7/14 We decided to stop for one last meal-out while cruising up the Icy Strait on route to Glacier Bay and visit the small town of Hoonah.
As we approach Hoonah, we spot many whale blows and realize that they we have happened upon whales bubble netting. Bubble netting is an amazing phenomenon where humpback whales work together to capture large amounts of food. One female creates a ring of bubbles to trap and confuse the fish, herring, and the other whales come through the ring to inhale large amounts of fish. I feel truly blessed to have been able to witness this amazing action, which is unique to their feeding grounds in the Alaska/BC area.
We could not reach the Hoonah harbor master by radio so decided to anchor and take the Fournado in. At this point, it is 2:30 and we are all starving. The problem is, it is a Sunday in a small town and nothing is open except the lady selling reindeer sausage. It sounded delicious but we were cold from the rain and too hungry. Paul finds a restaurant that he says is open but we needed to hit the liquor and grocery stores first, before they closed. I couldn’t resist stocking up on more ice cream; I can live without having enough meat frozen; I cannot live without ice cream! He decided to take the groceries back to the boat while we walked to the restaurant. We walked 1.5 more miles to Icy Strait Point just in time for the last gondola and then to be told the restaurant was closing. I quickly connected to my lifeline – wifi – and called Paul who said that the restaurant was actually the other direction, 2.5 miles away. Right before we voted on who to cannibalize, Paul called and said he may have found a ride if the guy could get his car started. Thankfully, the car gods answered and Paul said we had 8 minutes to make it out of Icy Strait Point as they would not let an outsider come in…we made it and life became better with a delicious burger, fries and beer:)
