After departing Juneau, we headed to Fords Terror. Fords Terror was high on Paul’s list on a place he wanted to visit, an obstacle he wanted to conquer. Fords Terror is in Tracy’s Arm, where we visited in early July; however, due to the rainy forecast and tightened schedule because of Paul’s medical “situation” (he loves to tell everyone about it; don’t ask unless you want to hear all the details…), we decided to wait to go to Fords Terror on our way back south.
Fords Terror is a shallow and narrow inlet that has a tidal rapid that can reach speeds up to 12 knots (we go 8 knots at best without current pushing against us; odds are not in our favor). Fords Terror was named after a naval sailor who paddled his dinghy into the inlet in 1899 (at what we now know was slack tide) and was unable to exit the inlet for 6 “terrifying” hours until the next slack tide. Timing is essential. We had to time our entrance and exit to high water slack tide to make it through. As there is no real-time way to monitor the day-to-day tides, we relied on the closest tidal station in Juneau and added 15min to 1 hour (not very exact when the slack tide lasted only 30 minutes). On our way in, it was cloudy and overcast; not the best visibility. Paul did great, and while the boat still rocked side-to-side and we could appreciate the skill required to navigate the inlet, we made it through with a gold star. We boated to the end of inlet, surrounded by majestic granite walls and beautiful waterfalls and dropped the anchor. Despite it being a great place to see bears, we did not get to see any (Claire keeps reminding me, “no hugging the teddy bears!”).
The next morning, Paul called out his coworker and our guest, Mike, to Mike’s assertion that he was going to water ski. I volunteered to take pictures; too cold for me. However, the peer pressure was too great and after Mike (who hasn’t skied in 10 years and couldn’t remember what foot he skied in front) couldn’t get up, I said I would try skiing on our next go-round in the afternoon. The counter pressure worked, and we both made it up our first try!
Our polar ski club:
While waiting for slack tide at 4pm, I also got in a long kayak ride and we tied Kathryn’s aerial silks to the boom for a beautiful performance.
Andrew couldn’t be outdone and decided to take the polar plunge, no wetsuit needed!
We packed up to head to the entrance of the inlet to wait for slack tide. We kept watching the rushing water and icebergs rapidly coming out of the inlet; nerves bustling. Finally, about 30 minutes after Juneau slack tide, the water looked to be slowing down, and we headed in. Maybe a bit too early. Paul put the boat into gear with a look of determination to conquer the narrow inlet. We were doing great, until we were pushed hard by the current. Paul tried to compensate but then we were pushed by the current on the other side. The boat listed 20 degrees, sending drinks and bottles flying. Paul had a terrifying flash picture in his mind of slamming into the rocks on the side (we weren’t that close, thankfully), but the boat righted and we were able to forge on and make through successfully. He earned his diet Dr. Pepper and oreos:)
We went back and forth whether or not we wanted to take the time to go 30 miles (15 miles each way) out of the way to visit Dawes Glacier, but knowing it would probably be our last glacier and wanting Mike and Christine to see a glacier, we decided to go. It was worth it. The glacier was beautiful! It is hard to describe the amazing azure color or the glacier. The minefield of icebergs was light enough that we were able to navigate the SeaXII up to the face of the glacier, and since we were the only boat, we had time to put the boat in neutral, set silks up for Kathryn and send Mike out in the kayak to get glacier ice for cocktails. Not only that, but we were rewarded multiple times with watching and hearing the glacier calf and feeling the huge waves that resulted from the calving.
Our adventure resulted in a late night. We didn’t drop anchor until 11:30pm, in the pitch black of the night. We are super thankful for all of our electronic guidance, the radar and infrared were indispensable, but our hearts were beating fast.