Alaska summer 2004

Dispatch 4 - This week we made it to our destination of Juneau. Discovered the town of Auke Bay and did the parent swap. It was an amazing month with my parents and now Bruce's parents will join us for a couple of weeks with this nephew Jared. Back to the glaciers we go. Can't get enough.


Ahoy from Ohana Kai,
It has been a ton of fun to get emails from you. There has been a lot of great questions, most which I will try to address and answer right away. If I forget one, so sorry, write me again and I will get it next time. First and foremost, thanks for everyones concerns, Bruce's hand is healing fantastic and in fact we just took out the stitches today. The name of the boat "Ohana Kai" means family of the sea or ocean. The old boat name was Summer Squall. When researching a new name for the boat we looked into many different combinations of different words and languages to translate. One possible combination was I believe Ohana Makani, which I think translated to "family wind". It may have been more appropriate but I feared that marinas and other vessels would see us coming and claim no room in the inn for us. The type of boat is a 42 Catalina, the design is a sloop. It has 2 staterooms (bedrooms), 2 heads (bathrooms), kitchen, navigation station and a living space of sorts. It is really very comfy and hope you'll all come for a visit next year when we are down in CA. You can view a picture of it's layout and specifications on our web page that will hopefully be growing greatly after this trip. www.ohanakai.net
Mileage and ports of call to date.
7/14 Wed Admiratly Cove to Auke Bay 15 miles
7/15 Thu Auke Bay and Juneau 0
7/16 Fri Auke Bay and Juneau 0
7/17 Sat Auke Bay to Holkham Bay 56 miles
7/18 Sun Williams cove - Sawywer Glacier and back 42 round trip
7/19 Mon Williams Cove to Chapin Bay 55 miles

Admiralty Cove was a quick stop before we headed up into Juneau or rather Auke Bay. There is nothing really nice to say about it at all. It was very warm, dry, rather barren and swarming with horseflies. We were in and out of there as fast as we could be.
Just before leaving Petersburg we learned that it was not likely that we would be able to get into Juneau. It turns out there is a bridge there that sits rather low and any sailboat or vessel for that matter that is taller than 50 feet cannot clear it. We stand at 51 feet and draw 6 to 6.5 feet of water. We would have to pass at a 4 ft tide to clear. Wasn't going to happen. What I cannot figure is why is this not more well known and why hadn't anyone told us until now. Kinda important I think. But as always, these things work out for the better. Just north and around the bend is adorable Auke Bay. We arrived early enough to get gas and dock on the outer edge of their breakwater dock. First come, first serve and we were not first. It turns out to be a bit rock and rolling of a tie up but certainly the best view of the lot and the company we kept. whew hew. We got lunch, had time to play on the play ground at the nearby elemntary school with an amazing nature trail and do laundry. We immediately make friends with a gal in the laundry room who just moved aboard their boat (new to them) and have been aboard only 1 month with their 2 boys ages 5 and 6. She turns out to be a great connection and a fun friend for the next 3 days. It's nice to be "in the know" on the dock.

Thursday my dad gets a "Rents-A-Wreck" as their name implies. It really was a decent car for 2 days use. It got us to the grocery store while my mom took the boys to a local fish hatchery with a small aquarium where you can watch all the salmon returning to fight their way up the ladder to spawn. We all get a chance to walk and enjoy downtown Juneau which is about 15 miles south east of Auke Bay. Juneau itself is pleasant but still very touristy with its large cruise ship docks, which means jewelry and t-shirt stores. Much happier to be docked in Auke Bay and would come back here anytime. Back at the dock Bruce befriends the crew of "Silvertip" (an amazing 111'performance sloop)and they give him over $400 worth of fish their "chef" doesn,t need. We decide it best to give most of it away to our dockmates since we could never eat it all. We are suddenly very popular...

Friday we decided to do one more load of laundry and wash all the bedding. Long story short nothing went right that day as we made a wet mess of this kind peoples laundry room, came out with a few pink and yellow items of clothing, didn't quite get to eat out for breakfast as we had planned and thought I had missed the Martin's flight. As always, someone above has things planned just right for me. The laundry eventually got dry, and colorful, everyone got fed, and the Martin's plane was delayed by 3 hours. I had time to run back to the boat, unpack and arrive to pick them up just in time much to their surprise. We all enjoyed a nice dinner and prepared for the exchange the next day.

Saturday was bittersweet. It had been an amazing month with my parents and I am still in awe of how quickly it went and how much fun was had. Seeing them go was tough. Bruce's parent along with Jared were equally as excited to begin their journey so at 10am we shoved off and drove all the way back down to Tracy Arm and Holkham Bay, the entrance to the glaciers.

Sunday we journeyed the 42 mile round trip trek up into the Sawyer Arm Glaciers. As with my parents, we were able to view quite an array of shapes sizes and colors. We visited the Southern arm first again but there seemed to be slightly less icebergs in the water at the time and we could get a little closer to the glacier. The boys gathered more ice for drinks and souvenirs. We watched as these shiny creature crept along with the surges and currents from below. We finally moved over into the northern arm to view the taller glacier and just in time. As we sat there to stare at its unique beauty you could hear an occasional creak and crack, just to see what looked like snowballs from where we sat,(they were probably the size of chairs and small filing cabinets), fall from its edges. Then without warning a large chunk of ice fell off the glacier and crashed into the ocean. Almost as if we had willed it to. We were in awe. We guesstimated the glacier height to be at least 300 feet high and the part that fell off at least a third of it's height and in the shape of a narrow piece of pie. It created quite a splash as it hit and eventually a large swell reached us. We figure we were at least 1/2 to 3/4 mile away. It all seemed to happen in slow motion as we all sat in the cockpit to watch. Bruce did turn the motor back on when we saw the size of the splash and wave in case we needed to make haste out of there. It is tough to leave when you are not sure if you will ever see a sight like this again.

We spent another quiet night anchored in William Cove in the entrance to Holkham Bay and headed out the next morning south down Stephens Passage. This had been a great area for us previously for whales and fishing and would prove to be the same this day. Nanna promptly planted herself on the bow with binoculars and we spent the entire day whale watching. I don't think there was ever really a time when we couldn't see at least some spray or whale tails far on the distant horizon. Around the south east corner of Admiralty Island just outside of Gambier Bay, Nanna, Pappa and I all had the chance to reel in coho and pink salmon. We all proudly posed for our photo ops before we released them. Not long after we put away our poles and picked up our speed we were joined by 3 Dall's porpoises. They were playful, friendly and happy to ride our bow wave. Though it lasted for a total or maybe 5 mins. it seemed to last forever and ended much to soon. They departed and we finally found a quiet comfy ancorage in Chaping Bay. We put the dinghy in the water and turned Tristan, Matthew and Jared (at the helm) loose for an hour. Ahhh independence.

We are continuing on today south down Chattham Straight and are sure yet where we will lay our heads tonight.
Hope all is well with you. Keep in touch. We love and miss you.
the crew of the Ohana Kai.

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