I know it is about time, and we are skipping the first part of our trip through Canada. I will pick that up and do a whole Canada site (both coming and going) next. We have had a wonderful time in Alaska and are now we are really looking forward to sun somewhere! The last month has been great but we have had way too much rain and cloudy skies. This is Alaska where the sun never seems to set. At least on our time schedule. We go to bed when it is daylight and wake up way after sun rise. It not only effects our sleep but also radio communications as well. Our ham radio e-mail only works late at night, way past my bed time. This is very big country. It is hard to explain, but everything is huge. The waterways are all 10 to 15 miles wide, it is 20 to 35 miles plus miles between places to anchor. We spend all day (10 to 12 hrs) motoring or sailing just between overnight spots. The tides and wind seem to be always coming from the wrong direction. I may complain, but we wouldn't  have  missed this part of the trip for anything.

We started our Alaska adventure in Ketchikan.  I really enjoyed Old Town, built along the banks of a small river was a great sight . That was the highlight for Ketchikan. I was very disappointed in the rest because of all the tourist crap catering to the cruise ships.

While we were there, there were no less than 3 and as many as 5 cruise ships docked in an area less than 3 city blocks.  It reminded me of Disney Land with all the traffic control and roped off people traffic lanes. We were able to watch both final games of the Beavers baseball championship at the Sourdough Bar.  There were seven local people in the bar, four originally from the Portland-Eugene area.  The game was another highlight to Ketchikan. I could only stand one day and almost had a stroke trying to leave because of all that was going on in the harbor. Air planes, ferries, cruise ship shuttles, and equipment failures...all at once!  What I was trying to handle was almost too much for me.

Notice the snow in the hills!! This is June.

After leaving Ketchikan we made a short trip to Meyers Chuck. A very small quaint village of about 20 houses, a post office, a phone, and best of all a free dock. Of course it was full. This is where we rafted up, tied up to,  and meet Coastal Messenger, a 52 ft steel motor boat with an organ down below and 4 missionaries on board. They travel up and down the coast of Alaska, B.C., and Washington spreading the word. Very interesting people and not pushy about their beliefs .

Our next stop was Frosty Bay. This was just a one night overlay on our way to Anan Bay Bear Observatory. The best part of our stay was meeting Gary and Sandy Strickland from Victoria BC. We would spend about a week cruising with them and having a great time. The next day we went to Anan Bay. What a great place!   We lucked out because the salmon had started pooling just the day before. They had seen bears the day before and we were hopeful. While hiking along the 3/4mile trail there was fresh bear poop everywhere. I was taking pictures of an eagle when I noticed two yearly bear cubs across the stream. Major Kodak moment!  After the picture I moved from behind a bush only to find Mama bear coming across the stream to make sure I was not going to go any further.I told Helen to move quickly up the trail and of course I took a picture. Up at the viewing area we got some great pictures of Mama and her two cubs chasing salmon.        

We left Anan Bay and anchored in Berg Bay with Gary and Sandy.  It was cloudy and rainy; we had no idea how beautiful the bay was till the next morning.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

From Berg Bay it was on to Wrangell. It is a nice, small fishing town where we had to raft up 3 deep. Wrangell was also the site of the last official Potlatch, located on Shakes Island in the Wrangell harbor. Since we were rafted up we were up at 7:00 am because the inside boat wanted to leave early. This meant that all boats had to move.

Shakes Island was used by the First Nation People from 1840-1940. Once Potlatches were outlawed no community meetings could be held.

On our way from Wrangell to Petersburg you continually pass one beautiful sight after another. One that I couldn't pass up was this island.

. I know this is going to be hard to believe but guess what the name of this island might be? This is the name given on the chart for time eternal.   You got it Two Tree Island. Hopefully one or both of the trees don't die.

Petersburg, like all the other cities we visited in Alaska, catered to the fisherman both sport and commercial.  It seemed to be about the size of Canby. This was the first place that we could really appreciate the 20+ ft tides

We actually scheduled all of our events to match the tide. Going up or down was quite treacherous. Plus it was just too much work

    After a overnight stop in Gambier Bay we were off to the highlight of the trip so far. Tracy Arm Fiord. The home of two glaciers. With a lot of effort 7hrs of travel through ice filled water we were able to see the face of both glaciers. Talking to people afterwards we found that most were not able to make the whole trip because of ice blockage. Rather than commenting on every picture I will just display some of our favorites. the following is a 45ft trawler been dwarfed by his surroundings. The boat is front of the big ice berg.

<birds a chilling

         Glacier art>

<Clear Green Ice

Reflections>

<This is an Orca

in the picture

 standing up.

This was taken

from a friend's boat

South glacier up close>

We had originally decided that Tracy Arm would be our furthest northern point. Seeing glaciers was something I decided I needed to do. I figured they may not even be waterfront glaciers by the time we made it back. As luck would have it our second mortgage had sold for a third time. This meant we had to get phone service so we could set up direct withdraws. On we went to Juneau. We had an over night stop at Taku Harbor with our friends Gary and Sandy, which turned out to be a wonderful bay to stop at. Free dock, a nice place to hike, a public use forest service cabin, and wild flowers.  We stayed two nights; we had BBQ shrimp Gary had caught the night before and the second night we had fish we caught that day. Great food. Great time.

Arriving in Juneau was like coming into Portland during rush hour traffic with a fire drill going on at the same time. Very similar to leaving Ketchikan. Planes landing every direction, 3 cruise ships in the harbor, wind blowing , and every sort of boat you could think of going every direction possible. So much for rules of the road. Of coarse I handle this about as well as I handle rush hour traffic and said, "Screw this, we are out of here!". Even the fuel dock was three deep waiting. So much for urban life. We were able to get  phone service and try to take care of business while floating in the harbor. That turned out to be a major pain thanks to them having nothing set up yet and we should call back in a couple of days. Ya right they just don't get our life style. As it has turned out we just called back 4 weeks later and they are still screwed up.

                 Juneau>

We had to go just a little further north before we could start heading south to Mexico and that tuned out to be a good thing. Around the corner from Juneau is a little town called Auke which was going to be our destination. For an hour before getting there all we heard on the radio was that there was no room at the docks. They were tied up 3 deep and that was it. Disappointed we came around the corner to see this, the Mendenhall Glacier. It was the biggest thing we had ever seen. We had heard about trips to see the glacier, I just had no idea how huge and close to the water it was.

Right around the corner was another glacier. Not as big but just as beautiful. We ended up traveling late to anchor in just another beautiful bay with just one other boat.

We are now officially heading to Mexico. As the crow flies we are 854 mile from Seattle and 2331 miles from Cabo San Lucas. We need to go look for sun!

I will put together the second half of our Alaska adventure and post it later. There is the whale attack, hot tub haven, 30 large boats and little us, gorgeous sunsets and awesome scenery to come.  I am sorry it took so long and it is such a large file.

Keep having fun because we sure are, and think of us often.

Dave and Helen.

As usual I have to add a disclaimer to the writing. The style, spelling, and grammar are all my own. Helen does read it but makes no artistic changes.