Birthday in Alaska

I got to Juneau without much trouble, meeting up with Marianne (a traveling companion on previous Barking Spider trips), Katie (skipper David's daughter), and Mike (David's brother) in the Seattle airport for our connecting flight. Steve was already on the boat, having helped sail from Hawaii. David WAS there to greet us, and not somewhere offshore waiting for a breeze or some fuel... which was good. There were a few rain drops as we left the airport, but then it cleared up for a few days. After checking out the tidewater glacier just outside of town, we cast off and motored to Tracy Arm.

We spent the night in a nice, protected anchorage -- our only complaint was the gnats. But they weren't biting, so we didn't complain too much. The next morning -- the morning of my 30th birthday -- we started up Tracy Arm towards the Sawyer Glacier.

The rock walls on either side of the narrow channel were carved smooth and steep by glaciers, and looked a lot like Yosemite. Actually, I had to keep reminding myself we were in salt water, as it seemed we were boating through Hetch Hetchy, or some other freshwater res. And there were waterfalls! How close can you sail to a waterfall? Didn't learn that in the basic class...

We were able to sail quite close to the tidewater glacier, through a minefield of small iceburgs. I though we got a bit TOO close, but the view was really amazing... still haven't heard a good explanation of why the ice appears blue... anyone? anyone?

And the day just kept getting better! Between the lovely dinner prepared by Marianne on the way to the next anchorage and getting to the anchorage before dark, we must have seen at least 25 whales. Or at least we saw that many breathe. This one kept raising his flippers and flopping them on the surface of the water. Over and over. And I saw him breach once. Weird, but interesting. Have a neat movie of it that I can't upload...

All in all, a birthday that will be hard to top.

I'm getting a little behind as internet access is spotty. My birthday was the 17th. Katie's was the 20th (it was also spectacular). We're in Ketchican today. If we stay another day, I'll try to do another post tomorrow, otherwise it might be a while... and I'll try to remember to bring the limericks I wrote to the internet cafe to post. Lucky you.