Pacific NW

Expeditions

We awoke to a blissfully calm and clear day! But when I tried pulling old Forfjord off the bottom it wouldn’t budge. My fears were confirmed: the anchor had snagged on one of the millions of trees that sank to the bottom after the wave of ’56. It was a mixed blessing that probably saved us from blowing onto the beach during the williwaws. My heart sank with thoughts of cutting the chain and leaving such a good anchor on the bottom. Neptune had a few good ideas however and managed to manoeuver the boat such as that he could jockey it free. Hooray! We steamed to the head of the bay to admire the wave scars and glaciers at its terminus. The three glaciers were in such a state of change that the actual shoreline was a full mile OUT from the charted shoreline. Where the charts showed 475 feet of water a mile from shore, I found a wall of gravel 30 feet tall! It was a reminder that we must be totally self-sufficient here as we can’t even trust government publications to be updated. Such a change in geography in such a short time! I won’t even bother describing the glaciers, 13,000 foot mountains, and landslides that soared above us. We drifted in the bay for a few hours and prepared for the ocean crossing to Yakutat, 105 miles to the north. We cleared the decks for sea and lashed “Modulus” to the bow. Everything was stowed away, food pre-prepared, and our route plotted on the GPS and charts. At 1200 hours we made yet another uneventful transit of “The Chopper” and proceeded out into the Gulf. It was a crystal-clear day and the mountains were all out. 15,300 foot Mt. Fairweather looked like a huge moon looming of the northern horizon. I have never seen such a coastline, my god. Try and imagine a wall of ice rising 2 and 3 vertical miles directly out of the sea. There are no mountain passes or low points, just countless glaciers and endless shimmering fields of ice, for hundreds of miles. The shore is an ugly lee shore, hammered by swell and offering absolutely no protection anywhere. It is one of the most drastic and remote places in all the world, and simply amazing to behold. A moderate head wind picked up giving us an ugly chop. Neptune and I are harnessed into the boat as the sun sinks into the clouds and we prepare to spend our first night at sea in the Gulf of Alaska.