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DATE:6-20-02
HEADING OUT FREDERICK SOUND It’s a bit foggy going out the channel to Frederick Sound but out in the sounds it clears and the rain stops. We just have a few clouds hanging over us now. Bill told me that I have been tying the boat with what you call a “granny knot” which under severe weather he said the knot might tie the boat so tight I would have difficulty releasing it so he showed me another knot to use. Good to know. I’m so glad B & B are here to be with us. It’s really great having Bill here to help with the boat and Bonnie is good company and easy to get along with. The cruise just north of Petersburg
to Fanshaw Bay was pretty normal, nothing out of the ordinary. Fanshaw
Bay is on the east side of the junction of Stephens Passage and Frederick
Sound, just 30 miles NW of Petersburg. We turned into Fanshaw Bay about
1:30 PM. Larry slowed the boat down at the entrance to try our hand at
fishing again. There were a few other boats doing the same thing. We
again had no luck. We finally just put the gear away and decided to go in
and anchor for the evening.
DROP ANCHOR IN FANSHAW BAY We pulled in to the cove and dropped anchor on the East side of Whitney Island just on the north side of the cove. It’s a beautiful setting with a long black sand beaches sprinkled with white shells. The edge of the forest was dressed with lush green grass and deciduous trees next to the typical dark evergreen trees that’s we’ve been so accustomed to seeing. We anchored in about 45 feet of water and got the dinghy down almost immediately to go into shore.
GONE EXPLORING The tide was down and there was plenty of black shore to explore laden with thousands of chalky white clam shells of all sizes including horse clams. I’m still looking for a Russian trading bead but no luck. We hiked into the forest through an opening where there was an out pouring stream. Again, it was like another world opened up to us inside the forest. Inside was a large room of bare tall tree trunks with soft floors and moss covered fallen trees and branches. Lovely ferns perched from the most unlikely spots. There were what looked like little fox holes with moss lined entrances where you could imagine inside little critters making house.
We walked further on up the beach to see if we could find the remains of a deserted fox farm. The enormous scale of this beautiful setting is totally out of proportion to our normal senses. When we anchored we thought we were in much closer but when Larry did the first run to the beach dropping B& B off with the dinghy on shore, they were so far away that they looked liked specks on the beach. This place was HUGE. It’s not any scale that we are used to. As we walked farther up the beach, we were getting so far away from the dinghy that Larry decided to go back to get it and motor it closer to where we were walking. With these huge tides you need to watch your dinghies and make sure you have them secured accordingly. Ziggy is having an absolute ball beachcombing with us. He gets so mesmerized by the whole experience that he almost forgets us completely as he runs up the beach far into the distance. We have to call him every so often to keep him aware of where we are. Bonnie said she’s always wanted to find a Japanese glass float washed ashore of course the likelihood of that here is small, a more likely place would be on the western shore by the Pacific but its fun to have something to search for. We finally find an old building which must be what’s left of the old fox farm. I imagine the farm dates back to the early 20’s. There’s not much to see as the buildings have turned into decaying shacks and full of some kind of animal poop, piles and piles of it, (must be fox poop I guess). Bonnie found an old pitch fork. The area where the fox farm was had been cleared of the evergreen trees but the landscape was quickly becoming over grown again. It was interesting to see tons of blooming lilac which I’m sure was planted by the settlers. There also was berry bushes everywhere and other bushes that looked like strawberry bushes. We also found wild sweet peas with magenta colored blossoms, wild purple lupine and Queen Anne’s lace. Rusted remnants of an old boiler was just left to rot along the shore. Places like this soon get overgrown and quickly forgotten but we could see that there had been other visitors here before us as there was a foot path worn through the brush so we know other boaters must have been here snooping around also.
