Granite Bay to Hummer Bay via Harriman Glacier

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We cast off about 7:45 am and headed for the entrance to Harriman Fiord, hoping to catch up with Deception and Patos. It was a much nicer day than yesterday, far better to explore the various glaciers. We saw Patos and Deception on AIS about a mile or two ahead of us as we made our way into Harriman Fiord, and eventually caught up to them.

We pulled up to the spot where we could see 3 glaciers at once: the Cascade (retreating), the Barry (prettiest of all) and the Coxe (not bad looking either).

The Cascade, Barry and Coxe Glaciers

Telita and OceanFlyer just drifted a while as Deception and Patos fought the ice to approach the Barry Glacier face.

We then headed off for Harriman Glacier in Deception’s wake, hoping to use Deception as an ice breaker so we’d dodge the trickier bergie bits. Surprise Glacier was off to our right, and while quite pretty, looked more ice-entrenched than Harriman, so we kept on going.

Our approach to the Harriman Glacier was nearly ice-free, so it was easy to get to the face and enjoy the beautiful blue ice and the sunshine. We saw some calving, so that was fun too. Bob and I took some “selfies” at the face, and also did some photo ops with Telita.

Deception move close to the face of the Harriman Glacier

The face of the Harriman Glacier

The face of Harriman Glacier dwarfs Telita

You cannot think of anything better to share than these adventures

Karen made me do it

Making our way clear of the ice fields

Kathy Cox on the bow of her boat, Telita, with the Coxe Glacier in the background. Only separated by one "e".

We followed the fleet, lagging behind a bit, as we made our way towards Hummer Bay for the evening. Telita checked out Serpentine Cove, thinking about overnighting there, but ended up joining us at Hummer.

After a serpentine entrance with a shallow spot or two, Hummer Bay opened up. We rafted to Deception and joined them for dinner. Patos’ crew dinghied and kayaked all evening, and were fun to watch. We went out for a late evening dinghy ride ourselves, discovering some interesting anchor spots for the next time, but we eventually gave up because it was buggy.

Hummer Bay alpenglow

A few minutes before midnight it is still not dark in Hummer Bay

Cascade Bay to Bettles Bay

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It rained all last night with and occasional wind gust to 17 knots, but Telita’s ground tackle held us both in place.

The morning greeted us with low ceilings and continued rain. No complaints. We cast off from Telita at 7:48, after having told Lance we were headed for Bettles Lagoon rather than with the fleet to see the College Glaciers unless the day became sunny.

One of the thousands of fishing boats we passed in Prince William Sound

About 6-7 Dalls Porpoise played in our bow for 10 minutes as we rounded Eaglek Island. Karen donned her foul weather gear and made her way in the rain to the bow to play with them. The pass was a bit tricky so I stayed at the helm, much as I wanted to take the GoPro camera and get some more footage of the Dalls from water level.

The seas were choppy until we entered Ester Passage. There we passed a handful of fishing boats, mostly seiners, making way to their next port of call. Many bow pickers were at the narrow exit of Exter Passage into Port Wells.

The fleet is planning a 12-14 hour day going up to see all the college glaciers. We’re both tired and given the reduced ceilings and visibility, as we entered the lumpy sees of Port Wells with wind on the beam, we made the call to take the day “off” and go directly to Bettles. Telita decided to follow our lead, and we watched Deception and Patos’ AIS signals disappear up College Fiord. The fleet may join us at Bettles tonight, or we will meet up with them tomorrow to go see the Barry and Harriman Glaciers in Harriman Fiord.

The narrow entry into Bettles was a nail biter due to it being so shallow. We saw 1.6 feet on the sounder. It may have been eel grass, but we were on high alert and decided that we would never enter Bettles again on anything other than a +4.5’ tide (we were at +3).

Inside we found a lovely round basin – a very picturesque spot, with hanging glaciers to the Southwest and mountain meadows to the North. Very nice 360 degree views. The constant rain this afternoon made the waterfalls come even more alive. Everywhere you looked there was another rush of water from the mountains into the bay.

I worked on photos for the blog and Karen took a nap on the settee. We enjoyed our peaceful afternoon. Our departed was planned for 4pm to catch the high tide. We've been experiencing minus tides, so if we did not get out of the bay this afternoon it would be either 5:30am or 12:30pm before we could safely pass over the shallows at the entrance. Our plan is to make a 9 mile run over to Granite Bay (a different one than from a few days ago) and stage for tomorrow trip to the Harriman glacier.

Bettles is still a bit of a conundrum. We left Bettles on a +11 tide, and saw 9.9 feet on the sounder. It’s definitely a place to be careful about entering.

It was still gray and rainy as we entered Granite Bay. There were two boats at anchor already, the Nordhavn Samba that overwinters in Kodiak, and a Nordic Tug. We found a decent spot and just chilled out in the calm but uninspiring weather. A very calm night.

Bettles Bay in the rain

Granite Bay to Cascade Bay via the Mears Glacier

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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.

 

Emerald Cove to Granite Bay

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We arose to a beautiful day, with sunny skies and calm winds. The fleet was off at 9am for a long “tour” of various anchorages before ending up at Granite Bay. We (OceanFlyer and Telita) decided to take a slightly different and shorter route, but we still indulged in some good “snooping”.

The green of Emerald Cove

First we went to the right, to check out Gem anchorage (great if the weather allows the amazing view) and Jade Harbor. I was really hopeful that Jade would be a great anchorage to check out on our way back to Cordova in July, but it was choked with kelp and didn’t look that interesting to us.

