Tracy Arm Entrance Cove - May 26

Today we cruised from the anchorage into Tracy Arm and returned to the same anchorage for a second night.  Tracy Arm is 22 miles of narrow canyon walls that leads to North and South Sawyer glaciers.  The further we traveled the more ice we saw - some pieces were big and some pieces were very small.  For much of the time I stood on the bow with m

y polarized sun glasses trying to spot the "smaller" pieces.  What looks to be small on the surface is generally only 10% of the total piece.  The other 90% is under the water.  We were all on high alert because hitting an iceberg could damage the prop and we would be out of business!

About half way into the arm, we passed a cruise ship that was exiting the Arm.  Certainly makes you feel small when you are in the shadow of the big cruise ships.  We dodged ice for over 10 miles before we had a clear view of the south glacier and decided to turn around.  On the way down Tracy Arm we spent an hour trying to retrieve one of the smaller pieces of ice.  We were thinking ahead and wanted ancient ice for our evening scotch!

This afternoon we dropped the anchor in just under 20 feet of water.  There are several other boats at anchor in the cove including two sailboats, two large powerboats and an old wooden boat named Discovery.  Discovery was built in 1931 and is approximately 75'.  She is a real beauty.  I put the kayak in the water while Barrie changed the oil and filter (so far we have traveled just under 200 hours).  My objective was to get more ice!  I spotted a small berglet close to shore and paddled in that direction.  From the kayak, I lassoed the piece and started to break it into smaller pieces that I loaded into the kayak.  Soon I had a lap full of ice and paddled back to the boat.  John helped me unload the ice chunks and break them into even smaller pieces that I could fit in the freezer.  Now we will need to find more scotch to go with the ice!