The weather continues to be clear and sunny and we decide to return to the glacier and see if we can get better photos in the morning sun. We pull up anchor just before six am. Our planned route takes us north up the narrow passage on the inside of Russell Island. Just before our departure, we see humpback whales feeding in that passage. We spend a few moments watching the whales and then point our bow south. We will go around the bottom of the island and not disturb the whales breakfast. We retrace just over 10 miles back to Marjorie Glacier and repeat yesterdays dance of boat, kayak and icebergs. One noticeable change today is that the glacier is much more active. The sound of calving roars in my ears and large chunks create big splashes as they topple into the water. It is quite spectacular.
As you might guess, there is more ice to navigate
today. Just before noon, we begin our
trip south through Glacier Bay. We
investigate Blue Mouse Cove as a possible anchorage. It is well-protected but it is a large open
cove and not nearly as attractive as last night’s anchorage. We continue south to Geikie Inlet and take a
peek at Shaw Cove. This is a narrow
inlet with a very tall granite cliff on one side. At the end of the cove is the outlet of a
stream and some green grass that looks like potential bear habitat. While this has the potential to be a very
pleasant anchorage, we opt to continue our search. The next cove in Geikie Inlet is
Tyndell. This cove feels more intimate
and it also looks to have good bear habitat at the head. We drop an anchor in 35 feet of water
(including 15 feet of tide) and settle in for the night.
Within minutes, Barrie quietly says, “the bear has
arrived.” We grab a glass of wine and
our binoculars and spend the next hour watching a very large black bear wander
up and down the beach. Lucky for us, the
bear repeated his performance at 4:30 in the morning and we were awake to see
it.
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