Pacific NW

Expeditions

At 0345 we steamed from Yakutat harbor. The storm of the previous two days had dissipated, yet a groundswell remained. Some of the swell was quite large. In the afternoon all clouds burned off and revealed the mountains. The Fairweather-St. Elias mountain range is second to none in the world. It is the tallest coastal mountain range on planet earth. Today we witnessed the awesome sight of the 19,000 foot tall peaks in all their glory. Mt. Logan shot straight up out of the sea. For the last several thousand feet it becomes nearly vertical, and the summit appeared to be hovering in outer space. Nowhere else can one see mountains rise from the sea level to the heights achieved in this range. Viewed from the heaving swells of the Gulf of Alaska, Justin and I felt extremely privileged just being there on such a day. We had sunshine and mountains the entire way to Pelican, 180 nautical miles away. The remainder of the crossing seemed short compared to our passage to Yakutat. Our weather window wouldn’t permit a visit to Lituya Bay this time, but we got a good view of it from the ocean. We have finally sailed to a point far enough south that we got our first taste of “night”. At 2200 hours a big red sun slowly sank into the ocean. As the boat heaved in the swell, the sun appeared to bob up and down below the horizon, and I saw it “set” about 30-40 times. A giant first quarter moon also set at midnight, and we observed Mars on the horizon. We saw our first stars of the trip since April! All the friendly constellations appeared, and we saw a shooting star: a good omen. I even saw faint Northern Lights, in columns and pillars of soft white light, shimmering above the massive Fairweather range. We were greeted into SE Alaska in March with our first Northern Lights, and now we were once again led back into them. Coming back into SE Alaska felt like coming home for me. Some places are in my blood, and this is one of them. I was too excited to sleep. I have been planning for this crossing for so long, and now here was “Silent Partner” coming into port after successfully crossing the Gulf of Alaska twice. The silty waters of Glacier Bay spill out into the ocean through Cross Sound. As we entered the Inside Passage the whole sea turned the exact color of Silent Partner’s decks, a phenomenon I had observed in Glacier Bay 2 years before. “Silent Partner” became one with the ocean, and I steamed proudly back to Pelican on a huge adrenaline rush.