Author: Jamie Czetwertynski

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.

We left Glacier Bay and made it back to Juneau on the 20th to drop Sophie off. We had a great time exploring Glacier Bay with Sophie and appreciate all that she taught us about bears and fishing!

We had a gorgeous day in Juneau! We took the Goldbelt Tram up Mount Roberts and then hiked to the top. We were all so hot in the 70 degree weather (lol!) but thankful for the beautiful day and beautiful view!

Sunday was a cleaning day and then we went to see Inside Out 2 at the Juneau movie theatre (mixed reviews, but I am easily entertained, so I enjoyed it!) We had friends, Mike and Christine, come Sunday night to join us for a week. We had an epic Monday, taking a helicopter tour to Mendehall Glacier (North Star Helicopter Walkabout Tour).

No chance Andrew was going to be too cold. The kids have have the layers down pat.

The helicopter ride was extraordinary; I can’t even begin to describe the beauty obreathtaking beauty of Tongass National Forest, the Juneau icefield and Mendehall Glacier. Mendehall Glacier is approximately 3,000 years old and 13.6 miles long. We flew over a medial moraine line, formed when two glaciers meet, by the Mendehall rocks and Suicide Basin.

https://youtu.be/QqlEEb_-tto

We landed in front of a beautiful glacier waterfall, donned crampons and a hiking pole and literally walked-about the glacier. They gave us resealable cans that we could fill up with fresh glacier water – delicious! We put on some glacier We walked to a cool crevasse, and took a lot of pictures.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, but we consoled ourselves with king crab legs from Tracy’s – yum!

When I heard we were coming here, I was skeptical; could Glacier Bay National Park really be that much more spectacular than the Inside Passage and British Columbia? But it is. This is the first time that I have been super thankful to be on my own vessel and not on a fancy cruise liner with pools, hot tubs, entertainment, food prepared for me, etc. Two cruise liners can come in each day – and book it to John Hopkins Glacier and Margerie Glacier and then leave. It is such a rushed visit, they do not get the time to stay overnight in a quiet cove with grizzly bears, kayak around serene inlets, take the time to view the whales, sea lions and otters, and hike to glaciers. That being said, if you do a cruise to Alaska, try to make sure you get on a cruise that comes to Glacier Bay – each moment is a gift.

On our way up to the bay, we got a call from another boat about mountain goats and bears. We did not see either of those, but we did get to see a whale breaching. He was having a heck of a time, frolicking, waving his fins in the air and jumping in the air. He reminded my of a teenager goofing around. We missed the breaching picture but have a great picture of his tail.

7/16/2024 We cruised to Johns Hopkins Glacier – a 12 mile long, calving glacier named after Johns Hopkins University in 1893. With the snowy mountains behind and floating icebergs that we had to dodge, this was possibly my favorite glacier to visit.

7/17/2024 We anchored at Reid Glacier – not quite as pretty, but hey, we are anchored at a glacier1 Reid Glacier is a standing, stable glacier, meaning that it does not calf, and we could walk up to and on the glacier. On the way, the kids drank water from all the freshwater streams coming off the mountains and tasted the glacier ice (I still haven’t made a cocktail from the glacier ice, need to remedy that).

Our walk took longer than we anticipated, and we got back to the Fournado and it looked like this….uh oh.

It is 1100lbs (more with the full tank of gas), so there was no dragging it to the water. My kids turned on their Scout survivalist skills and started building shelters, trying to start a fire and even mushing barnacles for food. Andrew even tried his barnacle slop…yuck. (But he would not eat the wild strawberries that Claire and Andrew found with CioCia Zosia.)

A couple of hours later, after Hannah helped to dig out a trench and the tide started to come back in, we managed to finagle the Fournado back into the water and made it to the SeaXII for immediate snacks and a much-deserved dinner!

7/18/2024 We had a gorgeous day! It was sunny and clear and warm! We started the day with a visit to Margerie Glacier, by Grand Pacific – which looked like a planet swirled with ice (unfortunately, it was prettier from far away).

On the way to find a place to anchor, it was calm and pretty enough that I could not resist trying out acro with Kathryn from the flybridge!

We anchored in Sandy Cove and took the Fournado to see the seals. They were pretty lifeless when we pulled up, so I said, “hey guys, show some life”. All of the sudden, something (us? birds?) set them off and they started moving and loudly barking.

We finished the day with CioCia Zosia taking Hannah and Kathryn for another unsuccessful fishing trip, and Claire and I taking a relaxing and quiet kayak ride. We were rewarded with a delicious steak dinner cooked by Paul when we all got back!

We had a permit to enter Glacier Bay National Park 7/15/2024 to 07/19/2024. Permits are very serious and hard to get. We applied the first day that we could, and were successful to get the dates that we wanted. However, with only 25 pleasure craft allowed in day to day, they are much sought after. And thank goodness Paul answered his phone the night before to confirm we were coming; he did not know we had to confirm that we were using our permit.

Unfortunately it poured rain most of the day and the extended forecast looked pretty glum – rain daily for the forseeable future. On the way in to Barlett Cove, the wildlife was awesome with porpoises swimming in front of the boat and loads of otters back-floating along-side.