As we climb back out of the overgrowth, Bonnie and I see the guys poking around in the sand along the waters edge. They are digging for clams. Bill uses the old pitch fork without a handle that Bonnie found and Larry is using his knife. They wait for a squirt and then dig as fast as they can to catch one. I think what they are digging up are little butter clams. I gather lots of empty horse clam shells and I think I might be able to them for fun appetizer dishes. We’re having a great time just poking around along the beach here but it’s time to head back in the dinghy. We go back to the boat to drop off the stuff we’ve collected and to get a crab trap to drop it. Bill has collected some unusual red rock that he has found along the black sand beach. Larry cracks some mussels he found on the beach for crab bate along with a chicken breast that’s been, thawed and frozen and thawed and frozen, and that I don’t think is safe to cook after that. We then jumped back into the dingy again to see what was in the old deserted shack on the other shore of Whitney Island. Again, we found another rusting old boiler of some kind left to rot on the shore and another shack deserted and following apart. There was nothing of value left inside as it was picked clean like a bone.
[photogallery/photo17777/real.htm]
Came back to boat and by then it was after 6:00 PM. It had been a full day. Made a nice dinner: pork tenderloin with Thyme, mustard, capers, olive oil on the BBQ, with garlic asparagus w/ lemon in foil, rice in chicken broth seasoned with dried mushrooms, dried onions, and then a little side salad with left over corn, avocado, onion and tomato. Mmm yum. Ziggy had to have a bath from all his diggings during the day. He’s cleaner now than the rest of us that’s for sure. One last shore trip for Zig and off to bed.
COMMENTS: Bill was up early and Larry followed suit. I could hear them getting on the dinghy to take Zig out and plotting the day, talking about the crabs and Tracy Arm and leaving the anchorage early to get a good start. They reminded me of two kids. The weather is beautiful. We soon pull up the anchor and away we go. The seas get a little strong in Stephens Passage but the boat handles smoothly. Bill is on the fly bridge watching the world go by and doing a good job spotting whales and dolphin. It’s too cold up there for the rest of us and we don’t know how he can stand it. He seems to love the adventure of it all. Ziggy wants to be outside with him and is sitting on his lap at the helm on the fly bridge.
PASSING GLACIERS The rough seas do not last long and before you know it we are in beautiful glassy calm seas reflecting the distant snow covered mountain peaks. Here and there we may catch a glimpse in the distance of a whale spouting or a dolphin streaming through the sea creating his glassy smooth wake. We can see the entrance to Tracy Arm way in the distance. Your breath is taken away by the enormity of the mountains and the glacial snow. We pass glaciers, looking huge and powerful in the distance wedged in between the steep valleys of the mountains, slowly moving, inch by inch over the millions of years, down to the water’s surface to be calved off in chunks, carried away and melted into the sea water that surrounds us. Groups of birds fly by in masses. They look like small arctic ducks.
[photogallery/photo7041/real.htm]
ENTERING TRACY ARM We finally catch a glimpse of the red and green marker that is the channel marker to Tracy Arm. Tracy Arm is the north arm of Holkham Bay. It leads up a channel between steep mountains for about 22 miles until it reaches the head where North Sawyer and South Sawyer glaciers reside. Tracy Arm has the reputation of being one of the most scenic fiords in all of southeast Alaska. We see a white clump ahead peaking behind a small island guarding the entrance. I think it might be an iceberg and Bill thinks it is another boat. As we get closer it becomes evident that the white clump is a berg as we see more and more as we come around the corner of the island now. They aren’t big bergs but are very impressive in their abnormality from the landscape we have been used to. We cautiously enter between the two markers keeping the red to our right and being careful of the notorious strong currents at the entrance that can occur during the normal ebb or flow. We feel pretty convinced that there should be no problem as we are entering at slack tide. Off in the distance, to our starboard, we see a sailboat in full sail. It looks so lonely but beautiful set against the backdrop of the huge mountains and inner coves. The sun is shining and the air is clear and the breeze is dreamy. God what a beautiful place!
