July 23 - Glacier Bay - Bartlett Cove thru Blue Mouse Cove

 

July 23 – Glacier Bay – Bartlett Cove thru Blue Mouse Cove

We left our anchorage in Gustavus about 5:30am headed for Bartlett cove.  It was raining and the water was lumpy with large white caps not making the cruise very pleasant.  We made it into Bartlett Cove by 7:30am, in plenty of time to get to our 8:00am orientation class.

 

 

 

We made it to class on time.  The classroom was full with three boatloads of people 8 from our group and 5 from another boat – Golden Boy II (a 115 ft’er).  No one fell asleep in class this year (unlike our class of 2013 when most fell asleep).  The Ranger went over all the rules of the Bay and told us of two bear incidents within the last several weeks.  He also told us that there have been a lot more Orca in the Park this year.  Yesterday there were several reports of an Orca chasing a Sea Lion and then having a Sea Lion lunch.   After class we went up to the Lodge and had breakfast and did our last minute ‘internet’ stuff. 

Then took a walk down to the new Huna Tribal house that is under construction.  It is not yet open to the public but we found one of the Totem Carvers from Hoonah there and he let us enter and gave us a very nice talk on the Huna Tlingit house and heritage. He told us the stories behind all the carvings in the building.  There have been 5 carvers working on this project and it has taken them 5 years; they have 1 month to complete the finishing touches.  Not only have they carved the pictures, they carved/textured all of the walls by hand.  The main story wall inside consists of 18 panels all cut from the same tree.  The building is set to open to the public with a large native celebration on August 25^th this year.  I only wish we could have video’d the talk.  It was very interesting and makes me want to find some books on the Tlingits and the history of this area.  We took lots of photos 

 

 

 

 

         

 

           

 

Grant (his American name) told us that he was born and raised in Hoonah; “my father Tlingit and mother not”.  He lived in Washington for a time and became a teacher doing his student teaching in Tacoma.  He has returned to his homeland of Alaska.

 

Fun facts: 

The Humpback whales summer in Alaska and winter in either Hawaii or Mexico.   The trip from Alaska to Hawaii is about 2,500 miles and takes about 5-6 weeks.  The whales generally have their babies in these warmer waters, and get this - they don’t eat during these excursions.  They must be pretty hungry when they get to Alaska! 

 

We then went back to the boats and headed out.  We decided to do the west side of Glacier Bay first.  It was a long afternoon of cruising in the rain to get us to Blue Mouse Cove where we anchored for the night.  There were about 7 other boats in cove for the night. Glacier Bay is quite large and to ‘do it right’ it takes several days.