We anchored in Bartlett Cove and took the Fournado in for the mandatory orientation at 12pm. They talk about speed limits in whale zones (we don’t go that fast anyhow. In addition, you have to travel one mile from shore, as the whales feed close to shore.), what areas you are allowed to travel to and the rules for viewing wildlife. Despite it being desolate, they also have mandatory quiet hours in the anchorages that tend to get busier. They didn’t have much guidance on fishing to my surprise, although 0x0=0, so doesn’t seem to matter for us.

We grabbed lunch at the lodge and then headed out, much to the kids’ delight, for a 1 mile hike in the rain. We have realized that as long as you wear your rain gear and dress warmly enough, life is good.

It finally stopped raining as we were heading into Shag Cove to anchor, and Sophie spotted a mama grizzly and her three cubs. We grabbed binoculars and watched as mama waded into the water to fish. She pulled a mammoth fish (we now believe it was a porpoise) out and let her cubs feast, while she overlooked from the beach. They continued to stand guard and snack through the night and into the next morning, when the eagles tried to move in.

No rain the next morning, so Sophie and I got out for a beautiful kayak ride, testing our boundaries with the bears and paddling along with porpoises.

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:)

Feeling corny when trying to think of an attention-getting post title…fail.

July 9, 2024 We anchored in Tracy’s Army and took the dinghy through Tracy’s Arm, a long, narrow passage that has water of a gorgeous emerald color to get to North Sawyer Glacier.

We were too cold to make it to South Sawyer. The kids and I practiced our yoga, child pose, on the floor of the Fournado on the way back to the SeaXII – brrrrr! Poor Paul; he had to suck it up to drive (but, in all fairness, he still can’t sit).

Unfortunately the rainy forecast, for the next 16 days!!!!, has cut our outdoor exploration short, and we decided to head to Juneau early the next morning to hopefully find someone to look at Little Genie (6.5kw generator).

We headed out to do an awesome tour at Glacier Gardens Rainforest Adventure. It was recommended by a great friend and the beauty did not disappoint. In a happy accident, the owner/founder created a signature of any upside down tree flower pot – he plants flowers in the roots of trees buried upside down.

For two days, we shopped, ate and toured Juneau.

Beautiful views during my wet jog/hike on the Gold Creek Flume Trail to Perseverance Trail

We made it to Petersburg, AK July 7th. We really are feeling like we are “in Alaska” now with all of the snow-capped mountains. It is beautiful. The next day, I found a nature trail to take a slow jog:

We had a gorgeous 70 degree day and packed a picnic lunch to set out in the Fournado to go see Le Conte Glacier. It was pretty incredible. The color of the icebergs was a stunning turquoise, and we dodged around a lot of icebergs to get as close as possible to the glacier.

I did underestimate how cold it would be, especially going 30mph in the Fournado. We warmed up when we stopped by a waterfall to eat our lunch.

We had to try the iceberg!

Cute seal friends taking a nap!

Our perfect day (okay, maybe not too perfect in that the day started with Paul visited the medical clinic due to additional swelling. They said everything looks fine.) ended with a quick shopping trip, yummy dinner of homemade butter chicken and fierce game of Mexican train! On to Tracy’s Arm and more glaciers tomorrow!

July 6-7, 2024 We left Ketchikan (round 2; hope this time it is for good until we head back) in the late afternoon after making a series of boat tour videos (Paul is splicing them together; Sea XII boat tour coming soon!) and headed to Vixen’s Inlet. We arrived late, dropped anchor and went to bed. The next day, however, was full of wildlife! We finally saw two bears in the inlet!

And a lot of whales!

Wrangell Narrows is very narrow! Eagles here are like deer – there are so many, but still magical to see. I have never seen them in a flock on the ground!

06/30/2024 We planned to anchor into Lowe Inlet for the night and take the Fournado to hunt bears (we’re going on a bear hung, we’re going to catch a big one, what a beautiful day, we weren’t scared!) as Lowe was known to have a beautiful waterfall where bears liked to fish for salmon. We set out in the Fournado and ran into rapids (not runnable in the dinghy, unfortunately. However, I made grand plans to come back and run the rapids in the kayak (until Paul squashed my dreams and made me promise not to). So no bears, no rapids, and rain chased us back to the boat – boo:( When we got back, we looked at the map to see how in the heck people got to the waterfall and discovered that we overshot Lowe Inlet by about 23 miles and were anchored in Kumealon Inlet – at least it was pretty!

It can’t all be sunshine and roses… until Ketchikan

07/01/2024 We had a big, looooong day. Paul had a big meeting, and Hannah and Kathryn were starting school. The morning started off promising; Andrew and I did a work out (spell out your name and birthday with burpees, sit-ups, push-ups and such). I then took out the kayak to find some bears and see how close to the rapid I could get (skirting the edges of Paul’s prohibition). I was joined by two cute otter (seal?) friends!

