forced to stay there all day and the next night as well before being able to continue our odyssey up into the bay.

The kids kept busy with raft rides and playing board games while we were weather bound.

The next day I was determined to move, even if the weather wasn't much better.
We tried to bottom fish nearby on the way out, but it was just too windy.

We moved over to a different anchorage called Blue Mouse Cove.
No, I don't know why it is so named, and no, we did not see any blue mice there.

We did see several "harbor porpoises."
I put that in quotes because I am not knowledgeable on porpoises and I don't know if that is indeed the correct name to use.
But I do know that some porpoises (Dall?) like to get in front of the boat and ride the bow wave.
But these do not, they are furtive, and almost silent.
We had several right near the boat when we were setting the anchor.

Faraway at anchor in Blue Mouse Cove

The kids exploring in the raft

I have neglected thus far to mention the Sea Otters.
We don't see them down in the Ketchikan area, but they are here in great numbers.
They are the cutest little critters, as they float on their backs with their feet in the air.
Their faces seem to be a lighter color, making them look aged.
I have been told they eat all the crab and shrimp, so don't bother dropping your pots.

I have also neglected to mention the whales.
We did see whales, but not in the great numbers that we saw them on the 2010 trip.
And we saw no breaches while inside the bay, which we saw numerous times on the previous trip.

This one appears to have lost part of his tail.
We all conjectured on how he lost it, perhaps to a cruise ship propeller?

The next day was "glacier day."
There are several glaciers up the "West Arm" of the bay.
We were fortunate to have a sunny, warm, calm day for this adventure.

Our plan for the day was to depart Blue Mouse Cove, shown at bottom right in a red oval, and proceed up the West Arm.  I marked the glaciers we would see with red stars:

     Reid Glacier
     Lamplugh Glacier
     Marjorie Glacier
     Grand Pacific Glacier

Johns Hopkins Inlet was closed to boat traffic due to seal birthing.

Reid Glacier

The terrain is stunning

Cruise ship in front of Marjorie Glacier

You can see some of the smaller pieces of ice floating around.
These were everywhere, and the closer you approach the glacier, the thicker the ice field is.
The challenge is to see how close you can get to the glaciers without damaging your boat.
The dangers are primarily getting ice sucked up into the salt water cooling intakes for the engines, hitting a large chunk and damaging the hull, or incurring damage to a propeller from contact with ice.

One of the guide books says that single engine vessels should not even enter Glacier Bay, an opinion that I do not agree with.

We had two coolers on the back deck, both desperately in need of fresh ice.
Aliyah, Bryan, and Tyler worked as a team to catch numerous smaller pieces with the salmon net and break them up in the coolers.  Tyler did the lion's share of the work.
Glacier ice is very dense and tends to last a very long time.

Good-bye to West Arm

We went back to Blue Mouse Cove for the night, and were joined by only one other boat.

For the next day we moved over the Shag Cove in Geike Inlet, and had the anchorage to ourselves.

We tried some bottom fishing out near Geike Rock, but with no luck.

By the time we anchored it was raining torrentially.
It cleared just long enough for the kids to take another raft ride.

Bryan noticed a cave up on the rocky slope

Snow right down to the water line!

Our Glacier Bay experience was wrapping up.
The next day we made our way back to Bartlett Cove as we were in dire need of fuel, fresh water, showers, and cookies.

Planning your exit strategy from Bartlett Cove is very important.
This time of year it is almost constant daylight, so that is not an issue.
But if the weather is bad and you are essentially forced to leave the shelter of Bartlett Cove, you get pushed right out into Icy Strait, and you must deal with whatever weather is there.

We were fortunate to have good weather in Icy Strait when we came out.

Here was our route out of the bay and back into the real world.

Bartlett Cove is on the upper left and Funter Bay is on the bottom right.
We had rough water for that last little portion where we turned northeast, but not too bad.
I could see it coming well before we got there, so I called down on the intercom and warned the crew so that they could be prepared.

Funter Bay Marine Park

I had not been in Funter Bay before, but it was just about the right distance from Bartlett Cove and according to the guide books it was a good place to stay.

There are a couple of coves noted in the guide books, Crab Cove and Coot Cove, but it also shows a public dock available.

When we came into the bay I was headed for Coot Cove and intended to anchor.
As we got closer I could see numerous crab pot buoys in the cove which would have been a problem for anchoring.  You certainly don't want to swing over a crab pot buoy and get the line in the props.

I started eyeing the public float.  It looked a little dicey, as in old and rickety.
It looks like the original dock became too unstable to use so instead of replacing it they just tied a new dock right up alongside the old one.
But it was there, and it was convenient, and it was empty, so we gingerly came alongside, checked the depths, and eventually tied up for the night.
We had covered 542 nm from Ketchikan to this point.

The kids loved it, even though it was raining.
They immediately began playing around the float, using bull kelp like whips.

There were houses and landscaped grounds up above the ramp, but no humanoids around.
Here are some photos of the float and of the buildings in the area.

