The next morning we got an early start. The forecast was no rain but as we made our way down we got a smattering of drops but that soon stopped. It wasn’t blue sky, but no rain was good enough for us. It was icy cold. I had the layers, the hand warmers, foot warmers, gloves, beanie and then I was snug to sit back and enjoy the view. As you make your way down the fjord, you are surrounded by huge rocky mountains, so new the forest is still in the process of getting established.
It is a really beautiful place. Unfortunately my photos won’t give it justice, because even when the sun came out, it was so low in the sky it was only above the steep mountains that surrounded us for a very short time.
The day before there had been a number of small cruiseboats but today we virtually had it to ourselves. One very small motor boat passed us as we went in, and left before we arrived at the glacier. So once again we had a piece of paradise to ourselves.
We twisted and turned down the arm, rarely out of sight of multiple waterfalls cascading down the rock faces.
The little birds that seem to love foraging in the glacial melt, duck dived as soon as we got too close but occasionally a band were a bit braver and allowed us to chug by without startling.
We started seeing ice bergs as we got closer to the glacier but they were large, few, and easy to dodge as they tended to hug one side of the channel or the other. The blue colour in them was amazing.
Sawyer Island sits in the channel and you could go either side. We were going to go down the narrower passage but the option was taken away as a large ice berg blocked the way. You can see it below. In fact as we got closer, we probably could have still fit through, but it is hard to know how much ice is under the water, so we apply caution, and stay away. In the photo you just get a glimpse of South Sawyer Glacier, where we were visiting first to have lunch.
Once past the island there was a fair bit of floating ice, and Dean went to the bow to spot.
We stay on autopilot but over the walkie talkie he will give me instructions like 5 left. So I do 5 clicks left etc I am supposed to stay at the helm, but I am a bit naughty and still hop out to take photos along the way. I took this selfie with Dean on the bow! At this point, the water is the beautiful aqua colour from the glacial melt, but not too silty as it is when you are very close to the glacier.
Due to this glacier actively calving huge chunks of ice that are large enough to swamp your boat, you are advised to keep at least half a mile away. However sometimes nature decides this for you and as we came around the corner and saw the amount of ice in the water, thought we probably wouldn’t be getting too close. How on earth are we to get through that?
And indeed at times you can’t get through. But as you get closer you often see ways that aren’t apparent from further away. Here we thought this might be the closest we could get. It was a magnificent view, and I was happy, especially hearing the cracks and groans coming from it.
It is hard to believe this is our last major destination in Alaska. While I am sure there are still some experiences and sights for us before we leave, we have ticked all of our boxes. Wow!
I was happy where we were but Dean wasn’t content and kept looking for a way to get closer still.
He finally spotted a way through along the bank that ended in a clear basin that we could float in. The way took us past another waterfall, with so much water coming down that I could hear its roar above the engine as we motored by.
While Dean sat and watched the glacier I made us bacon and egg muffins for lunch which we ate while we bobbed up and down in our little clearing, listening to the huge cracks of the glacier. Massive chunks of ice would fall in occasionally but many of the cracks seemed to come from within. Twice we had to put the engine on to move away from some huge hunks of ice, but mainly we just bobbed and rode over the wavelets formed from the calving process. It is a pretty unforgettable lunch with that backdrop! We also had a game of backgammon, that I sadly lost, so Dean is the South Sawyer Glacier champion.
Here are some close up snaps of the glacier. The colours and textures are amazing.
We realised with the tide change our clear channel we had come down was closing in with ice, so we high tailed it out of there, and headed on down to Sawyer Glacier.
Passing Sawyer Island, the clouds had melted away and we got treated to a gorgeous afternoon in Tracy Arm.
The part of the arm down to Sawyer Glacier wasn’t far, and there were some stunning waterfalls to look at. I couldn’t estimate how far this one fell down the rock face, but it had a huge drop. The canyons it had made through the rock were so deep you couldn’t see it for much of its journey down the mountain until it fell into the water.
Sawyer Glacier has almost completely receded from the water so there wasn’t much ice to dodge. The glacier was quite dirty and when the ice did break off it wouldn’t be the beautiful crystalline looking icebergs seen off South Sawyer Glacier. And the water was really silty. We could see great silty banks building up around it- since these are constantly changing and cannot be chartered accurately you need to not feel tempted to get closer and risk running aground.
Although it looked “dirty” I still found it fascinating. You can see in this close up, the enormous pieces of ice starting to break away. What story the dirt and rocks embedded into it must tell.
And looking face on, to the left was an enormous ice cave with a river pouring out of it. We were lucky to see it because before long I guess it will be collapsed.
The wind was blowing off the glacier straight towards us and with the sun below the mountains it was bitterly cold, so we didn’t dawdle here, but started our long journey back to no name bay.
A particular cascading waterfall had caught our eye on the way down, so coming back we drove past for a closer look. There was so much water coming down!! We turned off the engine and floated a bit, just listening to the water thundering down and soaking up the surroundings for a few minutes. An occasional salmon jumped, the water a beautiful colour. What a nice end to our day. This truly is an amazing place that most people will never have heard of never mind visit. And if you are wondering about the name, it is named after Benjamin Franklin Tracy (1830-1915) who served as Secretary of the Navy from 1889-93.
The weather started closing in and looking behind us, the sun was reflecting off the rocks and the sky looked wicked, mother nature was giving us another warning. It is time to go South!
It was 1900 by the time we got back to our bay and was nearly dark. I had apricot chicken with dumplings and rice pudding in the slow cooker, so we were able to have a hot dinner and dessert with no fuss. In case you missed it before, I love my thermal cooker!
To give you an idea of what the Tracy Arm track looked like here is a screen shot from the chart plotter.
If you want to experience it for yourself take a look at my video below.
So was Tracy Arm better than Glacier Bay? To me it was like comparing apples to oranges. Glacier Bay is on a grand scale and you could lose yourself for weeks exploring it and I’d probably go back for that reason, as we barely scratched the surface. Tracy Arm had an amazing glacier and gorgeous waterfalls, but was so long and deep, for a boat like us, it took us a whole day to get in and out with no anchoring options along the way. But still beautiful and worth it, though we probably wouldn’t do it again now we’ve seen it. I’d hate to choose and glad I got to experience both.
We woke up to blue sky and sunshine. There was hardly a breath of wind and our bay was full of reflections. Shame we didn’t have that yesterday! The gap in the island you can see in the image below looks through to the channel that leads down to the glaciers.
The only ripples on the water being our own track, we sat and marvelled at our surroundings and looked forward to a bit of sunshine that was showing some promise to show itself on what looked to be a gorgeous day. It would be very nice to catch a few rays.
We are heading towards Petersberg. The clock started ticking as soon as we arrived in Alaska, and I can’t believe it is close to making its last tock. Our time is nearly at an end in this, the 49th State of America. We had to get across the gulf before the beginning of September, and as expected it is now one low pressure system after another rolling across. Canada here we come, without too much dawdling now! Less that 1000nm to our destination, Nanaimo, where we will put RTP on the hard to hibernate for the harsh Northern winter.
Run to Paradise 