May 25 – Ketchikan to Punch Bowl
Tom and Chris are headed home today (flying) so that they can move Tom’s folks to a new assisted living facility in Gig Harbor from San Juan Island. They will be back about the 4th.
We are dropping them off at the airport dock on our way out of town this morning.
We are headed to the area of Misty Fjord, with the first stop being Punch Bowl. It has been Misty all day so they named the Fjord appropriately. We’ll also be going to Walker Bay where there have been quite a few Grizzly (mom with cubs) sighting in the last couple weeks.
We stopped out in the middle by the ‘special island’ for about an hour. Glen and Diane were trying to get some internet access from Nelsea’s Satellite system. We’ve been playing the game with Glacier Bay trying to get our permits. It’s a pain in the back side. You have no way to know when they have openings, and you have to do all requests on the official form by email just after midnight no more than 60 days before you want to enter the Bay. We have been submitting nightly at 12:01am trying to get a permit. First for July 21-25, then July 22-26, then July 23-27 ….. all denied. We tried again early this morning and got Magic approved for July 24-17 but Sea Life was denied again – no room in the inn. They only allow some relatively small number of boats in the bay at any one time. And that includes the commercial tour boats and cruise ships. They also only allow 13 recreational boats to pre-sign up per date. Which means if someone signs up for say the 18-22th, then that boat counts as 1 for each of those dates. But they also hold a few extra slots for last minute sign ups. So that means that they allow people to call in 48 hours before they want to go in and see if there are any open permits for the date 48 hours later. So here is the game plan now, since we don’t have any internet access for a few days. We emailed the Thomas’ request form to Diane’s brother Paul, with the request that he send it in at 12:01am tonight (1:01am Seattle time) – now asking for the 25-28th. Then later in the trip when that 48 hour window opens we will start calling early in the morning to see if we can get in for additional days prior to our current permit. We will do this for Willard and Diane as well. Glen also called the folks at Glacier Bay today to see if there was some other problem. Nope, just a popular time for people to go. Keep your fingers crossed. I say if we can’t get both boats in we should put all four couples on Magic and turn it into a boat slumber party.
We pulled into Punch Bowl and found Fran and Jeff – Salpare anchored there. They were on a hike to the waterfall but came by on their way back to their boat for a brief chat. It started raining about the time we dropped anchor. Once anchored the guys went out to put the pots down. Michelle has been baking cookies and the bay smells like a bakery …. Maybe that will attract a bear or two down to the waters edge tonight. Spirit Bear caught up and joined the raft about 6:30pm. Linda had to go see a doctor this morning and now has an arsenal of antibiotics.
It’s Mexican night, so Taco’s and Margarita’s are on the menu. Chicken, Beef, Shrimp, and Crab Taco’s or Taco Salads.
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