Then we headed over to Growler Bay, only dodging a piece or two of glacier ice that floated into our path. The Jim’s Rest anchorage was glorious in the sun, with lovely open meadows to walk on backed by treed mountains. We were tempted to stop, but kept on going to the head of Growler, which was also nice, particularly the view of the valley.

From there, we went through Elder Passage, which was easier than it looks on the charts, and not too shallow as the tide was rising. Elder Bay itself was only so-so after Growler, so we headed out and turned directly for Granite Bay. Deception and Patos detoured to Long Bay before following us.

Perfect weather in Prince William Sound

Dream Catcher, the 5th boat in the flotilla, was several days behind us, having taken a look at Glacier Bay before heading out in to the Gulf of Alaska for the passage to Prince William Sound. They raised Brian on the radio today, informing him that they were now in the Sound, but had been holed up for several days in Yakutat due to bad weather. We were thankful we avoided all of that.

As we approached Granite Bay, we saw whales fluking, a mom and a calf. We watched for a while before proceeding into the Bay. Granite Bay is glorious, with bold cliffs and some cute grassy areas here and there. We anchored in 60’ of water, and invited Patos to raft alongside us. Telita anchored closer to the mouth of the bay, while Deception braved the narrows and rocks to enter the Granite Bay lagoon. (Of course, given our schedule the following morning, they had to depart the lagoon about 10:30pm rather than spend the night, or they’d be stuck due to low tide.)

We went on a dinghy excursion in to the lagoon while the girls from Patos borrowed our kayaks. Rich and Rowan from Deception were trying to climb some of the steep terrain, and we gladly left that to them, comfortable in our dinghy. The water in the lagoon was so clear, it was blue-ish almost like the Carribean in the shallow areas. On our way back to OceanFlyer, we could clearly see all the rocks and boulders Deception had snuck through to get into the lagoon.

Kayaking in Granite Bay

Emily enjoys the Bay

Afternoon exploring in the dinghy

The crew of Patos joined us for drinks and appetizers, and then Bob and I enjoyed a dinner of pork tacos. After dinner, we could see that the whales were still outside Granite Bay by the flukes and blows way in the distance, so we ran up in the dinghy to see what we could see. We watched a bit, but soon turned around and headed off to bed, happy to be snug in Granite Bay.




Landlocked Bay to Emerald Cove via the Columbia

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We had another leisurely departure, it was nice out and and we actually tested out Bob’s porpoise-cam, putting the go pro on the boat hook and dropping it to water level at the bow. It was so funny, as Telita was watching us and wondering what we were doing to the poor porpoises.

We're rafter to Telita on the on our starboard side in Emerald Cove

Passing the distinctive spires of Tatitlek

It started to get very gloomy as we crossed the Valdez VTS area. We could see Deception and Patos on AIS, but then they disappeared. Turns out they were headed up to the Columbia Glacier despite ice and rain with low visibility.

Ok. So, the Columbia Glacier is to be the highlight of today’s passage. It is known as one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world and has been retreating since the 80’s. Named after Columbia University by the Harriman Alaska Expedition in 1899, it is  one of many glaciers in Prince William sound named after colleges. It’s a big one.

Telita works her way through the ice

You can see the glacier from afar, but when it first comes into sight you still have a long journey to go before you near the face. The ice field approaching the glacier extended into our path, but the ice was open enough for us to pick our way with care.

It is never a straight path to the glacier front. You move slow and try to pick a path where the ice seems small and the space between the bits is a least a boat width apart. It is not unusual to have to stop to a full stop, spin the boat in a new direction before continuing on.

Patos had turned back (not wanting to ding the boat’s gel coat or props), but  was a few miles ahead and encouraged us to keep coming. So we did.

The closer we approached, the colder it became. The wind was blowing off the glacier, adding to the chill. By the time we arrived near the face, I had donned my fleece, jacket, hat and fleece gloves. For me, the least enjoyable part of cruising to a glacier is that the helmsman must pay attention at all times. You cannot take your eye off the ice. So no pictures enroute (though Karen took several) and even when you look away to admire a berg passing by,  that’s always when you hear the thunk of ice hitting the hull.

You cannot avoid hitting ice. But you try to limit it to the small bits and on your own terms.

It took forever to get near the face (2 hours, actually), but eventually we stopped and all posed for pictures in front of Columbia. In fact, the difference between the location of the face as it was depicted on the most current charts and the actual face was dramatic. Our charts showed we had “traveled” over a mile out of the water and on the glacier!

Deception and OceanFlyer planning photo ops

Deception with the Columbia Glacier in the background

Brian, our fearless leader, poses with the "ice pusher" 

The crew of Telita bundled up in front of the Columbia Glacier

The perspective makes OceanFlyer look big in front of the Columbia Glacier. But we're still a 1/4 mile away.

OceanFlyer's crew, that us, poses for pictures

Columbia Glacier and its offspring surround us

With the photos “in the can”, including an otter giving Karen the stink eye as we went past, we reversed our route and began the equally long journey out of the ice field. One thing you count on is that the route you come in on will not be the route you use to exit. The ice is consistently shifting and moving. Opening and closing constantly.

The ice fields provide good "critter watching"

We give these big ones a wide berth

We were a bit tired on the way to Emerald Cove, our anchorage for the night, and we asked Deception if we could raft alongside as we were too lazy to anchor and there was a potluck tonight aboard Deception anyway. Telita made a similar request, so we were snug in a 3 boat raft, with Patos a short distance away. The rain became more persistent and we were glad to be enjoying the potluck on Deception to celebrate our first glacier face of the trip.

Easy to see why Emerald Cove got her name

Transporting the "pots" for pot luck tonight on Deception