As we head into the channel, we think we’d first like to check out our night’s anchorage and then see about going up the channel to see the glacier up close and personal. We notice we have a small charter cruise boat called Safari behind us. As we were entering between the markers we heard him on the radio call “Securite, securite, cruising vessel Safari will be entering Tracy Arm entrance between the two markers in 10 minutes. All vessels be notified.” We just entered quietly on our own. There was not another boat in sight so didn’t see the necessity of hailing a securite. As we slowly cruised by the anchorage that reportedly most people use when exploring Tracy Arm, we saw several fairly large sized bergs in the anchorage. The icy blue color of the bergs is the most surprising aspect of the bergs to me. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. We check out the entrance to the anchorage and make not of the rocks and shallows areas by the entrance. Hopefully when the tide changes it will take the bergs out of the anchorage by the time we return. Safari passes by as we check the anchorage entrance and is going up the channel ahead of us. We decide we’ll follow him a ways and see how the conditions are.
It seemed like there was plenty of room to maneuver around the bergs and to come close to get a better look. We watched Safari cruise right up next to them circling closely completely around them. So we did the same. You have to be careful though as sometimes the part of the berg that is exposed is only a small portion of what most likely is hidden beneath the water. There were groups of birds perched on top of the bergs kind. They were using it like a gathering place to do some chit chatting. They would flutter away as we approached and swarm back around and land on their same perch on the berg again, unflustered.
MILKY WATER AND STONE FACES Safari is heading up the
channel farther and we follow. The color of the water is changing to a
strange greenish aqua color. It’s the glacial water mixing in streaks
with the sea water. It’s very strange. You cannot see into the water as
it’s thick and milky like but very beautiful. The steep sheer stone
mountains rise up alongside the channel. They are cobalt black, strong
and handsome and make for a dramatic contrast to the increasing light aqua
almost Caribbean like color of the water. The granite stone formations
on the cliffs are interesting full of movement frozen in time. The
unusual formations in the rock created by the severe upheavals and
movements of the glaciers over millions and millions of years have created
beautiful striated deep crevices. They soar straight up from the water in
many places like a huge wall. Their stone faces I think would be a
climbers dream. In some places the steep walls have narrow channels
chiseled into the rock from thousands of feet up with water running
through them like manmade troughs almost like aqua ducks.
As you cruise up the 22 miles of the inlet, there are many turns and curves. Many times as you make a turn you come face to face with a part between the mountains that opens up to a view of a beautiful narrow valley with a stream cascading out and emptying into the inlet surrounded by groupings of light green deciduous trees. Those views are few and far between though as the most common sight along the channel are the sheer rock sides and they are the most notable. Waterfalls are abundant cascading down through a crevice or across the face of smooth rock faces. Over the millenniums the water has smoothed the previously rough rock surfaces into soft undulating surfaces and many are gleaming in the sun as they are covered with thin sheets of flat water dropping by gravity to the channel below. We see more and more ice bergs in greater density as we maneuver our way up the channel. Many are becoming bigger as we come nearer to the glacier. They are huge masses slowly making their way down the channel a journey rewarded only by melt down into the warmers salt waters. Just imagine that this ice has been on this glacier for millions of years and now has calved away, it’s pure frozen water millions of years old now to be melted now and combined with the salty sea. We see more and more chunks of ice and bergs as the density becomes more intense. We are an hour or two up this inlet now and are forced to weave left and right to miss them. The temperature is noticeably cooler now but the skies are clear and we appreciated the clear beautiful weather as we were able to see the magnificent tops of the mountains and admire them in their majesty as much as the bergs.
KAYAKER We come to another rare narrow valley and on a small patch of beach I see something that is bright yellow. The color is very intense in this landscape of greens and blues but I can’t make it out. I look through the binoculars and was surprised to see it was a kayak. I scanned the shore with the binoculars and found a man standing on a rock and looking back into the valley. Imagine, that guy has kayaked in this far and where has he come from? Will he stay the night in this little valley that perhaps no one has stopped at before as there certainly is no place to anchor there? What an experience to be where he is. I wonder what it must be like that long trip he paddled to get here without knowing for sure whether he’d have a place to stop with all these shear cliffs. I wave to him but he doesn’t see me and I’m sure he is just interested in enjoying his solitude. Safari is still ahead, leading the way. We gulp down some sandwiches as all this fresh air sure makes you hungry.
