July 8, 2019 - Petersburg to Scenery Cove

Adagio has had a crew change today.  Many thanks to Alex and Paulo of S/V Pesto for bringing Adagio from La Conner to Petersburg Alaska with Steve and Kevin.  What great friends, and more lifelong memories made in the last three weeks.  As they depart, Kathy, Cindy, nieces Ayla and Bekka have arrived and joined the crew very excited for what adventures there will be in the coming days.  

During the brief transition without crew, the marina office contacts Steve and says we need to change slips.  The boat that "belongs" to the slip we are in is returning early from fishing.  Kevin and Steve move the boat over a few slips, and have no trouble doing so, thankfully.  The current really moves in the Petersburg Marina at times, and we had some trouble getting into the slip when we first arrived.  It took several attempts.  Steve wants a bow thruster for Christmas  :-)

Paulo and Alex headed to the airport.  THANKS!!!

45 minutes later Bekka, Ayla, Kathy and Cindy arrive 

Lunch before leaving Petersburg

Hanging in the pilothouse

The calm, calm waters

Cindy wrote this colorful statement:  We were in need of food provisions (Cheese-Its are very vital to crew moral) so we all walked up to the grocery store. While the adults shopped for food, we wandered around the same store looking at cool fox socks, weird cooking supplies, real femur bones for dogs, and ramen flavors. After shopping, we headed back to Adagio to prepare for departure. Ayla, Bekka, and Cindy poked at the various sea anemones growing on the side of the dock, and even watched one envelope a clear jellyfish. We then left Petersburg.  On the way to our next destination, a few humpback whales happened to pass us by. We arrived to an empty bay, the steep rock walls rising above the trees. The mouth of a small river flowed into the anchorage, which may have given the water a lighter teal color. It was necessary to take down the kayaks and go exploring in hopes of riding them down the river, as one does when the opportunity presents itself. Ayla, Bekka, and Cindy kayaked around the bay and found an easily accessible portion of the river, so Kathy and Kevin rowed over to fly the drone and get some videos. Surveying the river, there was one small boulder that the water hurls into, and may be almost impossible to avoid the crash. Ayla was so excited to kayak the river rapids that she went down backwards... She hit the rock but made it down the river. Cindy went next, facing fowards, and also crashed into the rock but avoided tipping over and made it to the bottom of the "rapids". Finally, Bekka launched off and hit the rock... and she tipped over! The water was fairly deep and warm, so the kayak proceeded to fill with water after making it to the mouth of the river. Cindy and Bekka worked together to drain the water and flip it back over, then we all paddled back over to the boat. It was fun and not at all dangerous.

Bekka, Ayla, and Cindy all dressed for cooler weather kayaking

Zappa cat watches and often wants to go on the boats

The girls exploring the shoreline

Three kayaks with the girls and Kathy and Kevin in the row boat

Scenery Cove with colorful wildflowers


Cindy running the rapids

Beautiful Scenery Cove

Since Bekka was already soaked and the water temperature around our boat was 60 degrees, Ayla, Bekka, and Cindy decided to go for a swim. This essentially was jumping in the water then jumping right back out again, since the water felt fairly cold. We then had hot chocolate and dinner.
We plan on leaving early tomorrow morning to get a head start on our next anchorage. 

Internet coverage will likely be non-existent for the next week or so....

All three jumping at once.  Swimming in Alaska???

They have attitude!

July 06, 2019 - Le Conte Glacier

Today is a big day.  We are heading to Le Conte Glacier to check out a tidewater glacier, and hopefully lots of icebergs floating in Le Conte Bay.  The entrance is tricky, and the main guide book for SE Alaska strongly discourages peoplefrom attempting to see this glacier (except for locals with intimate knowledge of the entrance).  We have a friend that has been in here a dozen times and he was kind enough to send me his tracks from the navigation program we both use (Coastal Explorer).  So, I have a dozen trips documented with pinpoint accuracy.  Not much chance of running aground with information like this!

We pull the anchor after a small breakfast and make the hour long trip over to the entrance.  There are a couple of small fishing boats nearby, but no signs of other boats headed this way.

The first chunks of ice appear

As we get closer, the ice chunks grow in size and frequency.  Soon, we are surrounded by chunks of ice.  This is exciting!  We negotiate the tricky entrance, and have to deviate course a few times to go around house sized icebergs.  Wow!  Once through the challenging entrance it gets easy, with water depths in the 300'-400 range, compared to 20' at the entrance.  At low tide the entrance gets choked with icebergs grounded in the shallow water.  The winds are light and the sun is out.  There is a haze in the air, but it is much less so within Le Conte Bay.

