Granite Bay to Cascade Bay via the Mears Glacier
/It was hard to leave Grantie Bay. As we exited the Bay, we found the same whales were back and feeding in the shallows to the south. We all hove to and out came the binoculars and the large lens. I got a great shot of side-by-side flukes of the mom and her calf..
Karen, the master of the windless, cleans the anchor chain as she brings it on board
The crew of Deception stops to admire the humbacks
Mommy, Daddy and little Baby
School's in as Mom teaches her offspring the art of humpback feeding
We continued to see lots of humpbacks as we made our way south in Wells Bay.
The course to Mears Glacier up the Unakwik Inlet was wide open and quite calm at first, as pretty as it was sunny. We had to pay special attention as we crossed the moraine, as it was quite shallow and the fairway was narrow. The path to the glacier was clear of ice all the way until about a 1/8 mile from the face, when we made a right turn at the head of the inlet.
Mears Glacier comes into view
The glacier was gorgeous, and we took lots of pictures. The sun was out, so there was a bright blue sky framing alpine mounts. The glacier produced a handful of calvings. Nothing spectacular, but they always holds your interest.
Deception in front of the Mears Glacier
Scott and Alison hug on the bow of Telita
Lance and Kathy, the owners of Telita enjoying the Mears Glacier
As we repositioned the boats to best advantage for photos, all of a sudden we heard a roar coming from the direction of the face of the glacier. No - not calving ice - but rather two F-15 fighters that flew low over the glacier and then pulled straight up and departed as fast as they arrived.
I commended our flotilla leader, Brian Pemberton for arranging the attempt to stimulate the glacier into calving.
After sitting for a half hour enjoying the glacier and taking photos, the ice had filled in so we needed to go very slow though the bergy bits. We tried to find a clear path, and at one point saw 5’ on the depth sounder. Yikes! There was lots of banging and crunching as we made our way to more open waters. No damage, just noise.
"It's my Ice"
(Karen’s POV: These glaciers are fun to visit, but it’s not stress free, especially when the ice fills in unexpectedly around you. It’s essential to drive from the flybridge to see all the ice bits on and under the water, and Bob made good use of our rear view camera to avoid banging props into icebergs as we maneuvered our way out. I told him that I was ready to take a break from running up long fiords to see glaciers.)
Cascade Bay, in Eaglek Bay, is all about the waterfall. Otherwise, it’s a bit too open for our taste. It is open to the southeast, which is direction of the wind tonight. It has turned cloudy and rainy, and we are rafted to Telita in the SW corner of the Bay, without a lot of interest in shore exploration. We had drinks with the Telita crew up on the flybridge, which was dry and warm enough, with a reasonable view towards the falls. For future visits, the sailboat Saltia was in the NE corner, nicely protected from Southeasterlies.
Telita passes in front of the waterfall in Cascade Bay
Deception and Patos rafted in front of the waterfall in Cascade Bay
Some explorers arrived by float plane as our explorers form Mother Goose beached their dinghies
Dinner was Ling Cod and broccoli. It rained all night.