Spellbound and Awestruck

Our goal was to get to Glacier Bay National Park. Why? Because its there. And everyone said 'its awesome'. But I really didn't know what to expect. Sometimes, I get so focused on the goal, I forget to savor the moment--but this week was all about just 'being there'. From Swanson Harbor, we travelled to Bartlett Cove, the park entry point. There are many rules, including that we have to go to an hour orientation in person upon arriving. We were 'trained' in how to not get too close to the wildlife, which parts of the park were not allowed to access with motorized vehicles, where the cruise ships go, how to not run into icebergs, etc. The whole process made us feel very special to be entering the park along with no more than 20 other boats at any given time.

The park is vast. The landscape stunning. The weather moody and cold.

On our first full day in the park, we passed our friends aboard Fidelis that were leaving the park having used up their 7 day permit. They gave us a full rundown of the highlights which helped us plan our trip through both the East & West arms.

Our second night in the park, we saw a wolf & moose walking along the shore. We caught some fish, and saw more whales than we could count.

Our third night, after going up John Muir Inlet as far as we could go, we hit our furthest north point of our planned trip.

Feeling accomplished, we turned off our engine, and floated around in view of Riggs glacier. The next morning from our anchorage in N. Sandy Cove, we were entertained for at least 90 minutes by a single humpback. We would think it was gone, only to again hear its exhales when it took another lap. It rained and rained and rained that day. Dan washed the boat, and let the rain rinse it off.

From there, we headed up the west arm to John Hopkins Inlet, we spent awhile floating around viewing the Lamplugh Glacier. Leia (the boat cat), didn't seem to care much and was probably more annoyed that we were just taking pictures and not catching more fish.

The weather was good one minute, frustrating the next. We had a lot of rain, and then moments when the sky cleared and the mountains were spectacular. The seas were calm, then they were chopping and uncomfortable. The wind was always the wrong way. We motored for 195 miles. We shared an anchorage with no more than one boat at a time, and only for 3 nights of our 10 night stay.

We were disappointed that we couldn't use our drone (park rules). It would have been epic. So instead, we spent our spare time collecting chunks of ice. And looking for wild animals. The whales were prolific. We didn't see any bears. One day we binge watched a show on netflix while the rain and clouds were so low we couldn't see much of anything, except the occasional sea otter floating by.

The last night in the park, we stayed in Shag Cove, Gelkie Inlet. It was the head of a Fjord with 3000'+ mountains on each side, waterfalls on all sides, snow at the water level, herring slapping against the hull, sea otters overseeing the activity. We were joined late in the evening by another boat. The EVVIVA. https://www.superyachts.com/fleet/evviva-7468/ In the grandness of the space, we both felt small.

I wondered if their evening photos included us as the 'cute' boat at the end of the bay. Below is their boat looking "cute" in the sunset. We have 18 1/2 hours of daylight now. This shot was way past my bedtime.

All in all, Glacier Bay was worth the 1000+ miles to get here. And now, we turn our intentions to our family that will soon be joining us for the next few weeks. And destinations in the south. Its almost solstice, and winter is coming... Onward.