Bjorklund Log: Alaska Trip Day 41

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Alaska Trip Day 41

6/26/11

Fords Terror—West Arm, Endicott Arm, AK

Miles Travelled: ~1

We decided to check out the rest of Fords Terror today and then re-anchor in the West arm. We plan to leave early tomorrow morning at low water slack, and since the low tide is lower than it was when we came in yesterday, there wouldn’t be enough depth for us to get over the bar we crossed to get into the East arm. Yesterday when Tor piloted us in to the East arm, he saw less than 7 feet of water depth and our boat draws 4.5, the tide is supposed to be about 5 feet lower tomorrow morning and though we had plenty of water in the anchorage, we need to be able to cross the shallow bar at low water, so we needed to move. The anchorage in the West arm is much deeper, so we will be just fine. Besides that, we needed to check out the other side of paradise, and I have to say, it’s just as beautiful.

We motored to the end of the East arm to sight see and the boys were on deck with us. I don’t have the vocabulary to describe how beautiful this place is, and the photos don’t do it justice. Let’s just put it this way, Tor and I both agree that it is the most beautiful place we’ve ever seen. We puttered over to the West arm and anchored on a steep shelf…it went from 30 feet to 6 feet VERY quickly, but all was okay and we are anchored securely.

It was sure nice to have a day off…particularly in such a magnificent place. I got bread baked and Tor washed diapers. The boys played hard and napped hard and we tried to drink in the sights as much as we could. We had smoked black cod, fresh bread and broccoli for dinner…yum!

A 130’ cruise ship came in and also anchored in the West arm, but they were nice enough to stay far away and they didn’t impact us much at all.

Tonight we saw our first bear of the trip. A mama and her cub were eating grass on the beach.

Tomorrow we will get up at 5:00 am so that we can get the low water slack at the entrance narrows by about 6:15. We’re sad to leave this place, but we plan to continue up Endicott arm so we can hopefully see the Dawes Glacier!