[photogallery/photo16805/real.htm]
FIELD OF ICE CUT BY THE PATH OF OTHER BOATERS We are finally within a mile of the glacier and the ice chunks are profuse. There is a path cut through the ice covered water created by other boaters that have come here day after day. I suppose if this path wasn’t cut, preventing the ice from forming solid we would not be able to get up this far to see the glaciers. We passed one large boat leaving the channel as we were going up so we now know there were at three boats here (that’s counting Safari and Knotty Dog).
As we get closer to the head of the inlet, we come around a bend and get our first glimpse of the glaciers up close. They are magnificently huge and somehow look so ancient (which they are). They have a dusting of brown in some areas I guess from all the stone debris it has gathered over the millions of years. Their size is so amazing almost science fiction like. We are dwarfed in their presence. We’re surprised to see about 4 other boats at the head of the arm up near the fork in the channel where both glaciers almost meet. One of the glaciers is more open and some people in a large zodiac are able to get up very close. They all have survival suits on. The other glacier is more stand offish as its large ice field forms a protective barrier to its snarly snout. The mountains rise above each and are heavily laden with snow. Two boats are backed up to a shear stone cliff nearby and almost look as if they are anchored for the night. We felt we had come as far as we felt would be safe and comfortable for us though others were taking chances by going much closer. There’s always the danger of a chunk calving off and creating dangerous 25 foot waves as noted in the cruising guide. We noticed a mother seal and her baby laying on a berg nearby. They seemed uncomfortable with our presence in their icy floating sanctuary and looked wearily at us. Once Ziggy got a gander at them he became over excited and started barking his high pitched yipping at them and the poor things jumped off the berg and swam deep and away into the turquoise water. We tried to calm Zig down and felt awful about the disturbance to the little seals.
We hovered for awhile taking in all
the beauty of the place. As we looked more closely on the ice fields in
the distance safely a good distance away from the boaters, we could see
other seals with their babies resting on the ice.
HEADING BACK MAKING GOOD TIME WITH THE CURRENT We headed back and this time we
weren’t fighting the current but riding with it making much better time.
We so loved looking at the beautiful aquamarine colored water, as its
lightness brightens the whole environment in contrast to the dark waters
we’ve been on now for weeks. We were appalled and saddened though that
someone had dumped their sewage tank in the channel. We think it must
have been from one of the larger cruise boats. There should be a law!
This place was such a sanctuary. How could any one do that? It is
inconceivable. After an hour and a half we reached the anchorage again that we checked out earlier in the day and dropped hook in the cove just inside the entrance to Tracy Arm and positioned ourselves in a good position so that the reef would hopefully discourage any bergs from entering or getting close to our boat. What a beautiful anchorage this is. We have a great view of the channel and can see the bergs floating by and in the distance we can see the whole range of snow cover mountains across the channel. Just behind us is a nice beach with green grass and rich foliage. It looks like a good place to walk and explore. I was too tired to go to shore and explore and by this time it was 6:00 and time to get the dinner on. So everybody got in the dinghy to take Ziggy to shore and check it out. I made a fresh tomato and basil pasta for dinner and a spinach salad with pears and cranberries. Everybody seemed to like it. We had blueberry pie for desert.
Bill brought Larry back and took the
dinghy to shore to explore.
[photogallery/photo15706/real.htm]
COMMENTS: Everyone slept in
this morning. We had some breakfast and headed out. It was another
beautiful calm day for our trip to Juneau. The journey today will take
about 4 hours. Along the way we poked in to see Taku Harbor. It was at
one time the a Hudson Bay trading post and then later a cannery. It’s a
beautiful harbor with just a few remains of the cannery still visible.
