As is typical of this lovely and strong state, this morning was gray, with very quiet waters, and we were to be seen sailing north along Stephens Passage under gray skies, but smooth water, as we sailed into this long passage, toward our morning destination: the bay of Tracy Arm, on the mainland of Alaska. Already miles before we even approached the entrance to the bay, we could see big pieces of bluish ice floating near the land. Very near the terminal moraine of this glacier, deposited there in times past when it reached the open ocean, we slowed down, as nearer to this enormous barrier of rocks and sand and silt the water was very shallow. We then directed our bow to a small cove, called Williams Cove, where we anchored and had breakfast, and soon after began our planned daily activities, which consisted of hiking, kayaking, and expedition landing craft touring.
Each one of these activities turned out to be very interesting, since in the hiking we ploughed through tough mud that threatened to pull off our boots. The forest was cool and quite dense, as western hemlock was already growing among the Sitka spruce. In this forest we had the opportunity of seeing orchids, albeit not big and purple on the trees, but very small on the ground. One of them was the pink coralroot, which has no chlorophyll, but obtains its food from dead organic material in the ground. Kayaking was something else, as we could approach a big iceberg stranded on the beach, and even lick it. No, our tongues did not stick to it!
By midday we took off again, right into Tracy Arm. This is one of the most lovely fjords in the world! Eventually we stopped, not anchoring due to the depth of the water, just holding position, and lowered the Zodiacs, and took off between the ice floes, as near to the face of South Sawyer Glacier as possible. We avoided getting too near the harbor seals on these floes, and enjoyed the extreme beauty of this glacier, which is retreating, dumping enormous pieces of ice into the bay. Later on we were all back on board, and began our return to the mouth of this beautiful arm. Upon arriving there, we espied a brown bear on the beach, calmly eating worms, crabs, and little extras for dinner.
