JUNEAU AT THE DOCK

Tuesday, June 16th through 18th

Honestly our time in Juneau was a blur now that I am writing this on June 19^th sitting in Hoonah. I wish I had a lot to report but I really don’t, although I do have some observations to share and some funny stories. Sorry this post is so long.

CROWDS: The crowds here are MASSIVE from the Cruise Ships. There are at all times 5 to 6 cruise ships docked downtown, all the passengers scrambling to get off the boat for their “real” Alaskan experience. The cruise ships have built up an industry of souvenir shops, tshirt shops, fur shops, and more jewelry stores than I have ever seen – absolutely nuts. The cruisers also beeline for the aforementioned Red Dog Saloon for their Duck Fart Shots, or line up to the tune of 40 people in line at Tracys King Crab Shack (I personally witnessed this) to eat King Crab – which sells for $100/lb. That is crazy money for King Crab which isn’t even as good as our PNW Dungeness Crab in my opinion. Anyway, the streets and shops are packed with people. Every single day. We do get some relief in the evenings when they go back to their ships.

CRUISE SHIP NOISE: The ships typically arrive very early morning, and many leave as late as 10PM. We will be lying in bed and hear them arrive or depart because they emit this gravelly noise underwater that reverberates through the hull of our boat. As they get closer to docking, they make even more noise that crescendos and takes over the natural sounds of your boat as they engage their thrusters (3 in front and 3 in back) to maneuver into their berth. Each of us has had a moment where we were on the boat and go “ok, what’s wrong, something’s running, a pump is stuck on, etc” thinking it’s our respective vessels that are suddenly malfunctioning. Then we realize “oh, it’s just a cruise ship arriving or departing.” The noise is quite deafening. Times 6 per day.

EAGLES: There are so many Eagles here too. Especially by the garbage dump enroute to the airport. They perch on top of the lampposts that line each side of the highway sometimes two to a post but always around the area of the garbage dump. Occasionally they visit us down at the harbor, but nowhere near as many as when we were in Ketchikan.

RAVENS: I love Ravens. They are everywhere here as well. They are smart and crafty and opportunists. They have so many different cackles and calls, the least favorite of which sounds like a screaming woman. We have resident ravens at Blakely as well and have enjoyed their antics. Once when John was packing up construction debris into garbage bags and lining them up inside the garage, they were clearly watching from the trees. He came in for a short coffee break and not 10 minutes later came back outside to find them dragging the bags outside to peck at them and see what was inside. They are problem solvers and can also hold a grudge if you do them wrong. I took this from Dr. Google but it’s interesting and explains their intellect: “Although bird brains lack the folded cortex seen in mammals, Ravens pack an incredibly high number of neurons into a very small space. Research shows their forebrains (the area responsible for higher-level cognitive functions) actually have a greater density of neurons than those of primates.”  And “In the oral traditions of the Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian natives, Raven is credited with creating the earthly world, bringing light (the sun and stars) to the skies, and placing the first humans on earth. The Raven is also known for being cunning, greedy, and impulsive. Often acting out of self-interest, its humorous mischief and boundary-pushing frequently result in unexpected benefits for humanity." We learned some of this on our tour at Kasaan. So there’s my short dissertation and research on Ravens.

YES, I AM NEARLY 65, NOT 40: So, this is my funny story. Lorraine and I were getting much needed grooming at the nail salon. I had an older gentleman (er....my age) doing my pedicure. We talked a bit during the hour about families and life and at one point he looks at me and says “You must have been beautiful in your 40s” – OUCH. He instantly realized his error and backpedaled, but it was too late and too funny. He was so embarrassed. Back handed compliment. Ah yes, we all looked great in our 40s!! But I am now nearly 65 so that’s just what it is.

We visited the Mendenhall Glacier on our last day in town which is always fun. During our stay we wandered the shops some, ran a lot of errands – they have a Costco and Home Depot here, and we ate out a lot. Two nights in a row we escaped the Juneau crowds and drove over to Douglas which is on the other side of the channel to the “Island Pub” which was very good. Just locals over there, no tourists. We visited the Red Dog Saloon a couple more times for some Duck Farts which make a great dessert. We are loaded up with groceries and beverages, fuel, cleaning supplies, and all the little parts and things we needed to get. We are all ready for the next leg of our adventure. 

These two beauties perched on the cruise ship berth structure taking advantage of the view

This is our view out the back before cruise ships berth behind us. Taken at 6:15AM

This big behemoth is going to manuever into a berth right behind us, and I mean right behind. We can nearly talk to the crew from our dock!