There is a small wooden public dock out front and we could saw a trawler
with a home port of Juneau docked at it. There were some people walking
along a path near the buildings. It looked like they were exploring.
Some of the remains look at a distance like an old bunkhouse, some left
over piers from their wharf and some abandoned rusting boilers. What a
beautiful setting though this harbor is. Looks like a couple of the
rustic cottages are occupied. The cruising book says the bear frequent
the nearby stream when the salmon are running so be ware when going
ashore. Very picturesque. We head back into Stephens Passage and continue on to Juneau. The scenery is pretty much the same as we’ve seen on most of our traveling up here. The passage opens up to wide open stretch. Most of us took turns taking naps today, including Ziggy with whoever had the settee it seems.
AUKE BAY
Larry hails the harbor master on the radio asking for a slip assignment and she answers back saying to “Take whatever you can find”. Well, that’s a little easier said than done especially if you are not familiar with the layout. The harbor is laid out with a large concrete floating breakwater which connects to a long dock going to shore with two arms of floating docks extending off of that with slips. All the large mega yachts are docked on the breakwater dock mixed in with a scattering of small and medium sized boats too. We pulled in behind the breakwater to see what we could find inside but it was a mish mash and we couldn’t see a good opening to a slip so we went back and docked on the end of the breakwater. It was a long jump from the boat to the dock which Bill did and tied us to the cleats. Bill gave me some good pointers on how to cleat the lines. He said I had been overdoing the wraps and spending too much time securing them more than they needed. Once we got the lines tied and thought we were settled, we then discovered there was no water or electricity where we were. As usual these Alaskan docks are always unpredictable. You never know what kind of situation you are going to get into. Bill walked down the dock to see if there was another location that we could dock and get water and electricity. Bonnie took Ziggy to go to the bathroom since it was late in the day (about 3:30 or 4:00) and he hadn’t gone out since morning. I gave her the two way radio in case we changed locations so we could let her know where we would be as this is a big place. The breakwater is a long walk from the shore too. Bill eventually came back and said there was another possibility but by now we decided we’d just settle in to this location because we had enough water in the tank and we would be in Haines tomorrow where surely we could fill up with water there. We’ll manage without plugging tonight no problem. So we secured everything and walked down the long dock to shore to find Bonnie and see what was here.
LIFE AT THE MARINA There were three or four mega yachts on the breakwater. Two had Cayman Islands listed as their home port. The breakwater dock is 23 feet wide and 966 feet long with big square holes cut out every couple of feet. We think they were designed to give stability to the dock in the swells. These cut outs are open to the water with ladders going down into them (for what reason I have no idea, maybe in case someone fell in, they could climb the ladder to get out?) and they are located right down the center of the long dock. This forces everyone to walk on the outer edges of the dock right next to the boats which at night doesn’t give any of us or them much privacy when you’re in your bed with the lights on. Near the end of the dock were a couple men fishing, one with his pants so low his bum was showing way more than you ever wanted to see. It was so obvious that we couldn’t imagine that he didn’t know. At the end of the dock you turn and walk on the main float which is over a 1000 feet long. In other words, it’s a long haul to get to shore in other words. The atmosphere here is so different from any place we’ve been. The docks are very busy. There are some young people just laying on the docks sunning themselves in the warm sunshine. Others are carrying loads of stuff to provision in the brown plastic big wheel barrels provided by the marina. Then others are just sitting out on the back of their boats with their dog, of all different kinds, just watching the people go buy and saying hello. Another guy in shorts (could’ve been underwear the way they looked) and a T-shirt was fishing off the back of his boat, which was a converted old tug boat now with a For Sale sign on it. He had remodeled it into what he called an “explorer boat”. Lots of people were taking advantage of the sunny warm day to hang their laundry out to dry on their boats. Some of the people on the docks were people we had seen at other stops along the way the last few weeks. Many of them we have not met officially but their faces are becoming very familiar. There were lots of people on the rocky shore fishing and just lazing around, and their dogs, were barking, running and