Whales, Winds, and a Tlingit Village

Alaska Marine Ferry

Glad to be tied to a solid dock in Auke Bay, a suburb of Juneau and close to the much-visited Mendenhall Glacier which we saw as we were coming into the harbor. We had a great internet connection so spent much of the afternoon catching up on e-mail, etc. Felt a little bit of a local connection as the Alaska Marine Ferries came in and out (the ones that stop in Bellingham) and also the Snow Goose, the charter yacht that you B-ham people have all seen tied up in front of the Bellwether Hotel.

Our two boats at the Swanson Harbor float

Our weather continues to be exceptionally good. However, we can now count on a definite pattern — calm in the mornings and the wind coming up sometime in the afternoon and lasting until sometime during the night. Therefore, we do our traveling in the mornings and are safely anchored or up to a dock by noon or so. This was our way at our next stop—Swanson Harbor at the southern end of the Lynn Canal. Even though it was an extremely well-protected harbor, the wind blew very hard and boaters who came later spoke of huge waves out in the main passage.

The next morning, we had a good trip across Icy Strait (even with that ominous name) to get to Hoonah—the largest Tlingit village in Alaska. Hoonah was surprise—it had a nice marina behind a huge breakwater and a walkable town with some services at the top of the dock. Two other Nordic Tugs were also there and we had met both owner couples before so fun to catch up with them. In the afternoon, John, Roxie, Rod, and I got ice cream cones in town and did a 1 ½ mile walk (with Katie, of course) out to Icy Strait Point, a destination that many cruise ships have added to their itineraries. The Hoonah Tlingits, once dependent on logging and fishing, renovated an old salmon cannery into an attractive and interesting resort. There are many activities that the cruise ship passengers can choose from, but the most unusual is the zip line ride. Riders are trucked to a point on the mountain 1300’ above the sea and placed in a harness for their 90-second ride down the mountain paying $120 for this experience!

Us at Icy Strait Point Resort--Hoonah

We left Hoonah the next morning for a two-hour trip down the bay to Neka Bay with the promise of seeing humpback whales and good crabbing. At least we got one of the two. We had a humpback surface right next to our boat, take two blows and two dives, and then a final dive after showing us his tail. Very exciting to see so close! Neka Bay was pretty and we had it all to ourselves, but turned out to be a dead zone for crab and fish. Nothing even took the bait.

We changed our entry permit date to June 10^th so we head for Glacier Bay National Park tomorrow!

Signing out,

Susan, Rod, and Katie