July 23rd To 25th
Trip Length 43 nm
Easy cruise down Gastineau channel and Stephen’s passage to Tracy Arm No Name Cove where we anchored. There are no good places to anchor in Tracy Arm itself and with around a 50 nm round trip to South And North Sawyer Glaciers and back we anchored at the cove the night before and again at the end of the day of the trip to see the glaciers.
Had to anchor three times as ended up too near a small boat that had put out to much scope which swung in a huge arc. Shared first night with the Nordhaven Roxia which had shared slip with us at Juneau. No bears! Guys did not put out crab traps. Did an afternoon dinghy ride and got glacier ice from a bergie for happy hour.
Chilled and had dinner which was crab enchiladas using crab alex had harvested cooked and saved in hoonah.
July 24th day cruise up and back Tracy Arm dodging bergies as we went.
We did end up getting a decent bump or two from Bergy bits not to bad if you go slow. The ones that are the problem is the smaller size ones couple feet around or so, that are clear blue and very hard to see. Did notice the tour boat guy’s went to the outside along walls at pretty high speed. I think they keep the bergy bits washed out with their wake from boat directly and reflected wake of walls. We pretty much stayed more or less down the middle and went slowly when required through more dense bergy fields.
Ended up getting to within 1/4 mile of both North and South Sawyer Glaciers.
Went early to miss cruise ships and we did. Mostly cloudy day but peaks of sun, no rain and high enough clouds that we saw the mountains so beautiful. Did south sawyer glacier first and picked our way up to within a 1/4 mile or so. So a bit of ice chunks fall but no major calving. Did not get close enough to see harbor seals on bergies near the glacier.
Then went to North Sawyer. I had read glacier is land bound but it does hang over water. Big river coming form its west (left ) face as you look at it. Hung out a half mile form it then headed back.
Gary was on the stern just hanging and saw a HUGE calving he said…1/4 of the face fell off and created big wave. Dodge ice on the way back but while I was on watch I hit a small chunk. Made an god awful noise and I felt bad and alex mad as he thought I was not paying attention since I left wheel to go over and look at seals out the side window. I just did not see it. I had looked away when we hit but I also had scanned before doing so and not seen it. Oh well.
Got back to Tracy arm cove. Anchored on the southeast side instead of northwest. This made us realize the northwest side is better as you get view of mountains.
No bears!