playing with each other. There were fish (salmon) amazingly just jumping out of the water nearby the docks. Boats were coming and going, many milling around like us looking for a slip or place to squeeze into. There was a mixture of sizes and types of boats all squeezed in together in this big marina. Cords of all colors and sizes and extensions lined the docks, many jimmy rigged to the electrical boxes. Some people were squirting down their boats and others running after their unruly dogs or walking them. There was just so much to look at after so many weeks cruising in the wilderness. The marina provide a huge fish cleaning counter for anyone to use and at least three guys were lined up all day long cleaning their catch while others crowded around like us watching. Usually there were a couple dogs hanging nearby too, along with some birds looking for free scraps. Every time some scrap was thrown into the air and into the water, the birds would fly up, squawking and flapping their wings and the dogs would bark and nip at each other trying to beat each other to the catch. We’d see sports fishing boats going in and out of the harbor, over loaded with guys and dogs. Some boats were too little for the many people crowded on them and it seemed like every square inch was occupied by a fisherman or a dog. Each guy at the cleaning table had a different method of cleaning the fish. Some were pros at it and others, you could tell, were uncomfortable and not sure of what they were doing. One thing is for sure there was a lot of fish caught that day We walked up the covered ramp to find the harbor master’s office and some idiot had let their dog poop all the way down the ramp and never picked it up. Bill got one of my poop pick up bags and picked it up which I thought was admirable. He said its people like that that make it bad for the rest of us with dogs. We found Bonnie by the way standing by the fish cleaning table watching the activity. She said Ziggy already had it out with some dog off its leash and had done his job behind a tank in the bushes so she didn’t have to clean up. We laughed.
THE HARBOR MASTER’S OFFICE The harbor master’s office is also a hub of activity. There’s a master bulletin board with all kinds of notices listing all kinds of crazy things people have for sale, or services for hire, whatever you could possibly imagine. This is also where you get the bus schedule to get to Juneau and directions to different places. You can tell this is a place that gets lots of questions and they’re used to answering them as they’ve already got most of the answers to any possible question you can think already answered and written out on paper and pinned to the wall. They also have an automatic weather report box. You can press a button and the latest report will play. We listened as others listened, everything sounded pretty benign. We walked across the parking lot and checked out the local hamburger joint that is kind of famous among the cruisers. We checked the menu out: just hamburgers and shakes, but at least 30 different kinds of shakes. We asked around to see what else was here but there’s not much except for a Thai restaurant across the Hwy that didn’t look very appetizing and above it was “The Squire” with a sign saying the “Best BBQ food in Juneau”. Larry says they can say that because it’s the only one in Juneau. It looked mostly like a run down bar to me with liquor bottles lining the windows. There really wasn’t much of anything of interest around here besides the activity in the marina.
HAMBURGERS ONLY AND 30 KINDS OF SHAKES We decided we’d have, of course, hamburgers with shakes for dinner. Bill wanted to take one of the bikes and ride up to Mendenhall Glacier before dinner so we said we’d meet him at the hamburger joint at 6:30. That gave him an hour and a half. He took Ziggy, put him in the bike basket and off they went down the highway. The three of us went back to the boat, cleaned up a little and watched this amazing world go by in Auke Harbor. We actually had a great spot in the harbor except for the long distance to shore for walking Ziggy. We were at the end of the breakwater and right at the entrance to the harbor where all the boats come and go. It was fun watching all the different boats coming and going. Mostly the boats were little sport fishing boats loaded with more guys and dogs than you would think possible or safe, all standing in the back weighing the boat down making them look very un seaworthy. Sometimes the currents were so strong that some of the boats would come so close to crashing into the docked boats but no one did. There were lots of narrow misses though. It was comical to watch. One little boat going by was so small and cute and it was appropriately called “Itty Bitty”. A couple kids came by in a dinghy and were only clothed in their swim trunks. They decided to climb up the ladder on the green channel marker and jump off into the icy water. They took turns while one would wait in the dinghy and the other climbed up. How they could stand the temperature is beyond me.
