This morning we left Tracy Arm Cove around 7am for our cruise up Tracy Arm and back. We were hopeful we’d get to see at least North Sawyer glacier, but you just never know what the ice will be like as you transit further and further up the arm.
More seals and pups on icebergs:
It got more and more packed with ice, so we eventually just stopped and floated around, taking in the scenery. True Grit and Evenstar 42 turned to head back…picking through the ice can be tedious and at some point it didn’t look like we were going to get any further.
Scott and Lisa on Impulse (with David and Julie from Dog Star riding along) eventually decided to continue on, slowly. I think the promise of “just around the corner” was too tempting not to try, and so they did. And so, Airship and Evenstar 55 followed. Leading a group, we are always mindful of people’s limits when it comes to challenging environments like ice and rougher water, so we try not to push people when they make the choice not to continue. (We soft-encourage, occasionally, however.)
In this case, floating around for 30-45 minutes paid off (and having a bold flotilla veteran like Scott decide to continue on helped as well). We were able to make it over to North Sawyer glacier, catching a glimpse of South Sawyer and Sawyer Island on our way past. Score!
I always think of North Sawyer glacier as the “desert glacier” because it’s much drier, the surrounding landscape (and water) is much browner, and there’s seldom any ice in front of the glacier.
We decided to see if we could drop our anchors in the 50-100ft depth in front of the glacier, not worried about calving due to the fact that North Sawyer is almost no longer a tidewater glacier.
We dropped about 150 feet of anchor chain in 50 feet of water and stayed put enough to spend a little more time flying the drones, having lunch, and taking photos.
Here are some of Kevin’s aerial photos and a video:
Video footage from over and around the North Sawyer glacier:
Scott and Lisa on Impulse made chili and cornbread for everyone, so after the droning, Kevin played Door Dash dinghy driver for lunch pickup and delivery. What a treat!!
The cornbread was still hot, even!!
We eventually headed back toward Tracy Arm Cove after our bonus sunny day and glacier viewing.
Back on Airship we gathered to go over the plan for tomorrow (Ford’s Terror!) — the intricacies of the entrance and chart anomalies.
We took some photos of the boats at anchor here tonight. A beautiful, quiet, peaceful evening. We had dinner with the back door open and all we could hear were birds and whales spouting just beyond the anchorage.
One of the boats in here tonight posted on a facebook group that they were not happy with the number of boats in the cove, and said they could hear expensive generators and smell diesel exhaust, but I think they were just making things up and being grumpy for sport, because it was so quiet I could hear whale breaths a mile away.
