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The silty waters of  Thomas bay.       Wild flowers in abundance here, so beautiful!!   You can see Curtsy, Imagine and Cruzeiro Do Sul anchored in the bay.    Lupins thrive here, paintbrush and Cow parsnip, lots of buttercups, there are moose here, we found some droppings near the falls, and Gail saw a large brown “cow”, at the shores.

This place is magical, with its thundering falls, immense Sitka Spruces, and fresh green foliage all around, the creek was roaring that day, the falls spreading a fine mist , all around, we quickly walked through the spray, becoming totally soaking wet in the process, but the reward was up higher, where the  shores of the falls are covered with Devils club, Skunk cabbage , and wild flowers.      The moisture and the light these plants are getting  makes them grow very , very large.    I just stood there, amongst all this green and life, taking it in, soaking it up.   I loved that place, and will someday go back there again…….

Our first sign of glacier ice.    Such a beautiful color.

You have no idea how we felt, knowing we would finally be heading North , beyond Petersburg!       There is a lot to tell about this Norwegian based town, but i have decided to tell more about it when we are on the way back, i took most photos then, and spend more time looking around, together with our friends from SV SHADOWDANCER II, Will and Trish, but so far,as i write this, we haven’t even met them yet, so, on wards we go!!!!    Bert gave Curtsy an oil change on June 18th, the odometer stood at 1947.2.       She was running wonderfully, not using any oil at all.        So with that done, we decided to leave the next day, on June 19th, making sure the tide was in our favor, it runs very hard there!!     I bought some more supplies but everything is very expensive, and not a whole lot of choice, later on , on our way back, we discovered the “other” grocery store, up the hill….. more about that later.      We started seeing glacier ice, the most beautiful colour of blue/green, we were crossing Frederick Sound, towards Thomas bay, we bypassed Le Conte Glacier, as we would have to back track plus after hearing a lot of negative stories about heading in there with the boat, we decided to keep going, for now…..  We anchored in Thomas bay,behind Ruth island cove, at 16.00.   (4pm)       Its a beautiful bay, a true Northern fjord, we had to keep on going, all the way into the back, for a proper depth for anchoring, and there, already all set, were Cruzeiro Du Sol, with Gail and the two pussycats, and MV Imagine, with Don and Ann.     The color of the water is a creamy  opaque ,and there is no through water visibility , kind of freaky with anchoring, it is  true glacier water, as at  the head of the bay lies the Baird glacier.     A beautiful water fall cascades down from up high,across from where we were anchored,  and we decided to head that way the next day for some exploring.      It was still so darn cold, the diesel stove was on full time, without that stove it would have been very uncomfortable.    Still wearing thick socks, winter boots, scarfs and hats!!!!

We did well the rest of the way, the sun was out, still, and as we headed around the last buoy, we saw the gorgeous mountain ridge behind Petersburg, snowy peaks, against a blue sky!!     Petersburg looked just beautiful that day, just a little bit better then in fog!!!  We were directed to North harbour, on the South side, slip number 43.     Lots of room, beautiful new docks, maybe you remember the old docks?  i took photos that time , 5 years ago, since then everything has been renewed, the marina looks beautiful.

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On Saturday, June 17th, we took off again, heading for Wrangell Narrows.     Now, this has to be planned, we went through here before, 5 years ago, so remembered what to do, what to watch out for.   We crossed Sumner Strait, and then hung around, near Point Alexander, waiting for the tide to proceed, the trick is to go into Wrangell Narrows, towards the bottom of the flood, then catch the slack doing the rest of it, if its all timed right, all goes well!!       Bert did some fishing while we waited and waited, boats came out, some very large ones, the sun was shining, actually, it was warm!!!     we took off our winter clothing, and opened the cockpit.     nearly a lone sea otter was hanging around, lying on his back, like they do, munching on an urchin.          After another hour, it was time to head in, no other boats were waiting, it was very quiet, i guess maybe because it was Saturday…..            After a half hour, i spotted something in the water to our port side, it seemed to be struggling badly, as we came close, we saw it was an adult bald eagle, swimming for his life, desperately trying to reach the shore, there was nothing we could do, nothing, we could not stop because of the now strong running tide, so i kept a very close look on him, and he did come closer and closer to shore, i just know he made it!!!!   I do wonder if he was holding a fish in his talons?????

Trying for the shore…… Continue reading →

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We stayed in Meyers Chuck till the 16th, it had started to rain, again, but we did have two very nice days here.   Coastal Messenger left the day before us.    We only pay 20 cents per foot at this dock!!       When we left, after saying good bye to Cassie and Steve, we realized that we had not left the envelope in the box, so the next post office we came to, we send the money to Cassie to take care of it!!   Thank you Cassie!!!

I always try to put in something about a boat that we meet, this sailboat is just the best!!!    i think the owner, an elderly gent, built it himself, its quite the vessel!!!!

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