Kind of hard to see in this video so watch on a larger screen, but this is a Jet Ski Tour Group that have traveled from Seattle through the inside passage, we see them from time to time. No thanks!

Mendenhall Glacier from Visitor Center, it's retreated quite a bit since we last saw it

While I don't like hunting or taxidermy, I couldn't help but marvel at how enormous this Coastal Brown Bear was at the Red Dog Saloon

Blurry photo unfortunately, but the tiny white specks in between the center two ships are our boats at the dock, photo taken from the Douglas side of the channel

Lastly, for another perspective, a photo take from one of the cruise ships by fellow MBYC members who happened to be on that ship, Brian Schaffer and Patty Sewell! The boys just happened to run into them in town, such a small world. Last time we were here Joy and Sandy Stewart (MBYC) were on a cruise ship in port at the same time. 

Note how close the aft of the Princess ship is to our maneuvering room. Lorraine was quite concerned about being able to get out the next day!

TAKU HARBOR TO JUNEAU

Monday, June 15^th

I may have mentioned I have a giant wicker basket that holds miscellaneous snacks, crackers, chips, nuts, the stuff we graze on during the day. My cupboard space is limited in the galley so this is my solution. I keep it in the oven so it’s not sitting on the counter taking up space. Anyway, I went to put it away yesterday afternoon and discovered that I had forgotten about the two baked potatoes that had exploded in there two nights ago, potato particles stuck to the walls of the oven – nice!! I am not sure what happened because I had indeed pierced them all with a fork prior to baking, my only thought being that I did it too early and they closed back up. Needless to say I had a little cleanup to do.

When we docked last night, we had 17’ of water under the boat.  This morning we awoke to one of the lowest tides of the year – a minus 4.2  tide and only 7’ under the boat, with even shallower depths in our path to get off the dock. This delayed our departure by a couple of hours, but it rose quickly, in fact we had a 4’ gain in just two hours. The tide today is an overall 20’ swing from low to high. Crazy tides up here this time of year! UnforgetAbell and Far Niente went ahead and left at 8am because they needed to get to Juneau and on the inside of the dock before 1:00pm or they’d be blocked by the Cruise Ships. Our moorage is a smaller float nestled between two cruise ship berths; it’s right in the middle of the action. We will be on the outside of the dock, so our timing isn’t as critical.

We pulled into Juneau around 12:30, got settled and immediately found our favorite pub, The Hangar at the Wharf, and went for lunch. Met Abells and Careys up there as well, who had already beelined for the Red Dog Saloon for the inaugural “Duck Fart” shot – the Red Dog’s claim to fame. It is a layered shot of 1/3 shot of Kahlua on the bottom, then 1/3 shot of Bailey’s Irish Crème, topped with 1/3 shot of Crown Royal. You do not sip it – you toss it back all in one gulp, that way the three liquors meld on your tongue and the finish is the Kahlua. Anyway, it sounds disgusting even to me (not a brown lover) but it is very good. The Red Dog is so popular with the cruisers that they have a walk up shot bar where you don’t even have to go inside the bar, just get your DF. However, the bar is super cool inside, great décor.

The afternoon was consumed with getting the JNU Airport to pick up our rental car, a quick stop at the store for some necessities, and back to the boat. Dinner out was at In Boca Al Lupo, a fabulous Italian restaurant we love. 

All the photos from today are just about the Red Dog Saloon visit

FORD’S TERROR TO TAKU HARBOR

Sunday, June 14th

Last night around 6pm, John and I decided to go pull the shrimp pots because we weren’t sure what the weather would be today, as it’s predicted to pour. There’s nothing less fun that pulling up shrimp pots in the rain and wind. It was a calm and beautiful evening so why not! John bought these cool line reels at the boat show this year that work like a hose reel, you just turn the crank and your line neatly wraps up. For years we’ve been hand coiling which is a lot of work and bulk. Anyway, the pots didn’t yield much, I think we got a total of 35 prawns and not large ones by any means. As we pulled the first pot out of the water and set it on the back of the whaler, these little tiny creatures the size of a maggot were dropping all over the bottom of the boat. They had made their way into the bait box feeding on the pellets and got caught in the fine mesh. At first I though it was sea lice but on closer inspection they were teeny prawn larvae, so clearly we had dropped into the maternity ward! We tried to return as many as possible to the water so they can grow up and be BIG prawns!

