JUNE 21, 22 and 23.

JUNE 21, Wednesday.

It took Vaughan ½ hour to bring up the anchor, it was so full of mud and silt from the bottom near Reid’s glacier. We sailed around the corner to look at the Lamplugh glacier. Distances are very deceiving; everything is way further away and way bigger then you think.

Lamplugh glacier.

We took a peek at the John Hopkins glacier. One is not allowed to get too close because of all the seals giving birth to their seal pups on the ice flows.

A peek at John Hopkins Glacier from far away to protect the seals and their pubs on the ice flows.

We ended up floating in front of the enormous Margerie Glacier at 12:30 for about ½ hour and witnessed several incidences of ice falling of the glacier and heard lots of cracking and booms from the glacier. This was the most northern point in our trip.

I baked some fresh cinnamon buns for lunch while we admired the glacier, unfortunately only from a distance.

Margerie Glacier, the biggest one on Glacier Bay. This picture does not do it justice.

This glacier is definitely still active.

We ended up anchoring near Russell island. The ‘Sarah Jean II’ arrived several hours later and tried to find an anchoring spot near us. They found it all too deep and left to go anchoring back in Reid Bay. We had this lovely anchorage all to ourselves again. Just listening to the bird calls and the gentle slapping of the wave against our hull. I woke up around 2:00 am and it was starting to get light already. It is Summer Solstice, so tonight is the longest day and, as the French would say, the shortest night.

Russell Island anchorage.

The view of our boat of Russel Island anchorage.

JUNE 22, Thursday.

What a day! We didn’t leave till about 10:20  from Russell Island this morning. We were not planning on travelling too far and the sun started to come out again. On our way to Blue Mouse Cove, we first saw a group, not a raft, because they were not rafting together but just playing around and bobbing up and down, of over 100 sea otters. Amazing! Then I saw a tall motor yacht coming towards us and I thought it looked like ‘Red Rover’, with Alison and Kevin, and it was. We stopped, chatted a bit and they went on to Tarr inlet.

Red Rover coming towards us.

A lovely shot of Alison and Kevin on their ‘Home’.

Next we saw 3 or 4 different Humpback whales blowing and surfacing all around the bay. It was so special just to sit there and watch them for half an hour or so without 10 different whale watching boats jostling all around them. It was just us and the whales.

When we came into Blue Mouse Cove, first we saw a black bear on the beach and then we saw several kayakers on a point in the bay. After we anchored one of them came over, Jos or Leon (?) and he mentioned that they were chased away by a grizzly from the point where they were having a picnic. The bear had been on another island and came swimming right over to them. They quickly jumped into their kayaks.

Vaughan quickly put the electric motor on our dinghy, so we would not make a lot of noise and we went over to take a closer look at the grizzly. It was magnificent. We sat and watched together with the 4 Dutch kayakers for about an hour, while the bear ate and comfortably snacked on the grass.

After this wonderful viewing, Vaughan enjoyed eating some sweet and salty cookies, I baked yesterday, complements of Mejan’s recipe, and I  went for a long kayak paddle.

I could not see the Grizzly was walking around there. Vaughan took this picture unbeknowst to me. 

The show continued later in the day at low tide. The grizzly came out and wandered the beach, pushing over huge rocks as if they were little pebbles, looking for crabs. His coat was a beautiful shining reddish brown. He was a big healthy male bear.

He went for a nice dip in the cool water. At one point he sat on his back and all four feet were sticking out. So cute. I made a video of him coming out of the water but cannot post it here. I posted it on Facebook.

 

Our Canadian flag on the stern of our boat.

Since we knew he could swim and I had been cooking a nice smelly dinner, Vaughan decided to put the dinghy up right away. We did not want to get his claws on our inflatable dinghy.

I read somewhere that Blue Mouse Cove is named after a theatre in New York. Well, that was very aptly named because we had a great show from the bear and the scenery was spectacular as well. We had a great view of mountains with lots of snow fields and Mount Fairweather, with a height of 15300 feet, 4669 m.

Red Rover joined us in Blue Mouse Cove.

After supper Alison and Kevin came over for a visit and drink of ice wine. Life is good.

JUNE 23, Friday.

This day was not as exciting as yesterday. We travelled back to Bartlett cove, I did lots of downloading of pictures and. as you have noticed, did lots of blogging. Hooray for wifi at the Glacier Bay Lodge. The least we could do was to have dinner there, so we did.

A carving at the entrance to the trails.

Our boat at anchor in Barlett Cove, around 9:30 pm.

One of the tour boats waiting to pick up passengers at the dock at Bartlett Cove.  The National Geographic Expedition tours, 15 days. 62 guests from $10,900US to $19,860 US p.p. That would be quite the experience.