JUNE 24, 25 AND 26.

June 24, Saturday.

I spend 3 hours in the morning blogging, while Vaughan slept in, here at Bartlett Cove in Glacier Bay Park. In the afternoon we took the dinghy to shore and visited the Hoonah Tribal Ancestors House, Xunaa Shukà Hit, in Bartlett Cove. The totem poles in front of the House are brand new.

We had a private, 40-minute explanation of all the symbolism of the carvings and history of this building by a lovely lady named Sonya Gray, the Cultural Specialist here at Glacier Bay Park. She is originally from Hoonah and her Grand Father was one of the chiefs there.

Sonya Gray, the Cultural Specialist in Glacier National Park for the Hoonah Tribal Ancestor House.

The house was officially opened in August 2016, with a big celebration.  Here is a video of the official opening, for those of you interested in this significant event for the Tlingit poeple. https://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/historyculture/huna-tribal-house-grand-opening.htm

We were facinated with Sonya’s stories about the history of her people displayed in the large panel.

The small blanket-covered entrance in the middle of the wall panel was meant for people to pass through with head bent to meet the chief and his family, who would live behind this carved panel. This would prevent any enemies having easy access to the chief.

The carving of the girl around this entrance symbolizes the story of the advancing Glacier in the mid 1700’s, when there was a ‘little’ Ice Age. The story goes that a young girl enticed the glacier to advance, which destroyed her village and the lifelihood for her people for many years. The big carving of the bear in the center of the panel represents the advancing glacier.

The entrance to the Tribal House, a contribution from the Chilkat poeple.

Another thing we learned from Sonya was that the grandfather of our lovely Harbour Master assistant, Bill Dalton, in Hoonah, (see picture June 17) carved the canoe displayed here in Bartlett Cove.

We really enjoyed visiting this tribal house and learned a lot about the history of the Tlingit poeple.

There are a few interesting displays in Bartlett Cove. First of all the skeleton of this 45 foot, 35 ton whale named Snow, who was accidentally killed by a cruise ship in 2001.

On the 2^nd floor of the lodge was a nice display of plants and animals found in Glacier Bay.

Humpback Whale Baleen

A skeleton of a Baird’s Beaked Whale  at the lodge, with our boat anchored in the bay in the background.

The only way I managed to get a picture of a Sea Otter and her baby. lol We saw 100’s of Sea Otters, but, they were always too far away for a good shot.

At 3:45 we boarded the shuttle bus, at the lodge in Bartlett Cove, for a half hour ride to Gustavus.

On the Glacier Bay National Park Shuttle bus to Gustavus.

Vaughan needed to replenish the liquor cabinet and I wanted to do some shopping. Vaughan managed to get his items, but the store did not have anything I needed. It was a small health food/deli store. We did not see much of the town, just a little shopping corner with a gas station, a coffeeshop, a souvenier shop, a little restaurant and the liquor store. This ‘Four Corners’ place might have actually been the ‘center’ of Gustavus, not sure.

This is about all we managed to see of Gustavus.

On our way back to the Glacier Bay Lodge the bus driver stopped at the sign of Glacier Bay National Park. Most of us went out and took some pictures. A friendly Russian fellow, currenty living in the States, took our picture.

That evening I spent another 4 hours blogging and when I was finfished it was 11:45 pm and it was still light outside.

View from my window at 11:45 at night. Still light.

June 25, Sunday.

After carefully figuring out the tides and currents, by looking at the NOAA charts I had downloaded and the Tides and Currents book, we left at 7:55 am to catch the last hour of the Ebb tide flooding out of Bartlett Cove. By time we hit Icy Strait we needed to have the flood going with us. It payed off being aware of the currents, because when we came around the corner into Icy Strait we were exactly at slack tide and our speed went up to 11.8 kn., at 1400 RPM’s. We had the current with us all day and averaged about 7.5 kn. over 9 hours. We saw a few little fins of Harbour Porpoises popping out of the water and there were lots of Sea Otters floating around again.

I thought it was going to be a boring, grey, rainy day, but…. When we came close to Whitestone Harbour on the North-East corner of Chichagof island we noticed a few whales’ spouts. Not just one or two, but at least 6 spouts!

We sailed closer to them and, as I had hoped, we witnessed a pod of 6 to 8 Humpback whales ‘bubble net feeding’. I wrote about this in my blog on June 17^th and posted a link to a Youtube video explaining the Bubble feeding system these whales use. Here is another good video by BBC explaining Bubble Net feeding.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8iDcLTD9wQ

It was totally thrilling to sit there for ½ hour or more and watch the whales coming out of the water repeatedly, with their mouths wide open to catch the herring. The birds are there for any leftovers. We just watched when the birds would start flying to an area and we knew the whales would come up and out of the water right after that. I really regretted not having a good camera with a telescopic lens at this time.

Another thrill we experienced today was coming into Pavlof Harbour and seeing a mother Grizzly and her two big cubs, who were probably one or two years old, wandering along the beach heading for a grassy area. We anchored our boat and sat and watch them playing and laying in the grass for a long time. It was definitely another A+ day.

One of the young bears exploring the beach, while mom and brother (or sister) are munching on the  grass.

 

There were also some rapids in this bay. If the weather was nicer it would have been a great place to stay for a while and kayak around.

This  picture of the rapids at Pavlof Harbour was taken at low tide, it was much more impressive at high tide.

The next morning two eagles sat peacefully watching the bay.

June 26, Monday.

We sailed (motored to be exact. Not much ‘sailing’ to be done here. Most boats are powerboats and motor yachts, which makes sense. Good that our boat is a ‘motor-sailer’ ) from Pavlof Harbour to Appleton Cove.

Some scenery along the East coast of Chichagof island.

We watched two other pods of Humpback Whales Bubble net feeding, but they were too far away for pictures. We also saw this Bull Sea Lion with his harem upon entering Peril Strait between Chichagof and Barinof Islands..

Bull Sea Lion and Harem at the entrance to Peril strait between Chichagof and Baranof Islands.

It was pretty windy and noisy all night in the anchorage. Our wind generator kept clunking away, even though we had turned it off.

 

I was reading, ‘Common Ground’ , Justin Trudeau’s autobiography today ( Thanks Merridy for lending me your books. xo) when I read a quote from his father, Pierre Trudeau,  that summed up pretty well our feelings towards the weather here in Alaska, ‘There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.’  There have been lots of grey days, rainy days and windy days and they have not bothered us at all because we dressed for them. We have also been blessed with some lovely sunny days when it counted: in Tracy Arm, in Glacier Bay National Park and while visiting some of the towns.