Petersburg to Juneau June 18 - 26

Saturday, June 18 found us in Petersburg and our goal was to prepare for the Munch’s arrival on Sunday morning.  We walked up the hill, almost to the airport, to the post office and ran into the 90^th celebration of the big grocery store.  They were holding a huge BBQ for the whole town…what a great place to have lunch.  While we ate we visited with the local folks and learned about things to do on a “walking tour” of the area (it’s all walking for us!)  This grocery store 

provides a wonderful service to anyone

in any of Petersburg’s three harbors:  a free shuttle to and from the grocery store.  This is quite a big deal when you’ve purchased two weeks’ worth of groceries.  Even our magic little cart would struggle with that load! The grocery store was fun just to walk through since they've really picked up on Petersburg's Norwegian heritage.  Even the coffee!

We watched folks fish off the docks and out in the channel, just beyond the entrance to our marina catching herring by like crazy.  The current in the channel was fairly significant, so we’d see boats go floating by the entrance, with five or six fish on their line, and then motor back up the channel so they could drift and fish some more.  We even saw this boat of kids fishing float by several times.  We could hear them yelling and talking.  They got really excited when this little “bergie bit” (a tiny piece of glacier) went floating by!

     On Sunday morning, June 19, in keeping with our goal to find a church, we walked up the hill from the harbor to the Lutheran Church.  They were having a pancake breakfast in honor of Father’s Day so we joined them.  Again, we met some lovely local folks and learned more about Petersburg.  Since the town was settled by Norwegians in the early 1900’s, the Lutheran church is well attended.  They’re quite proud of their Scandinavian heritage!  The pastor, a former Roman Catholic priest, was full of energy and his vibrant personality radiated through the whole congregation.  It was a rockin’ morning, in a Lutheran sort of way!

     Jim and Chris were waiting for us at the marina when we returned from church.  It was s o good to see them!  They had flown on Alaska Airlines from Seattle to Ketchikan to Wrangell to Petersburg, and never got off the plane.  Chris said it was quite a commuter run! They will be with us for a week and will fly out of Juneau on Sunday, 6/26.  Jim is an avid fisherman so we're hoping to get our skills tuned up.

     We’d been watching all kinds of folks fishing off the docks and out in the narrows just off the harbor, catching herring by the hundreds, so of course we had to try our hand.  These crazy little fish will bite on a teeny bare hook and call all of his friends to join him!  Hilarious!  In this photo you can see Jerry has a couple of herring on his line, but it wasn’t unusual to catch four or five or six at a time!  In the space of about 30 minutes we had 50 or so.  Why so many? you ask.  Because they’ll be bait fish for halibut tomorrow!  Hope spring eternal.  (The building off the end of the dock is a fish cannery.  We had canneries on each side of the harbor where we moored.  The abundant fishing, access to glacier ice, and temperate weather were the reason the town was founded.)

We went for a walk in the evening, to the little park on the edge of downtown.  I mentioned that Petersburg is very Norwegian; well the little park celebrates that heritage!  The hall in the background is, of course, the Sons of Norway hall and the shutters are covered is rosemaling. 

Surrounding the little park and on the pedestal of the statue are memorial plaques to those who have died at sea.  There were some pretty funny ones:

Monday morning, June 20, we were off at our usual leisurely pace of 1120!  We did not have far to go, though.  Our destination was the northeast side of Mitkof Island (Petersburg is on this island at the north point) to Sandy Point.  We’d gotten good advice from the clerk who sold Jim a fishing license at the hardware store that this area would be good fishing.  So we parked in about 150 of water and floated while Jim and Jerry fished.  (Have you picked up on the theme of the week with the Munch’s?)  The guys caught several fish…1 small halibut, 1 small flounder, 3 cod and several Cabazon that chose not to keep.  Once the fish were cleaned we were underway again to visit the parents of Jim and Chris’s friend, Aaron.

Don and Jenny Cummins, Aaron’s parents, live on the east side of Mitkof Island, across Frederick sound from the entrance to Le Conte Bay.  They built their log cabin about 20 years ago, the fourth one that Don had built!  Originally from Missouri, they fell in love with outdoors of Alaska and have a very unique lifestyle.  They have no electricity – turn on the generator a couple of times a week to do laundry!  They use propane lights, and a lot of by-hand labor.  

They describe their place as the last house out of Petersburg, but they walk to the road and their car, which is a mile away through the forest.  When they need ice for their coolers, they hop in their dinghy and zip across to Le Conte Bay and grab a bergie bit that has calved off Le Conte Glacier!  In the winter they usually have bergie bits in their front yard, due to the prevailing northerlies.  In summer, the “cubes” have to be fetched.  They’ve built a boardwalk from the beach to the house, over swampy land.  They bring the bergie bits up to the house in a wheelbarrow, so the board ramp makes that process so much easier.  Along the boardwalk is part of the garden…troughs made out of panels that have been formed, filled with dirt and planted.  The cover acts as a greenhouse and as a means of keeping the critters out.  

The inside of their home is lovely.  The ground floor is work space and guest rooms and their living area is on the second floor.  As you could imagine, the views are spectacular!  Don built all the furniture and Jenny did the upholstering!   You can see the many, many books, tapes, and DVD’s.  No TV to watch here!

We had anchored in the bight in front of their home, across from Le Conte Bay and dinghied in to their beach.  We had a lovely quiet night in beautiful surroundings.

Tuesday morning we departed for Cannery Cove, which took us north up Frederick Sound, west across Stephens Passage and into Pybus Bay on Admiralty Island.  This was our longest run of the week.  We had our eyes peeled for whales, since we were in big bodies of deep water, and we were not disappointed.  We saw many, many humpbacks, seals, and orcas.  Did we see them “up close and personal?”  No.  But we could see spouts, tails, and backs.  All good.  My picture isn’t the greatest, and I used a telephoto lens.  We weren’t very close at all!

