Day 33 – Hoonah to Sandy Cove (Glacier Bay)

∞Left Hoonah early this morning to beat the MINUS 5.0’ tide! The entrance into Hoonah Harbor is narrow and shallow at low tide. Never seen such swings, it can be as much as 24 feet between high and low tides around here.

∞We arrived at Bartlett Cove in Glacier Bay in time to attend the 11AM orientation presentation which basically tells us boaters what the rules are for operating our vessels inside the park waters. Glacier Bay Lodge is located here too which is a very cozy and well maintained hotel, restaurant, visitor’s center and gift shop. Alaska Airlines flies into nearby Gustavas, AK and you catch a short shuttle ride over to the Lodge for your stay, so it’s pretty easy to visit Glacier Bay even if you don’t have a boat. Now we are enroute to our anchorage for the night in Sandy Cove. Tomorrow we will head further north all the way up to Margerie Glacier and see some glacier calving if we can wrestle into a spot amongst the cruise ships. The park ranger told us where to find the bears, wolves, whales, sea lions throughout the park so we will be watching. Already, upon arrival to the mouth of Glacier Bay, the sea otters began to appear in multiple numbers. From a distance, they look like logs until you get closer then you realize they are just hanging out on their backs floating around. They really are pretty cute in that position, even though my personal experience with otters has been they are nasty, smelly creatures that will kill your dog if it can lure it into the water. The entrance to Glacier Bay for about the first 8 miles is all humpback whale feeding grounds thus highly protected. We are required to go a certain speed and also maintain a center of the channel position for that portion of water. We didn’t see any today however.

∞We arrived at Sandy Cove, a small notch in the eastern part of Glacier Bay, around 3pm and found only one other boat anchored in the harbor but bonus -- 2 black bears on the shore! We put our anchor down and tethered up Lucky Dog alongside, did our “chores” then cruised the bay for some wildlife viewing. One bear reappeared briefly but then just as quickly disappeared back into the woods. We are surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges, but unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating for full mountaintop viewing as the clouds have enshrouded the peaks, but at least it’s not pouring down rain or windy – the temperatures are chilly but very manageable.