EAGLES TRAINING THEIR BABIES Soaring above us were several eagles and occasionally they would dive almost right into the harbor trying to catch those jumping salmon that were everywhere. After watching them for awhile Bonnie and I decided it looked they were actually training their baby eagles, showing them the ropes. They would dive down just above the water and dunk their huge powerful claws into the water and most of the time coming up with nothing but occasionally they would snag a fish. It looked like they were giving a demonstration to their mottled brown babies who were unconfidently trying to keep up with their parents. They worked these babies hard as they so diligently soared over head making them exercise their undeveloped wings as they tried to keep up. Bonnie and I were perched on the top front of the boat reading and watching. We had a wonderful view of the mountains and the glacier from the boat too. We joked about Bill riding his bike all the way to the glacier and to top it off with Ziggy in the basket. It was typical of the energy and enthusiasm Bill has for everything. I call him little John Muir.
DINNER AND BED
FINALLY, we got the burgers. Very dry but OK. They came with a bag of Pacific Northwest chips along with our 2 shakes and 2 cokes. Umm boy, it really fit the bill. Bill said he had no problems with Ziggy on the bike ride. He said the road up had a slight grade all the way and he thinks it was about a 6 mile trip up there. Sadly he never made it to the glacier as he had to turn back in time to get dinner. He said he missed seeing it he thinks by a half mile. He said he crossed a creek that came from the melting water of the glacier and it was milky white with ice crystals. We took Ziggy on one last walk after dinner and came back to the boat. We went to bed early because we’re going to get up at 5:30 AM to leave early for Haines.
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COMMENTS:
Bill and Bonnie, our friends from the Chesapeake, are here to join us on
the next leg all the way to Glacier Bay. They arrived yesterday. We all
woke fairly early. Larry was planning to leave Petersburg at 9:00 AM but
Bill wanted to take us to breakfast so we decided to delay the departure a
half an hour. Guess Bill is the curious type and was up earlier than the
rest of us, about 6:00 AM exploring the town. He was just coming back as
the rest of us were stirring around the boat looking for coffee. 
DESERTED
FOX FARM
DIGGIN’
FOR CLAMS
DATE:6-21-02
CHECK
OUT THE ANCHORAGE
ICEBERGS!
OUR
FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE GLACIER
BABY
SEALS
We
watched that evening as one berg made its way into the anchorage. By
evening about 5 other boats had come in and dropped their anchors. Larry,
Bill and Ziggy went to see the berg up close in the dinghy to see if it
could pose a problem during the night. Bonnie and I watched as they
stopped to talk to another small boat and ask about their luck at salmon
fishing. The no see ums were out in full force and we were slightly
bothered by a few huge black flies.
DATE:6-21-02, Saturday
Auke Harbor is extremely
picturesque as you enter the bay because the snowy mountains serve as the
centerpiece and backdrop for the harbor. You can actually see Juneau’s
nearby mammoth sized glacier hovering over the landscape, looking like a
sleeping giant. 
It was time to meet Bill at the
hamburger joint for dinner so we walked down the long dock again. The
three of us are clean and fresh having had our first showers in three days
(have to conserve water up here). Bill is patiently waiting for us at the
picnic tables with Ziggy and the bike is parked nearby. The place is
lined up with a conglomeration of different types of people. We put our
order in and plopped ourselves down next to Bill. Bonnie said it looked
like it was going to be a long wait because the girl behind the window
said it would be about 25 minutes. It was a long, long wait, way beyond
25 minutes but I guess that’s part of the ambience here. There were all
different sizes and shapes of people and dogs all waiting to get a
hamburger and shake. One girl had such low cut Britney Spears pants that
we couldn’t believe it and on top of it, she stuck her cell phone down the
front of her pants and it rang incessantly. Another old guy, looking very
unhealthy, was smoking one cigarette after another. It was almost
sacrilegious smelling that stinking old cigarette smoke here in this pure
fresh Alaskan air.