Cannery Cove was another suggested destination from our Anacortes boating friends, Dale and Anita and it was magical!  We were in a bowl surrounded by beautiful mountains and trickling waterfalls.  There had been a fish cannery at the entry to the cove, but it had been converted/removed and a beautiful fish camp sat there now.  As we approached the cove we recognized “Royal Sounder” and their skiff “Green Devil”.  We’d seen these folks in Petersburg and visited with them the night before Jim and Chris arrived.  Small world!  We tried fishing again but didn't catch anything worth keeping.  It was certainly a pretty place to fish, though!

We departed the next morning for Tracy Arm and No Name Cove.  We did stop along the way to fish and Jim caught this strange looking critter.  We found out later that it is called a basket star, related to starfish.  That was the most interesting thing caught.  We’re still looking for the elusive 60-pound halibut!

We arrived at No Name Cove at the entrance to Tracy Arm in beautiful sunshine.  This the prettiest afternoon we had had so far, so it was time for cocktails on the boat deck.  Even Smokey joined us outside!

We were up at 6 AM on Thursday morning to take Cosmo Place up Tracy Arm, about 20 miles, to see the face of Sawyer Glacier.  We wanted to be sure to have plenty of time to make the transit and to enjoy the scenery.  We had to maneuver around many bergie bits.  Some were tiny and some were scary but they were all beautiful!  We were surprised by the color of the ice - many were beautiful shades of blue.  the compression of the ice deep inside the glacier drives out all the air and results in this pure blue color.  We also saw lots of white ones, and even crystal clear ones.  Those were the trickiest to see and navigate around.  The day

was overcast and cool, but no wind and only an occasional spit of rain.

We think we got within half a mile or so to the face of the glacier.  We could hear creaks and groans and then big booms as a piece of the glacier fell into the water – calving, it’s called.  When one of the bigger pieces fell, we got 4 – 5 feet swells as the surge rippled down this narrow channel.  

We took a zillion pictures...next time we see you we can put you in a coma by showing them all to you!

We could see seals resting on the ice in front of the glacier face.  They looked like big slugs.  This guy looks pretty relaxed, doesn't he?

About 11 AM, we started back out Tracy Arm and did not have nearly the bergie bits to maneuver around.  We did meet a couple of huge (almost 1000 feet long) cruise ships on the way out.  One was a Carnival ship and the other was Disney Wonder, which we’d see a couple of times before.  It was quite something to watch these big boats maneuver around the bends.  Tracy Arm has three or four pretty sharp dog legs.  These big ships don’t worry about the bergie bits like we did.

Chris and I had to see if we could capture some bergie bits.  We always need ice for our afternoon cocktails!  So we put that brand new fishing net to good use.  It hasn’t brought in any fish yet, but we have caught several bergie bits for the freezer!

We anchored again in No Name Cove along with 9 other boats that evening.  This cove is a lovely, protected, quiet spot with lots of room and is perfectly located as a staging area to go see the glacier.  We were sitting in the pilothouse after dinner and heard Juneau Coast Guard announce that there had been a 7.3 earthquake in the Aleutians and to anticipate a tsunami warning. They expected the wave effects to be in Juneau and Ketchikan about 2345.   Good grief!!!  We thought we were fairly safe.  The Aleutians were 1000 miles away and we were several islands removed from the Pacific.  However, it certainly gave us pause.  Eventually we heard from Juneau Coast Guard that SE Alaska would not be affected by a tsunami.  Whew!  I had visions of pulling the anchor and heading out into deep water in the middle of the night.  We’d do it if we had to, but it wouldn’t be fun.

We saw lots of birds sitting on bergie bits, mostly gulls, as we left Tracy Arm this next morning.  The photo at the left has an adult bald eagle on the left and a juvenile eagle on the right.  We also saw one eagle sitting on a next as we cruised down the channel.

From Tracy Arm cove we cruised just a short distance north to Taku Harbor.  Jerry and Jim tried fishing at Midway Island, but didn’t do any good.  We did see more seals along the shore though and they’re always fun to watch! 

Taku Harbor had a Forest Service float that was just lovely!  Several other boats came in while we were there and it’s always great fun to meet other boaters and hear their adventures.  Several of the boats that came in had anchored with us in Tracy Arm, but we had not a chance to meet them.  We were all headed to Juneau and knew we’d see them again.  Taku Harbor had an old fish cannery on the shore and gave us some place to explore.

We continued north the next morning, Saturday, and saw lots and lots of whales out in Stephens Passage as we approached Gastineau Channel, on which Juneau is located.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough to get any photos!

Once we were settled in Harris Harbor we left the boat and walked downtown.  We found the Red Dog Saloon and the Twisted Fish Restaurant.  It felt really good to do some walking. Jim and Chris didn't leave Sunday evening so we had all day to continue our explorations.  We avoided all the touristy stuff designed for the cruise ship crowd and went to the Alaska State Museum.  It was once of the best museums I've seen!  They had a really interesting "hats throughout the history of Alaska" collection.  Everything from Eskimo parkas to Russian Orthodox priest miters.  We found a lovely place for lunch in the harbor mall...grilled halibut, sandwich.  Yum!

Jim and Chris headed to the airport about 6:30 PM.  All of a sudden the boat was very quiet! We decided to stay in Juneau on Monday and get some chores done.  It's lovely to have an internet connection!  Tuesday morning we'll head further north for Skagway, if the weather will cooperate.  We'll be back in Juneau on July 6 to pick up our friend Beth Bream from Visalia.

Ready to come and join us?  Jump on a plane and we’ll meet you!