JUNE 14, 2022 – ENTRANCE COVE TO SAWYER GLACIER

Since Esperança is the pin boat, meaning we anchor and Lucky Dog rafts (or ties) off to us, Shannon and David invited us all to do the round trip to the glacier on their boat so we could all be together. We decided to tow our whaler because it will handle more people, so after the exchange of tenders, packing up of extra clothing and lunch supplies, we were on our way. Today it is NOT raining for a change, hallelujah! The sun isn’t out but the ceiling is high enough, maybe 1000’ so we have pretty decent visibility, just can’t see to the very top of the peaks. The best part was….Lucky Dog’s temperamental diesel heater decided to work today! Which was fantastic as it is quite chilly outside. Almost right away we spied a pair of humpback whales bubble feeding near shore which was really cool to watch! All along the way we passed by sheer granite walls that had very visible horizontal abrasions from ancient times when the glaciers carved their way down the inlet. The walls are so sheer that in most places there are very few, if any, trees or vegetation. The walls glisten with seeping water, and waterfalls of all different shapes and sizes abound. There were the skinniest of waterfalls meandering down the rock faces in a narrow line, and there were wide and powerful falls shooting out into the channel with great force. The shoreline was mostly inhospitable to bears and other wildlife, due to the lack of habitat. About 2 hours into the journey, the icebergs had increased to the point where we no longer felt comfortable running the big boat and farther, so David graciously volunteered to stay with the boat while the rest of us piled into the whaler to see if we could get all the way to the head of the inlet and to the glacier. The water was a frosty 38 degrees, and the outside temps were not much warmer! We bundled up inside our rubber rain gear, not for rain but for wind breakers, donned hats/gloves, and armed ourselves with cameras and binoculars. As we advanced farther up the inlet, the water was absolutely full of ice chunks, and John soon became more tolerant of the smaller chunks hitting the hull, while avoiding the larger ones sure to do damage. It was about 3-5 miles of dodging ice bullets and we were finally there! Such an impressive glacier, but our progress was soon halted because the very head of the inlet was choked with an impassable ice floe and besides we didn’t want to get much closer to the glacier as it’s really quite dangerous. But what was really remarkable is that we noticed all these black specks and quickly realized there were hundreds of seals resting on the icebergs, with their babies! We cut the engine and started taking pictures and as if on cue a giant chunk of the glacier calved, dropping the spires of ice into the water with a thundering BOOM. I was even able to capture the calving in action as it repeated several times. We were far enough away for an immediate effect but about 10 minutes later gentle large swells reached us, nothing dangerous but definitely from the calving. It was really chilly and an even chillier ride in the boat as we were cruising on a giant glass of ice water, so we turned around and made our way back to the Lucky Dog. Along the way we harvested a large chunk of glacier ice for our evening cocktails (tradition!). The first chunk chosen by Shannon turned out to be far larger than she anticipated as she struggled to heft it on the boat, nearly falling in, so she dropped that one and chose a lighter one! After showers and rest we gathered to clink our glasses with centuries old ice in our glasses, which was just beautifully clear (sometimes it has sand embedded in the ice which isn’t desirable of course). We finished off the day with our last supper with David and Shannon, Baked Chicken Thighs w/Olives, Lemon and Thyme, baby reds, and Caesar salad. The scenery was indescribably beautiful once again, and pictures don’t do it justice.