Funter Bay public dock

I don't even know what this is

Or this

Oh yes, forgot to mention.
As the kids were playing around the dock they saw 3 or 4 Orca whales pass right by.
I was working on dinner and they were there and gone before I had time to grab my camera.

Every evening at some point I would go down to the engine room and check things out.
This evening I noticed that the sea strainer for the generator had two very deep cracks in it.
I have to admit that I had not been checking this very often, so at first I was unsure how long it had been damaged.
The sea strainer filters the sea water coming in to cool the engine on the generator.
It traps kelp, jelly fish, pine needles, etc. and keeps it all out of the engine cooling water.
This was a serious problem because initially I thought we would not be able to use the generator until this was repaired or replaced.

Sea strainer for generator

Our route back to Auke Bay was pretty simple.

I had a brochure from the marina at Auke Bay that, among other things, listed marine maintenance shops.  I started calling them well before we arrived into the harbor.  Despite numerous contacts I was unable to get anyone to commit to helping us.
In the end I called the Wrangell Boat Shop, with whom I had worked before, and gave them the part number for the damaged part.  They said they would order it and have it ready to install by the time we got down to Wrangell on our way home.

I carry a portable Honda generator which I thought I could use until the primary diesel generator was repaired.

When we got to Statter Harbor again in Auke Bay there were two huge yachts moored there, the Elisa, and the Cloudbreak.

The Elisa is about 150', and the Cloudbreak is about 238'.
According to the website, the Cloudbreak is available for charter at a rate of about $845,000 per week, but that does not include food or beverages.

Cloudbreak

Elisa

Tyler shows off a turbot

We got to Juneau with about a day and a half before the flight so the kids spent a lot of time dock fishing.  They also met other kids around the dock with whom they fished.

On the 23rd, early in the morning, Aliyah and Tyler flew out, headed for Ketchikan.
It would take them less than 40 minutes to get home, while it would take Lisa, Bryan, and me about a week.

Tyler and Aliyah wait for the taxi

After another trip to Fred Meyer's for more groceries and provisions we pulled out of Statter Harbor, southbound for Ketchikan.

Our first stop on the southbound trip was Taku Harbor, which we had visited on our way north.

This time we discovered a few new things.
For one thing we found laundry facilities there, which we had not seen on previous visits.

Taku Harbor laundromat

Bryan also discovered the coolest rope swing we've ever seen.
My photos don't do it justice.
Someone had made the effort to climb two huge trees and stretched a rope between them.
From that rope, way up in the trees, they had dropped the two lines for the swing.
The extreme height of the swing lines made for a very long arc, and Bryan had great fun.

The other revelation from our visit to Taku Harbor was that my portable generator is not big enough to power my new inverter.
I eventually discovered that even though the diesel generator sea strainer was cracked, it was still not leaking, so the primary generator could still be used.

When I arrived at Taku Harbor I intentionally tied to the inside of the dock in an effort to reduce the noise from "wave slap" which sometimes occurs.  The inside is much more sheltered from this.

I checked the evening low tide and determined that we had plenty of water to lay inside for the night.

In the morning I got up and prepared breakfast and cleaned up.
About that time I noticed an awful lot of beach showing, so I turned on the depth sounder at the lower helm.
Yikes!  It showed that we were in about 5.5' of water, with over an hour to go before the -4.7' low tide!

I made the quick decision to fire up the engines and get out of there right away.
In hindsight it probably was not the right decision.
As we turned the corner at the end of the dock my depth sounder went down to 3.2'.
I am very surprised that we did not bottom out and damage the props.
We dodged a bullet on that one.

Now we had a long run down Stephens Passage and into the first part of Frederick Sound.

Taku Harbor is way up there at the top, and Portage Bay, our intended anchorage for the night, is way down there at the bottom.  It was a long run but it was good to have all of Stephens Passage and a good portion of Frederick Sound behind us. 

Portage Bay is only about 22 miles from Petersburg.

We anchored in Portage Bay without incident, just inside the entrance, in very calm water.
But, there was a -4.8' tide coming up in the morning and the current was already flowing like a river.
As we sat there on the anchor huge rafts of kelp and debris floated by at a good clip.
The anchor line and the struts on the swim step trapped a lot of it and I wondered how that would affect pulling the anchor.

We had a quiet night on the anchor and in the morning my plan was to pull the anchor about 8:15 AM as that would be when the current was slack.

Right on schedule in the morning I started the engines and we began the process of pulling the anchor.

When I had the boat in the shop down on Lake Union I had them install Aqua Alarms on each engine.  Every engine has over heat alarms, but I had been told that by the time these go off you've already fried some parts.  The Aqua Alarms sense the presence or absence of cooling water, and if the cooling water stops, they go off, supposedly giving you time to stop the engine and remedy the problem before damaging any parts of the engine.

The port Aqua Alarm went off.
I have never had it go off (except for a few seconds during starting) so it took me by surprise.
I immediately shut down the engine and went down to the engine room and cleared a huge mass of kelp from the sea strainer for that engine.

To make a long (and scary) story shorter, both alarms kept going off and I kept clearing the sea strainers.  After multiple clearings the alarms finally ceased.