Today we lounged around most of the day because we had to wait for slack water at the narrows. As mentioned in previous posts, it’s a tricky entry into and out of Ford’s Terror because all the water to and from the upper reaches of the fjord has to flow in and out of a narrow and shallow entrance. If you don’t catch it at slack the currents can get up to 12 knots which is a lot, and being narrow you wouldn’t have any control over where the currents would push you which would be basically onto the rocks on either side. It is prudent to be respectful of nature’s power and wait for slack! Anyway, slack occurred around 2:30pm and we all slipped through the narrows effortlessly, after which we made our way north nearly 5 hours in the pouring rain to a place called Taku Harbor, about 25 miles south of Juneau. This will set us up for a shorter cruising day tomorrow to get to Juneau. Upon arrival at Taku around 7:30pm we all grabbed a spot on the public dock and hunkered down for the night as it continued to pour.

Many photos of our favorite waterfall, the pitcher. It's raining today so the photos are gray and dark

Fleet departing Ford's Terror, raining so it's a dark pic

Lastly, a cute photo from Wrangell where they have several bear sculptures decorated with murals

FORD'S TERROR

Sunday, June 14th, Afternoon Edition!

As we await afternoon slack to transit back out of the narrows of Ford's Terror, John's been playing with his new drone and created some amazing images - Enjoy!

FORD’S TERROR AT ANCHOR

Saturday, June 13^th

Lucky me, I woke up to the sound of waterfalls, incredibly peaceful. Last night after I did all the remaining dishes by hand, and John headed for bed, I felt like I couldn’t let go of this place just yet. I went to the back deck and sat there for another half hour just soaking in all the beauty and expressing my gratitude again. I knew that today would not be the same with the rain expected to move in. Luckily the visibility is not clouded over this morning but it is beginning to sprinkle. By tomorrow we are supposed to be in heavier rain which is unfortunate but what a gift we had yesterday. Might get the shrimp pots out today and see what we can get.

So the name Ford’s Terror invites caution by its very name. The story behind the name goes back to 1889, when H.L. Ford, a US Navy crewman who was the Master-at-Arms on a surveying party, rowed a small boat through the narrow entrance of the inlet. The tide changed while he was inside, and he was trapped in the roaring, turbulent tidal currents for six "terrifying" hours before he could safely escape!

When the rain subsided, we set some shrimp pots as I had read that shrimping is good in here. Leslie, Connie, and I set out around noon to go put down the pots and do some exploring as well. After successful deployment of the pots we made our way into the other arm of Ford’s Terror, where they don’t recommend bringing large boats because of an uncharted rocky bar that stretches across the channel at one point. It was indeed shallow being high tide and only 14’ of water when we passed over. Back in the other inlet there were snowfields and ice sheets that came all the way down to the water with waterfalls flowing in tunnels underneath, very cool. We ventured to the very head of the inlet and saw another bear! It was too shallow for us to get very close to shore, but Greg and Bill (who were in another boat) were able to venture closer to shore and get some pictures. Soon the bear got anxious and bounded away into the trees, the show was over, so we made our way back along the shoreline admiring the waterfalls and ice sheets along the way. At one point I dialed up the engine and we were zipping across the bay where we kept hearing hard slaps that sounded like a sharp wave hitting the boat but more than that. We slowed down and looked closely at the water to find little tiny ice cube size ice chunks, barely noticeable to the naked eye, so yes we were surfing among the ice bits – I am sure the bottom paint will suffer a bit from that. The rain set in eventually which cut our exploration short, the last 10 minutes back to the boat being pelted by steady rain. Seemed like a good afternoon for a movie so I invited the ladies over for a chick flick, Office Romance, with Jennifer Lopez. It was mildly entertaining, but we ate up 2 hours of down time and had a cozy afternoon. We all had a “night off” from socializing which was much needed, John and I had leftovers for dinner and watched a couple episodes of Marshalls.

Girls Trip! Adventuring

Blurry Bear pictures again, couldn't get close enough but we watched through binoculars

Because I can't get enough of this landscape, the colors, the textures, the beauty

High up on this ledge the rocks were such a pretty color in reds and golds, different from everything around it, need a geologist to explain

Selfies are so not flattering to the person taking the photo (me), who wants an ultra closeup of your face?

More waterfall pics

Ice Sheets at water level

Ice tunnels

One more blurry bear pic

SNUG COVE TO FORD’S TERROR

Friday, June 12^th

Happy Birthday John! Another trip around the sun and so happy to share it with you!