Good thing I took a peaceful kayak ride and did calming yoga (who’s kidding – yoga with four kids is anything but), because the afternoon was the antithesis of calm, with a frustrated husband and frustrated pre-teens trying to navigate a new online school platform. Might as well start motoring; at least we could make headway towards Ketchikan. We left around 2pm and headed towards Prince Rupert. We then discovered that our large 65kw generator (“big genie”, as opposed to the 20kw “genie” and 6.5kw “little genie”) was not starting and we could not use our thrusters (tied directly into the 65) to turn around. After anchoring, Paul checked filters and called an expert on the Northern Lights generator. He followed all recommendations with no success. We called it a night and went to bed, hoping for a brighter tomorrow.

I don’t have any pictures…not a very pretty anchorage, but I think it is time to break up the writing with a pretty picture. We thought the white stuff was ice and I was going to start the day with a cocktail made with glacier ice, but sadly, it was just foam.

07/02/2024 We pulled the anchor at 5a.m. and headed out. Because the generator was still not working, we altered plans to go to another anchorage and decided to motor a long day and go straight to Ketchikan to see if we could get the boat looked at. Paul called a friend who was in Ketchikan (the aforementioned Nordhavn guy who is also traveling north with his family) and asked if he could push us into a T dock with his dinghy. We also called the Ketchikan marina to see if they could fit us in; on the T dock please? (Unfortunately, none of the marinas in Alaska take reservations, so if you don’t get a place, you are SOL.) The harbor master said to call back when we were an hour out. Amazingly, about 1.5 hours before arrival, our generator started working! We weren’t taking the chance of turning it off, so we ran the dishwasher and two loads of laundry while we had big genie working. It is great that we could now use thrusters to dock because when we called the marina back they said the only place we could park was on the cruise ship dock. Only Kathryn could make it up the 50 foot old rusty, barnacle covered ladder. Thankfully, we called our friend, and he knew of a private marina (some guy bought a marina so he could have a place to park is 156 foot boat). We successfully docked (thank you, God!) and our friends came over in the dinghy to walk around town and get dinner. The kids got along great, which warmed my heart so much! We all had a great time (and delicious dinner of blackened halibut and salmon tacos!)

07/03/2024 Since we could not find any mention of 4th of July fireworks in Ketchikan, and maybe more importantly, since we cannot stay up until 11:30pm, when it actually gets dark enough for fireworks, we decided to re-provision and continue north. Andrew and I got in a nice hike at Tongass National Park, before I headed to the store (always fun shopping the day before a holiday), and now we are underway with all systems ago (please knock on wood!)

Our days might so far seem redundant – slowly motor, find anchorage or marina, kayak, hike, possibly visit a small town, and you would be correct. But we are surrounded by gorgeous trees, mountains and water. It is so peaceful and serene. We have seen a couple of whales and numerous eagles. Yesterday, our journey was filled with abundant waterfalls along the way.

Our original plan of anchoring in Kutze by a beautiful waterfall was thwarted by the dense fog (we did go in for a picture), but the bottom was not great for anchoring and we decided to get in more miles. We ended up at Butedale – a cool, old cannery that had a long dock that we could tie up to along with two other boats. We are meeting the coolest people along the way, all with fascinating stories and plans. One of the couples is doing the 1000+ mile journey from Anacortes to Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska on a pedaling sailboat.

After tying up, we had a dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup (pat on the back; it was quite good) and biscuits and then donned our rain gear and hiking boots to hike behind the cannery to an old hydro-electric dam that was used to power the cannery. We embraced the rain and mud, and it was the contest to see who could become the least muddy (although once we turned our mindsets to the fact that mud feels good – like slime for the feet!- we could let down our guard). Paul and I are so proud of the kids. They have already grown so much. Andrew wanted to keep hiking, but it was 9pm, and none of the kids complained about hiking in the rain and mud; this would not have happened a month ago. Unfortunately, despite carrying bear spray, we were not lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the spirit bear (a group of rumored white-colored black bears) that inhabit the area.

Mental health check – if you know me, you know I do not like to sit; I like to run around and constantly move from activity to activity. I was running 6-7 days a week and averaging over 20k steps a day. I5 minutes was full of possibilities – I could take a 2 minute dip in the pool, float for 7 minutes to dry off while eating my lunch and reading, get changed, fill my water bottle and be out the door to drive a child to some random activity (okay I would be 5 minutes late). So far, I am embracing the slow pace of life. I have gone on a couple of runs when we are in a town; I have done a couple of workouts on the boat, and the kayaking and hiking has been enough to keep my mind engaged. I have no idea what my step count is; I wear my watch, but have not looked at my steps. I am reading more, starting a Woobles crocheting kit, cooking, cleaning, navigating and spending a lot of time with Paul and the kids – I read with each of them; I started math with Claire and Andrew, and we play a lot of games. I am trying to give them my full attention, and look them in the eye when they talk. The only thing on the “kid” list, is starting Minecraft with Hannah; she has been begging for months now…. The kids are doing well also. They miss their friends but are happily playing Minecraft and Roblox together (I think when they play on their computer, they are not limited to 1 hour, but that is okay.) Paul is Paul. He is happy and chill. He may have a stressful work day but then takes the time to reset with a hike or row.

“Nature is the purest portal to inner-peace.” – Angie Weiland Crosby