Then it came time to pull the anchor.
There was a massive wad of kelp around the anchor line as the winch pulled it up.
That was fine as the rope and chain just slid through it.
However when the anchor finally came up it snagged about 200 lbs of this stuff, which made it too heavy for the winch.
I got it up just above the water line and then got a boat hook and managed to pull enough of it off to make it light enough to pull the rest of the way.

Whew!  We were finally under way.

Since it was about a -4.5' tide by now the entrance to the bay was very shallow and also choked with bull kelp.
I avoided all that I could, and worried about the rest.
No more Aqua Alarms, so I guess we were good.
Dodged another bullet.

We covered the approximately 22 miles to Petersburg in rainy and foggy conditions, but without further incident.

When we came near Petersburg the current was really ripping.
We were doing over 11 knots with the engines barely idling.
It was neat to experience, but it made me worry about getting into a slip in the harbor.

We got safely into a slip and had a quiet night in Petersburg.

I spent some time analyzing the tides and currents in the Wrangell Narrows.
You don't want to fight the currents when transiting there if you can avoid it.
The cruising guide books say to enter the narrows from either the north or the south on the last half of a flood tide, so that's what we did.
It sort of worked, we had favorable current for part of the way, and not too much opposing current the rest of the time.

We got into Wrangell about 7 PM on a Monday evening, into Heritage Harbor again.

Faraway at Heritage Harbor

The boat at our stern was a very nice Fleming yacht, named "M & M's Forever."
Lisa likes to analyze boat owner by the names they choose for their boats.
Not sure what she made of that one.
I guess it's better than one we saw in Juneau which was "Butt Ugly."

Now our primary goal was to get the sea strainer for the generator replaced.
I was in contact with the Wrangell Boat Shop and they said the part was expected in town that day, Monday, but that it had not come in.  They expected it Tuesday on the morning plane (the only plane).

It did not come in Tuesday, and when it had not arrived by noon on Wednesday we gave up and pulled out.  I made arrangements for them to ship it to me in Ketchikan and I will have to figure out a way to get it installed.

We made our way south into Zimovia Strait.
This is a generally shallow area with several navigational markers.
One must pay close attention to the course to avoid getting into trouble.

As we approached what I call the "skinny area" I was on the VHF radio talking to another boat.
He asked about fishing in the area and I was telling him about a spot where we had gotten some Ling Cod.  He asked for more detail, and so I started panning the chart on the GPS chart plotter to figure out exactly where that spot was.
When you pan the charts you no longer see the boat's position in relation to the charts in real time.

While I was panning the charts to find the fishing spot, the boat charged ahead at about 9.5 knots.
After I found the spot and told him where it was I looked over to the port side and there was a green navigational marker.
The green markers were supposed to be on the starboard side of the boat.
I looked at the depth, and it was showing 14' and getting shallower.

I immediately backed off the engines, threw them both into reverse, and powered backed out of there and made my way back onto the course.

This is a screen shot off my GPS chart plotter that shows what happened.
The red and black line coming from the bottom middle is our track.
You can see where I almost clipped the edge of that rock pile.
Dodged another bullet - the third one.
This one gives me chills even now when I think about it.
I almost piled up the boat just by not paying attention while piloting.
That will never happen again!

We had a metal free standing fire pit on board, but as yet had not used it.
Bryan really, really wanted a fire on this which was to be most likely our last night out.
The only way that would work was if we made it to Meyers Chuck.

Meyers Chuck

The dock at Meyers Chuck used to be owned by the State of Alaska.
It was first come, first served, and free moorage.
Now it is owned by the City of Wrangell, and they charge a minimal moorage charge, on the honor system.
We were fortunate to find a spot at the dock for the night, tying up there at about 6:30 PM.

Bryan finally got his fire and his S'Mores.

The next morning we were up and away by about 8:30 AM.
The portion of Clarence Strait between Meyers Chuck and Ketchikan can be mean, real mean, but this day it was calm, for which we were very grateful.

About 10 AM I spotted the small tug Edith Olsen coming towards us, and soon after that they hailed me on the VHF radio.  It turned out to be a friend of mine who was at the helm that day.  He told us that a couple of miles behind him there was a group of Orcas numbering about a dozen, which included at least a few large bulls.

Sure enough in just a short while we were in them.
They seemed to be everywhere.
Lisa and Bryan were out on the bow enjoying the show.
At one point one of them surfaced barely 10' from the starboard bow and Bryan got so excited and scared that he ran inside the cabin.

I was snapping away from the fly bridge, but you never know what they will look like until you review them later.
This is the best one that I was able to get.
Ironically we were less than 20 miles from home when we had the best whale show of the trip.

We made it into our slip at Bar Harbor in early afternoon with the GPS chart plotter showing a voyage of 820 miles.

Lisa and I have made plans to move south within a year, if we can get all our affairs here wrapped up within that time.  I suspect that we will be bringing the boat back to Ketchikan from time to time, but not sure we will ever make it as far north again as Glacier Bay.

Finis!