Well, here we go! Left Snug Cove right on time at 6:45AM for our 5 hour run up to the entrance to Ford’s Terror, where we await the slack for safe passage. When John pulled the anchor up the chain got wrapped around the plow which caused a minor delay, but he was able to reach down and untangle. As we motored out of Snug Cove we saw a Humpback feeding solo right on amongst a group of exposed rocks so very shallow. Couple hours later in the middle of Stephens Passage a pod of dolphins was feeding nearby. A good wildlife day so far. It’s John’s birthday and I am hosting the group tonight for his favorite dinner – steak, baked potatoes, and wedge salad – with German Chocolate Cake for dessert. Forgot to buy ice cream or candles but he made me promise not to make a big fuss about his birthday. I can’t help myself though, I grew up in a family that celebrated everything in a big way. We had another relatively smooth ride up Stephens Passage to the turnoff to Endicott Arm where we made our way down to Ford’s Terror. Endicott Arm is a long channel and large cathedral of tall snowcapped mountains, with the occasional iceberg. The cruise ships come down here to go to Dawes Glacier at the very end of Endicott but as I said we are turning off at Ford’s Terror. The sun was out, blue skies with fluffy white clouds and the most stunning peaks, the cruise today couldn’t have been more beautiful! But wait, there’s more. We hit the narrows at Ford’s Terror at exactly Juneau high slack thinking we’d have to wait for absolute slack in the narrows. After investigating through the binoculars that no white water existed we decided to go for it and motored through without difficulty, maybe a few swirls here and there but nothing dangerous. Over a sandbar and charted rock. The lowest water we had was just under 14’ which for us is 14’ below the lowest part of the boat, so probably more like 19’ of water. Once inside it was frame after frame of more show stopping beauty. Waterfalls everywhere of all shapes and sizes, sheer granite peaks rising 1000s of feet into the air, topped with snow. Glacier bowls which are basically a lazy, concave, bowl with waterfalls tumbling down from many directions above to meet in the middle to form a massive waterfall. It is truly God’s Country here, the most beautiful place I have ever been in our Alaska boating travels, I truly felt emotional seeing this with my own eyes. As we neared the back of the bay where we planned to anchor, I jumped in the tender to do a depth sweep as this is another place where it shoals up quickly. We settled into 140’ of water and set the anchor, the other two boats rafting up to us. In the process John spotted a brown bear on shore so I quietly motored over there to see if I could capture some photos but it was shy and went back in the woods. It did come back later though and I was able to get some pics. I am writing this post on the morning of June 13, and have been trying to come up with the right adjectives to describe this place but no words nor pictures truly do it justice. We are anchored next to one of those glacier bowls with multiple water falls coming down the face. In front of us to the left is another very powerful waterfall coming off another smaller mountain. To the right appears to be the outlet of a stream coming off the other side of the hill. Behind us is an enormous bulbous granite face with an even larger snow covered peak behind it. Giant waterfalls flowing off of both. Our favorite one is a waterfall that gathers in a granite bowl, then spills off the side as though someone were pouring from a pitcher.  We sat outside last night soaking up as much sun as possible because tomorrow the weather will change, and because the peaks surrounding us are so tall the sun will go behind hours before sunset. We had a simple dinner that I described in yesterday’s post, and I made a German chocolate cake for John’s birthday dessert. The frosting in a can barely covered the cake with a thin layer so I decided to whip up some chocolate ganache, which I learned how to make at my Barcelona cooking class! It turned out amazing and I slathered a thick layer over the entire cake then sprinkled with coconut and toasted pecans. Wow was it good. We tried to play 5 Crowns but it was so painfully slow that we bailed on it after a few hands, calling it a night. Fell asleep to the sound of waterfalls, just the best organic white noise one can imagine. Feeling very humbled by nature, and so very fortunate to be here.

Lorraine captured this nice photo of Huntress approaching Endicott Arm

Leaving Snug Cove this morning, Humpback feeding along the shoreline

Beautiful morning looking north out of Snug Cove

Looking back at the fleet

Approaching Endicott, UnforgetAbell and Huntress

Hanging Glacier in Endicott

Birthday Boy in his element!

Met up with a cruise ship on its way out of Endicott Arm

Endicott Arm entrance

Endicott Arm, stunning peaks everywhere!

Bald Eagle perched on a berg

This was such a pretty berg

Cruising up Endicott Arm

Ford's Terror, look at the scale of the granite mountain vs. the fleet behind us

Approaching the narrows at Ford's Terror entrance

Transiting the narrows of Ford's Terror

Looking to the head of the inlet where we will anchor

One of many waterfalls

Another view of the fleet approaching

The rafting process. UnforgetAbell just tying up while Far Niente hovers waiting its turn

All tied up for the night

Looking the other direction

Bear pics are a bit blurry but best we could do. This looks to be a younger bear maybe a few years old.

Soaking up the beautiful surrounds and sounds

Today's Journey