Back to Whittier via Esther Island

4/7
Head for North Granite bay back on Esther island.
Awful weather......heavy rain on the boat all day..we do manage to get a few more jobs ticked off though. We are begining to wonder if the freshwater system has a leak in the port tank, as it keeps drawing air.................a nuisance !!!
There is one motor boat in the bay when we arrived, later we have another motor boat , then a small First 295.


5/7
Head back to Whittier ready for my departure on the 6/7. I'm catching the ferry down to Belligham, Oregon. Get all my bags packed and stow the remainder of my gear in rucsacs to be placed in the port cockpit locker until i return in September.
Beautiful day, do a few jobs around the boat and generally get her ready for the influx of new visitors and Steve's wife Trish.
Alan & Noi are already in Anchorage and Trish fly's in tomorrow. Steve hires a car to drop Terje off in Anchorage and pick all the others up. He will also need to provision the boat for the next section of the voyage. Whittier is fairly poorly served for supermarkets and the like.

6/7
We all rise early..........06:00 as i'm convinced the ferry leaves at 11:45 and you have to be in the terminal no later than 08:45......................a 3 hour wait....................what ???
Anyway, we go for breakfast, then Tel and i meander over to the ferry terminal to check whether i can move in and out of the terminal once i've booked in and got my ticket (only a receipt at the moment). When we get to the terminal around 08:15, it's all locked up...........weird..............i check the sailing times again and it's 23:45, not 11:45 !!!!!! DOH...........and we got up specially at 06:00 to prepare for the departure.........what a wally !!!
 Eventually, 20:45 arrives and i go to the terminal with Steve & Tel, tickets collected, they wish me farewell and head back to the boat.
Up to the Solarium deck and set myself up on one of the deckchairs for the night.............bloody freezing....no sleeping bag...must be getting old.


These are the "Ghost Trees of Pigot bay...........submerged after the land dropped 6 feet during the earthquake in the 1960's

MV Kennicott at her berth in Juneau

Esther Island and Fishermans Cove.......
local fishermen run their "tinny's" up a handy beach to do repairs under the waterline

Steve up the mast

Fishermans Cove

Glaciers Galore & Hobo Bay

1/7/15
We are now making our way towards the larger glaciers, Harriman, Surprise, Cascade, Coxe and Barry, so we head off through a passage to the North of Esther island and anchor for the night in Fishermans Cove. The weather is fantastic and we have a chillax and sup a few beers and catch a few rays.................stunning..............what a lucky guy i am !!!
Mind you we also had a couple of jobs to tick off, so we got stuck into those, one of the covers had got knocked of the port forward porthole so i refixed that into position, while Steve & Terje washed the boat.

2/7
Into Barry and Harriman Fjords today................stunning ..................incredible how the glaciers are retreating though. (We spoke to a couple of kayakers in Hobo Bay, they said that the Harriman had retreated about 3 miles since they started coming here in 2005 !!!!)
Fantastic scenery though......................judge for yourself..................Glaciers Galore !!!
We move out of Harriman and Barry and head south..........................unbelievable number of Otters........they are rafted up together lying on their backs , eating and chillaxing..........ha ha ha..amazing to see...............

We anchor in Hobo Bay for the night, eventually deciding to stay for a couple of days, there are some good walks here, though we have to have the Bear spray and fog horns with us at all times.


3/7
 The dingy is lowered and we head to the beach. It's hard to tell how you get off the beach to start with, but, we eventually find a path. The ground is very boggy, i'm glad i've got my wellies on.
We try to find the pickup truck we saw on the beach on the way in .
Next minute there it is...............
There is a path behind the truck which turns into a "corduroy road" ( logs are laid next to each other across the track to make a road in the boggy ground, pretty effective too).
Walk up to the old Granite Mill......on the way back we meet 2 kayakers from the beach, we exchange pleasantries and then make our way back to the boat.........



WE have so many photos of this area........................here's a sample

yours truly having a well deserved brew !!!

sea otters enjoying their dinner

Hobo Bay, old mine workings and it's debris.

a float plane lands to pick up some campers / canoeists

Novara anchored in the bay

the old truck and me

and another......

by the old workings

on the walk over to the workings

bits and bobs everywhere

whats left of the old corduroy road

Whittier to the Fish Farm at Lake Bay

29/6
Steve and i go up to the Post Office and send my 2 postcards to Gemma & Bryn. The Post Mistress, Suzanne, was very interested in our trip, especially when i told her we had sailed over from Maine, through the Arctic Sea. She actually closed the post office for 20 minutes so she could drive down to the harbour to look at the boat.............:-)
We did some more emailing etc at the Anchor Inn and then back to the boat. We set off about 11:30 for Pigot Bay.
No wind (again), but still plenty of rain.
We anchored in Pigot Bay around 13:30.
Down with the dingy, we go for a stroll on shore.
The "Ghost forest" is next to where we land. These trees were once above water level, then in 1964, during the earthquake this area dropped 6 feet.............the salt water around their roots killed them off.................so here they stand.
It pours with rain all night.

30/6
Pouring with rain again this morning. No rush, so we all grab a shower during the grim weather.
About 11:00 we set off for Lake Bay on Esther Island, arriving about 12:00.
In the bay we know there is a fish hatchery that does guided tours of the plant.........free too............win win.
The manager takes us arund at 14:30, all very interesting they collect the eggs to the number of 1.65million Chum Salmon and about 1.3 million Red Salmom............they ferilize them, then store them in massive trays in the dark, to stop them fertilizing too quickly. They are released next spring.....clever because in 4 to 8 years theynow they will return.........brilliant.
The manager tells us about a walk to the lake at the back of the plant, so off we go.
There is is a board walk through the boggy ground, so easy to negotiate.
We see a black bear, feeding from the big fish ponds, the manager says we will be ok, just make a lot of noise, they are more frightened they we are.............wanna bet !!!
We have out bear spray and fog horns.
up to the lake.....lovely......bald eagles everywhere.
We carry on and the tarck drops back to the shore nearer the mouth of the bay..........we see another black bear feeding.
We get back to the dingy and the fish jumping around the boat is staggering.
We move down the bay in the dingy........nice and slow............i nearly catch a salmon by the tail.
Another black bear is feeding just on shore, we slowly edge nearer.....50m.......40m....30m........20m.......Terje gets these amazing shots.....in the same spot a bald eagle is also feeding.............now we are 10m away from him..........just fantastic..............
I fillet the salmon we cought in a net and have it for supper, lovely jubbly.

Por old Seagull, he just did'nt know which Salmon to go for first !!!

Salmon jumping in the bay

Black bear feeding on.............................yes, you guessed it.....Salmon.

Bald eagle feeding on............................. surprise, surprise........Salmon

Mr. Bear has had enough and off he goes

Fish in a trap before going into the fish farm

One of the fish spawning pools

The fish nets

Steve up at the Lake behind Lake Bay, this provides the fresh water for the fish farm

View across the island, showing the wooden walkway to the beach.

A pond on the way to the beach

Bald eagles everywhere................

The walkway strats to drop down to the beach.

The beach hut

Art farty..........

Video that might or might not work !!!!!!!!!