Pacific NW

Expeditions

Christoph and I saw, perhaps, one of the finest moon-sets ever this morning from the middle of Frederick Sound. It sank almost full into the snowy pinnacles of Admiralty Island, until it looked like a glowing dome of snow itself. Simultaneously, the sun was rising and lighting all the mountains up a soft pink and orange color. Admiralty Island holds one of the highest concentrations of grizzly bears in the world. Native Americans used to call the island “Fortress of the Bears”. As we rounded Cape Fanshaw, I cooked up some blueberry johnny cakes for breakfast. After gaining the cape, we were bombarded by dolphins. One pod shot toward us, and alerted other pods. Soon, pods were closing in from all quadrants, barraging the boat with plumes of spray. They completely surrounded the boat for 10 or 15 minutes, then disappeared as quickly as they came. Later in the afternoon a strong head sea developed, and we took it on the nose for the rest of the day, pounding into breaking rollers. We fought our way into Holklam Bay in the late afternoon, where we plan on spending the next week exploring it’s two great arms, Tracy and Endicott Arm. I turned on some Beethoven really loud as we entered the bay, which is dominated by 6,666 ft Mt. Sumdum and the Sumdum glacier. We enjoyed the rest of the day in a calm anchorage called Tracy Arm Cove, and rowed to shore to explore the mountains and rivers. Lee cut some trees and fashioned them into long pike-poles, which we will use to fend off the icebergs tomorrow when we enter the thick ice packs at the faces of the glaciers. We have had some green bananas on board ever since we bought them in Port Hardy, and they will not ripen. Now, they are showing signs of rot. Disgusted with the state of the bananas, we hung them from a string inside the cabin and let them swing around all day in the waves, bouncing off the bulkheads. And tonight, at sundown, Christoph and I keel-hauled them as punishment for not ripening properly. We each tied a line to the bunch, cast them overboard, and dragged them under the ship, from bow to stern. After dinner Christoph mashed them up and baked them into a delicious banana bread in the dutch oven. It was bon appetit! Tomorrow we will sail to the head of Tracy Arm to watch its tidewater glaciers calve chunks of ice into the sea. I am so excited I can hardly sleep, I feel like it’s Christmas Eve!