The ice forms interesting shapes

Some pieces are huge

Every piece is interesting.  Great waterfall in the background.

This one is clear, much different than most of the others.

Awesome formations

We negotiate about 5-6 miles of icebergs and bergy bits.  As we turn the last corner the Glacier comes into view.  Finally we get to see the source of all this ice.

Finally the glacier is in sight.  The wind is now blowing 25 knots.

The ice is getting pretty thick.  It doesn't really show up but there are lots of
little bergy bits all over the place.  You don't want to get them in your props.
We have gone as far as I dare.

Close-up of the glacier's face.  We never saw it calving, unfortunately.

After floating here in awe for about 40 minutes we turn around and start making our way back down the bay.  Just as we about to turn away a small bergy bit drifts close to the swimstep.  I run to grab it so we can break off a few chunks for drinks later.  We get a few nice pieces of ancient glacier ice.  It will be perfect for the nice bottle of Scotch Alex bough for just this purpose.

Alex, Le Conte Bay, AK

And captain Steve

As we get a few miles away from the glacier the winds die off.  Down to just a few knots.  We decide we can probably attempt a drone flight.  We head towards the largest iceberg we can see.  It's pretty large and looks very stable.  We get the boat close and launch the drone to get some unique pictures.

Adagio floating in front of a nice iceberg.

Overhead view of the iceberg.  It's quite large.

As we are leaving I decided it's time to touch the anchor to the glacier.  I turn and ease the bow of Adagio up to the glacier.  Wow, this thing looks huge now.  Each of takes a turn touching the iceberg.  How exciting!

Kevin touching the iceberg

Paulo's turn

Paulo, Alex, and Steve

Alex, bare feet on the iceberg.

We continue our journey back to the real world, marveling at the beauty of this place.  Some of the ice is so blue that it doesn't look real.

Look the color of this berg.  Spectacular

One last drone picture as we negotiate the bergs
on our way out the shallow entrance.

What a day!  This is an experience you just can't get outside of Alaska (at least in the part of the globe).  Le Conte Glacier is the southernmost tidewater glacier in Alaska.  Truly a memorable experience.  I am so happy that we got to share it with Alex and Paulo before they leave in a few days.

July 05, 2019 - Ideal Cove

We left Wrangell and made the long trip north to Petersburg.  The current is really strong on hte long and narrow Wrangell Narrows.  Fortunately we are getting a good push from the current, at least for hte vast majority of the trip.  There were several wrecked boats along the way.  This huge tide swings take their toll.

Wrecked boat, Wrangell Narrows.

The current is really moving here.

Another wrecked fishing boat, just across from Petersburg.

We debated about staying in Petersburg tonight, or continuing on toward Le Conte Glacier, which is our planned activity for tomorrow.  We arrive at Petersburg at full current.  It is ripping by the marina at almost 6 knots.  We are not going to try to get into a slip with currents like this.  Plus it's early enough in the day that we can continue on and go to the only anchorage near Le Conte Glacier;  Ideal Cove.  There is an absolute mine field of crab pots near Ideal Cove.  The most crab pots I've seen in one location.  Fortunately the cove itself is pretty free of crab pots, so we scout the bay and find a nice location where we can drop the anchor. 

The view of the mountains is incredible.  What a picturesque spot.

Setting the anchor, Ideal Cove, AK

The mountains are fantastic.  The water has turned a milky blue color.

It's another calm day with no wind in the anchorage.

Fighting the strong current outside of Petersburg.  The boat is moving through
the water (STW) at 8,5 knots, but we are only gaining 2.7 knots of actual speed (SOG).

July 04, 2019 - Wrangell, AK

I heard several people attempt to hail the Wrangell harbormaster as we motored toward Wrangell.  Nobody ever answered the calls.  I decided to call via cell when we had a signal again.  I did so and got a recording stating the office was closed for the  4th of July.  Hmmm.  Now what.  How are you supposed to get a slip in the marina if the people that give you your slip assignment have the day off?

We approach the north basin and find the guest dock is absolutely full, with people rafting up along other boats.  We are not really interested in doing that so we head for the south basin.  The guest docks appear to be full.  We explore a bit and find some empty end-ties.  We tie up to one and I go wandering the docks trying to find anyone to ask if we can stay here.  There is nobody around! I search the internet and find a better map of the marina that shows the location of the guest slips.  We are in a private slip.  So, no way are we staying where we are.  We untie and move over to the guest dock area and it is packed.  There is a small speedboat though taking up a large chunk of real estate.  In front of that boat is a fishing boat that has a bit of space in front of it.  The owner of the fishing boat is  is onboard.  I yell at him and he comes out.  We chat for a minute as I ask him about the possibility of moving the little boat, and then he could move his boat and we might be able to squeeze in.  He agrees and moves the little boat, and then moves his own boat.  We just fit in the space created by the shuffling of boats.  Great!  Another friendly and super helpful Alaskan.

