Bergs Abound...

 
Wow.  We went to the LeConte Glacier today.   More to come.

We hired the same tour operator/guide we had last year, Kelly Bakos of FauneVoyage Tours (www.faunvoyagetours.com) to take us to the LeConte Glacier.   Kelly is a delight, a Biologist, and a fountain of friendly knowledge.   We were lucky to engage with her again.

As we were outbound from Petersburg at 0900 this morning, we passed this channel marker full of juvenile Stellar Sea Lions.  There are relatively few of these sea lions today as the Orca are in the area, so the sea lions have fled elsewhere.

First berg of the day!

Look for the "sun" petroglyph on the rock wall.   Just to the right of that is a "canoe" petroglyph.  These have not been studied or dated.

The LeConte Glacier has been very actively calving all season long.  There were bergs everywhere.   The closer we got to LeConte Bay, the more bergs we encountered and the larger they became.  The big ones are about the size of a 3-story house.

The "berg hunters" in action.

Bergspotting from the inside (where it was a lot warmer).

Kelly, expertly navigating the boat between the bergs and over a few small ones.  Too many bergs to miss them all.

We entered LeConte Bay at low tide, so the rock walls were exposed, and you can really see all of the striated colors.  Very cool.

Thunder Falls, so named by John Muir.  The falls split and then rejoin just above the shore.

This is the base of the falls.

Yup, those falls are way up there!

Lizzy is quite the photographer.  She has taken some outstanding shots, but she can't share them from her camera until she gets back home.

This hanging glacier used to extend down to the water.   When the LeConte Glacier extended further, this hanging glacier fed into it.  Now both have receded and are no longer connected.

Just to the right of the valley and near shore, you may spot the Uncruise cruise ship.   Those small ships only hold about 80 guests.   They are a great way to see Alaska as they can get into the small places the big ships can't.  The big ones hold 3,000+ guests...

Finally, the LeConte Glacier, from about 2 miles away.

A photo by one photographer of other photographers photoing the glacier.

Photobomb.   Yup, we were here.

Taylor & Lizzy were here too.

That's a berg.

There was a small tender from the Uncruise cruise ship that had anchored in the bay.  These people got a lot closer than Kelly felt it was safe to take us.   I applaud her rational caution.

And another berg.

Bye bye LeConte Glacier.   See you later.

Taylor "BergHunter" in action, scoring a piece of prized LeConte Glacier ice.

I can attest that this ice goes really well with scotch, but Taylor doesn't like scotch.   Bummer!

Kelly's boat.  Fast, smooth, comfortable, and safe.  And she is fearless, taking us up to the safe-limit zone near the glacier, about 1/2 mile away from the face.

Once we all returned and all hands accounted for...   We all met-up with Ellen for lunch at Inga's, a local Asian-inspired restaurant.  Very good food, BTW.   While Ellen and Kelly live in the same teeny community and had many friends in common, they'd never met - so we fixed that over lunch.

As the time approached 1500 (3:00pm) we had to go.  We have to get through the Wrangell Narrows on a schedule.

We took a picture of Ellen & Allen's home (they are remodelling) as we head towards the Wrangell Narrows.

If you look closely, you can see Ellen waving from the balcony.

Good luck with the remodel!

Ellen took a picture of us as we motored on by.

Wrangell Narrows is about 18 miles of long, twisty-turny, shallow, rock-strewn navigable channel.   It is full of kelp on the sides and sport fishermen all over the place.  I'm not sure which poses the biggest threat to safe navigation...

For a slow boat, like ours, you want to time the tide so you ride the rising tide (current) into the middle and then ride the falling tide (current) out the other end.   This isn't a big deal, but it does impose timing restrictions.   We had to go right at 1530 (3:30pm) today.

This fishing lodge is just south of where the current's change direction in the middle of Wrangell Narrows.

We tried for Deception Bay at the south end of the Narrows, but the prevailing winds were straight into the bay making a nasty/uncomfortable chop.

So, we decided to head to St. John Harbor on Zarembo Island.  But there were already 3 boats in that small harbor.

So, we went to Roosevelt Harbor, near Wrangell.

This photo is what we look like doing 10.7 knots STW. (Speed Through Water).   Every so often, I open up the throttle to about 75% for 30 minutes to burn off any carbon build-up inside the engine.   This was that time.

Given that we were now going a lot further than planned and it was getting late, we dined on leftover beef stew from last night.   No wine for us - we don't drink alcohol when we are underway.

At the entrance to Roosevelt Harbor there is a bird? sculpture on the southern promontory greeting us as we enter the bay.

Looking back out the mouth of Roosevelt Harbor towards the setting sun (in the north...).

That's it for today.  It is my bedtime.   Good Night.