Decisions, Decisions June 10

We awaken to calm.  No wind, no ripples in the cove.  Plenty of fog, so much that it makes the idea of viewing glaciers and cliffs almost laughable.  We decide to see how the day unfolds and depart just after 6 am to retrace our route from Taku Harbor to the entrance to Endicott Arm.  Ahead of us by almost an hour is Steel Eagle a 6 knot sailboat and a faster (20+ knot) pleasure boat.  We listen to their conversations on the VHF and learn that Endicott is socked in with fog.  The fast boat declares that there is nothing to be seen and agrees to meet the slow boat at the public float at Hobart for coffee.  They will continue on to Petersburg without seeing the glacier. 

We arrive at the entrance to Endicott an hour later and the fog is starting to lift.  We have clear visibility at sea level and can see the ice bergs.  It looks as if the ceiling will lift and we decide to "go for it".  We start to pick our way between the many small bergs and almost as many large bergs.  Some of the bergs are huge - as much as 3 or 4 times as long as the boat and tall!  According to the books, slack tide (TTE) occurs at the entrance to Ford's Terror 10 to 25 minutes after Juneau.  In order to enter safely, we need to be positioned at the entrance at 3:10.  This leaves us time to explore Endicott but not quite enough time to reach the face of Dawes Glacier.  We continue to pick our way through an ever increasing field of ice bergs (and see seals on them) before finally reaching the north arm of Dawes which is just the remains of the receding ice floe.  We are still an hour away from the face when we turn around to return to the entrance of Ford's Terror.  It is tricky navigating between all the ice as some of the bergs are just barely visible.  With a single screw boat, we can't afford to damage our propeller.

Ford's Terror

We enter Ford's Terror and look for the landmark waterfall that will help us chart our path through the narrow opening.  At low tide, this entrance is a waterfall that is 7 feet tall.  At high tide, there is no evidence of the danger.  There are so many cliffs and so many high waterfalls that it takes us a few minutes to locate the landmark waterfall.  Once we find it, everything falls into place and we soon we are in the isolated deep canyon.  The water here is so deep that the depth sounder which can read to 600 feet fails to register.  Perhaps the closest analogy would be a fjord in Norway - the inlet is perhaps a 1/4 mile wide and several miles long.  At the bitter end of the inlet, we find Honu, a Nordic Tug, is already at anchor.  We park next to them at the base of yet another waterfall.  Our opportunity to exit this beautiful place is tomorrow afternoon at high slack - about 4 o'clock.  Meanwhile, our neighbors are stand-up paddle boarding around the boat.

It seems that our second alternator has failed and Barrie spends the remainder of the afternoon looking into the issue and considering our options.  For now, we will use the generator to charge batteries and carefully monitor our usage of electricity, but it is mystery why two alternators would fail on this trip.  Not much can be done in this remote location.  From here we will head to Petersburg where more services are available.