Into Glacier Bay park……What a special feeling, it felt like motoring into another world…..
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Glacier Bay!! Bartlett Cove.
We had a permit to enter Glacier bay, it was for June 18, but obviously that didn’t work anymore, we also were still not too sure if we wanted to go on, but we were so close!!! So on the Sunday, i decided to call the head office in Bartlett Cove, a friendly sounding lad answered , his name was Randy, and i told him our story. he asked if we had cancelled the old permit, and i said, no, too much was happening, we didnt think of that at the time. Well, he said, when would you like to come in then?? I carefully said, how about Tuesday?? Sure!! no problem!!! How long would you like to stay? well….. how about 7 days?? Sure!!!! No problem!!! I could not believe it, as we had been told by several folks that the parks people were NOT friendly, and without a permit, they would never let us in!!!! We were ecstatic!! We were going into Glacier bay!!
On July 4th, we headed out of Hoonah harbor, filled the boat with fuel, 81.5 US gallons, and motored across Icy Strait. It was not raining!!! One giant cruise ship was docked in Hoonah harbour, and the road was full of very fancy dressed folks. As we headed out, we were met by a lone Humpback whale, further up, a dozen sea otters hung out, looking at us as if they never had seen a boat! We rounded Point Adolphus towards Point Gustavus. Gustavus is the village that serves Glacier Bay National park. Bartlett Cove lies just South of the Beardslee Islands, it is well protected, the parks headquarters are here, as well as the Tribal hut. We called in on Channel 16, and gave our permit ID and asked permission to come into the bay to tie at the dock. We sure noticed that is was very quiet, only two boats were anchored, one boat tied to the large dock plus the parks boats. We came to realize that because of the bad weather, all the immense rain, very few boaters had come this far. Good for us!!!! I noticed how beautiful clear the water was, lots of sea life against the docks. We did an orientation at the headquarters, all about what to do, what not to do, the main thing was to stay clear of the whales , apparently they were very active with shore feeding, we were told to stay right in the middle of Sitakaday Narrows, as the whales travel back and forth through there. So, when all was done, we went and anchored out and enjoyed the evening. The next morning, at 6 am, we headed from Bartlett cove to Blue Mouse Cove!!!
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Hoonah
We visited the carving shed, where one of the carvers, Owen James, was carving on the last totem pole to be put in front of the Tribal building in Bartlett Cove, Glacier bay. The lighting was made by gas light, so the colors are funny, greenish, but the photos still came out well, i could not use the flash inside. We were given cut off pieces of the yellow cedar from the new pole, to take to the boat, i have them right here, and still the wonderful scent fills the cabin.
There is a carver house here, where 3 master carvers work on the last of the totem poles to be erected at Bartlett Cove in front of the Tribal hut, close to the Parks Headquarters, here we met Owen James, his Tlingit name is Little Frog, a quiet, humble man, he was carving the base of the pole and gave us several pieces of the yellow cedar, i have them here in the boat and they smell like Hoonah, like the beautiful Tribal hut, i am instantly back there ,every time i smell the cedar. There is special lighting in the carving shed, which made it hard to take photos, but i made up for that at Glacier Bay park.
One of the large canoes is here, carved by the Tlingit people, Owen is the main captain and leader of the canoeists , he teaches the paddlers all the safety methods, what to do when the canoe tips, with 14 people in it!! It is a matter of seconds ,they have to be in the canoe , out of the freezing water, the canoe upright, all water baled out, and underway again. He talked about it so humbly, but i could only imagine what it would be like, being out there, wind blowing at 25 knots, rain sideways, then a very large wave, tipping over, not panicking but pushing the canoe,which is upsidedown, halfway back up, first two people on either side hang over the canoe, baling all the time, then the next two people , and so on. This has to all be done in seconds, otherwise they wont survive. They have to keep moving because of the cold, one girl he told us, panicked at the training session, she hid her face, and shook with fright, Owen quietly sat next to her, and started talking to her about something different then the canoe, she slowly calmed down, stopped shaking, and smiled at him. She did great when they practiced!!!! The canoe has baling containers all through the bottom, tied down with a long enough line for the baling. 
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