Getting ready to slide into a newly created spot.  Just moving two boats allowed
us to spend the night.  The place is full., and we got absolutely the last spot.

It's the 4th of July and there is a parade in town.  We are a little late for it however.  But we walk into town (about a mile and a half) and find a logging show going on.  We watch some guys cutting logs while balancing on them.  It looks hard.  The sun is out, there is no wind.  It is getting hot.  Is this Alaska?

We found a logging show to watch.  It was pretty cool.  Actually it was HOT!

A totem pole in front of the Post Office

We were too late for the parade.  The streets were still closed though and a lot
of people were walking around town having a good time.  4th of July.

We had planned to eat dinner out tonight, but there are almost no restaurants here.  The few that exist are closed due to the holiday.  Dinner back on the boat for us.

Alex spots another Hatteras 48LRC, with a green hull.  We go take a walk to check it out.  This boat has new salon and side pilothouse windows.  The boat's hailing port is Wrangell, so it lives here full time.  No wonder I've never seen it before.  It looks to be in very nice condition.

Another Hatteras 48LRC.   For a rare boat, we are seeing a few.

There are also a ton of commercial fishing boats here.  I notice that most of them have Morad (brand) antennas.  I have been switching my boat over to Morad antennas for the past year or so.  They are really great antennas, and in Alaska they are the antenna of choice with the commercial boats.  They are built in Bellingham, WA and I have been to their factory several times and know the owner and one engineer pretty well.  I highly recommend Morad antennas.  :-)

The Morad antenna farms are growing well here
in Alaska!

Our plan was to try and catch some fireworks here.  But with it being a bit of a walk, and the days being so long this time of year, we decide to skip it.  We never did hear any fireworks anyway.  Maybe this small town didn't have an organized display?

Here's a project

A cruise ship shows up overnight.  There were none here yesterday.

July 03, 2019 - Madan Bay, AK

We don't really have a plan for the next day or two.  We would like to end up in Wrangle for the 4th of July, so we might be able to catch some fireworks.  We don't really feel the need to stay at Thom's Place, as we have pretty much seen it all.  There is no good anchorage between Thom's Place and Wrangle.  So, we decide to take the back route to Wrangle where there are a few anchorages.  This path will take us past the Anan Wildlife Refuge, which is one of the most popular places to see bears, both Black and Brown.  But, you have to get a permit to go ashore if you want to go see the bears.  We do not have permits and none are available by just showing up.  So, we can't really go ahsore.  We will do a drive by in the hopes that we might see bears, but we are not expecting to see any.

A deer comes to check us out at low tide as we
leave from Thom's Place

We have seen a lot of Bald Eagles in AK.

Alex and Kevin pulling the anchor in Thom's Place

A few hours later we arrive at Anan and do a very slow drive by.  We do not see any bears.  We think they are inland a bit where the river allows the bears to catch salmon.  We cannot see inland.  It would be worth getting the permit and coming back here if we have time later this summer.

The wildlife refuge at Anan Bay.  

We motor into the small anchorage of Berg Bay.  It is very picturesque.  There is a small USFS cabin there that can be rented.  It looks like a fabulous cabin rental out in the wilderness.  That would be quite an experience.

What a vacation rental!

We continue on to our destination for the evening.  Madan Bay.  Not much is written about this place, other than many cruisers report that it is a fantastic, quiet, secluded anchorage with good protection from most weather.  We anchor in about 50 feet, fairly close to shore.  We have surveyed the bottom and feel that we are in a good spot.  We are here at high tide, which means we will be dropping roughly 20' tomorrow morning.  It is absolutely silent here, except for the sound of birds, splashing fish, and a distant stream splashing into the bay.  There isn't even a hint of a breeze.  Complete serenity.

Incredible schenery here in Alaska

Calm weather.  It is supposed to clear up get warm, into the 80's starting tomorrow.

In the morning, Alex and I watch bald eagles fishing right in front of us.  There are 3 of them in trees and they occasionally swoop down and attempt to snatch small fish out of the water.  Most of the attempts fail, but we witness a few successes.  What a treat to see the eagles fishing right in front of us.

A bald Eagle plucking a small fish out of the water. 
At least its a start on a good breakfast.