Ferry Sketches

I brought a little watercolor sketching kit with me, thanks to some great suggestions from Jana Bouc, and have been struggling with this new way of painting. I still haven't figured out how to paint trees yet...but I've had better luck with little sketches on the ferry.

Leaving Petersburg

As we were loading onto the ferry in Petersburg we pulled out a camera and were able to get some photos of our journey onto the boat. This is a shot of the harbor from the ramp leading into the ferry.


Here we are starting to load onto the M/V Taku.


Here we are halfway down the ramp watching the car ahead of us load.

We are parked so that we will be the first ones off the boat in Wrangell. There were not very many vehicles on this ferry with us.


On this journey we travelled through the Wrangell Narrows, in some places the channel was only about 300 feet wide. There were over fifty channel markers the captain had to navigate through.

Our kayak group had a dinner planned for the night we got back, unfortunately we were only able to join them for a drink before dinner because we had to catch our ferry. As we traversed the narrows, we passed the restaurant and our group was waiting to wave at us on the ferry. We were able to see them with our binoculars, but I am not sure they were able to see us waving back. It was very sweet of them to wait till the ferry passed to wave us off on our journey.

Anan Bear Observatory

We took a charter trip with Alaska Charters and Adventures to the Anan Bear Observatory. It is in Tongass National Forest and maintained by the US Forest Service. There is a viewing platform built about 50 feet above a bend in a river above a small waterfall. The spawning pink salmon tend to pile up as they try to jump up the waterfalls making a great place for bears and eagles to feed. This is a wild habitat that the bears allow humans to share. Words can not adequately express the wonders of being invited into their living room and allowed to sit at the couch for a few hours while they play and dine - so we will let the photos speak for themselves. We've put a few more photos on the flickr page as well.

LeConte Glacier trip

We're back to civilization after our three day kayak trip to LeConte glacier. We did a guided trip with Tongass Kayak Adventures, and had a great time. The kayaking was beautiful, the weather was remarkable, and the people were great. One of our guides said she'd never done a trip where it didn't rain at least once, so we felt priveleged to have spent several days in the sun.
It was very interesting kayaking with a group instead of on our own. On one hand we felt much more secure, and even paddled in our shirt sleeves for most of the time, and it was also fun to meet and interact with other kayakers. We did a lot of laughing around the fire ring, and it was very decadent to be served excellent food after padling all day. But it felt strange to be a little duckling following the momma duck all day. The picture above is one of our lunch spots showing the power of the tides in the area. When we pulled in, the water was out near that point, and we followed a little creek to beach our boats. By the time we were done, the tide was pushing our boats up the inlet.
The tides also strand small bits of iceberg, called bergy bits (really) on the beach. This one was about 6 feet tall. Our base camp faced out towards Fredrick Sound, and the icebergs that calve off the glacier get trapped at the entrance to LeConte bay because there's a big terminal moraine under water. At low tide, it's visible nearly across the entire mouth of the bay, and so as the tide receeded and the bergs hit the mud, they also tend to turn over or break apart.
By the way, those little black spots on top of the iceberg are a pair of bald eagles. The kayaker is our head momma duck, Marja, taking a moment to look up at an iceberg.

Ferry to Petersburg

The ferry ride from Sitka to Petersburg was pretty uneventful once we got on the boat. We saw a few orca and some humpback whales along the way, but mostly took a couple of excellent showers, napped in our cabin, and had a halibut burger from the cafeteria. The room was simple, with a couple of bunks and a bathroom, but it did have a window. I was asleep as we approached Petersburg, but Cheri got some great shots of the sunset.

Alaska Marine Highway - Delays

We are unexpectedly sitting in a coffee shop in Sitka having some extra internet time. Our ferry from Sitka to Petersburg has been delayed twice. Originally we were to leave Sitka at 3:15am, thankfully the Sitka Terminal worker called us yesterday and let us know they boat was delayed until 7:30 this morning. Unfortunately when we arrived at 7:30 we were told that the ferry missed the tide and wouldn't be in until at least 1:30 this afternoon. With a twelve hour trip to Petersburg, we are hoping for a later departure. We have booked a cabin on this leg so we have beds to sleep in - but arriving in Petersburg at 2 or 3 in the morning means we have to get up in the middle of the night to disembark. We were told Sitka was the most susceptible to tide delays. We just had such good luck so far we were hopeful . . . ah, life is still good, we are just past the half way point in our trip, another 6 weeks to go.

Sitka

We've spent the last few days in Sitka, enjoying amazing weather. The first day we went out on a boat trip with Paul Davis of Gallant Adventures to St. Lazarius Island to see nesting puffins and murres. The island is the eroded core of an old volcano, and looks rather otherworldly with basalt cliffs covered in greenery. We also saw sea otters, humpback whales, and a pair of minke whales while out on the water. Quite the morning!

After spending the morning on the water, we took a walk through the totem park, which has a collection of Haida and Tlingit totem poles.










We've taken a couple of kayaking trips around the sound, visiting islands and enjoying the scenery. The first trip we paddled from the harbor and out to Middle Island, with a couple stops for lunch and snacks.

This is a view from the water looking back towards Sitka. The little rock in front is covered with Gulls and Cormorants.
Mount Edgecombe is an old volcano across the sound from Sitka.
The second trip we took, we launched from the beach near our campground at Starrigaven bay and paddled around another group of islands (the name escapes me at the moment) to the north. We were on the water only a few minutes when these four sea lions came to investigate us. They spent several minutes checking us out before moving on.
Lots of eagles in the Sitka area. We saw one catch a fish right in front of us on the water and then carry the fish to its nest.

This is one of the beaches we stopped at. We nick-named it clam beach because the beach was a mix of broken clam shells and black gravel. Each beach we found was different, but it was wonderful discovering these little secluded private spots. I don't think the picture does it justice.

On the water!