Glacier Bay - East Arm

Day 49 – June 28 Glacier Bay

Morning in Reid bay. This bay is listed as a good anchorage in calm winds. It was calm when we anchored. Not so in the morning. One could say there was a slight breeze when we got up. But then we’d be lying. At 7:00 am when I (Liz) got up the other boats were gone and our wind gauge was showing readings from 26 – 34 knots, and there were not just white caps but full waves coming across the bay. Thankfully Magic’s anchor had held. I went below to tell Glen and he said that it had ‘calmed down’. He had been up earlier and said that it was blowing 36+ then. Yikes.

Maryann had moved from the front stateroom to the salon there was too much noise for her to sleep. Our captain failed to do his job. He managed to flip the kayaks so they wouldn’t fill with rain, and snubbed the anchor chain to lessen the noise, but he neglected to secure the burgee. Also there was quite a bit of water slapping our bow. She said that the other boats all left between 5:00 and 5:30am. Even Shawn got up early this morning, probably due to the noise and motion. He did not stay up for long.

The wind was coming directly off the glacier, which made it very cold. It was a beautiful sight with the sun shining on the glacier and gray clouds hovering above. Very pretty, as long as you weren’t outside in the cold.

We pulled anchor and started out headed for the east arm of Glacier Bay.

Today we explored Wachusett Inlet, Muir, Riggs, McBride Glaciers and Adams Inlet then back to Bartlett Bay to overnight.

Muir Glacier is a protected area so we weren’t able to get close to the glacier and Riggs was just another dirty pile o’ ice. At McBride we anchored, dropped kayaks and dinghy and went exploring. Liz and Maryann went zipping off in the dinghy while Glen, Shawn and Nicole paddled away. We encountered the largest icebergs we’ve seen in Glacier Bay and the bluest as well. Sophie navigated for Liz and Maryann. There were fun icebergs; we saw dinosaurs, bunnies, the Black Pearl pirate ship …. Where the heck was Johnny Depp??? There were gulls of some sort nesting on a shear wall and more mama and baby seals along the ice flow. We weren’t able to get close to the face of the glacier as there was a fairly solid collection of “bergettes” for quite a distance. It didn’t seem to slow down Glen in the ice breaker kayak.

On the ride out of the bay, we discovered that our path had quickly been revised … boy the ice does move quickly!!! Zig now where we had zagged on the way in.

GOOD NEWS!!!! There has been a BEAR SIGHTING from the Magic Moment!!!! Ahhh, thank goodness they haven’t been lying to us, there is A bear in Alaska. When we do bear, we do it right, it was a Grizzly WHHOOOO HOOOO!!! Now we’re in search of a moose for Glen.

Fresh French Bread (made right, thanks Maryann) for dinner and sweet dreams of cuddly teddy grizzlies for us tonight …