July 9, 2018 - Day 38: Tracy Arm (round trip to view Sawyer Glaciers)

52 miles round trip; 8 hours of cruising time.
Highlights: navigated through narrow fjord-like canyons dotted with waterfalls, through icebergs to get up close to both South and North Sawyer Glaciers.  Awesome experience to be on small craft at the face of these impressive tidewater glaciers!  More experience witnessing icebergs collapse and transform right before us...amazing!

Early morning departure from Tracy Arm Cove, with sunlight just beginning to break through a low cloud cover...

Steep walls of fjord-like Tracy Arm fall nearly vertical into the water.  View from the helm of Seaquel...

Here is the "underwater view" from our Garmin, imaging what the bottom contour is like in two different settings:

Here, you can see that the depths exceed 1,200 feet, despite the dramatic narrowness of this water-filled canyon...

Peggy taking in the remarkable azure-colored water that is colored by glacier sediment...

Seaquel's Garmin Chartplotter showing our approach to the head of South Sawyer Glacier, the larger of the two tidewater glaciers...

Journey and Beyond pose in front of  South Sawyer Glacier...

Refueling with our reserve jugs of diesel fuel while underway.  The total transit distance from our last available fueling at Juneau until our next available fuel at Petersburg, must take us nearly 250 miles to include round trips into Tracy Arm as well as Fords Terror.  Our precautions to ensure adequate range include three critical steps: 1) Carrying extra jugs (Seaquel carried four 5-gallon jugs to increase fuel tankage from 100 gallons to 120 gallons); 2) Timing our travel with favorable tides/currents; and 3) Cruising at slower, more fuel-efficient displacement speeds (versus semi-planning speeds)…

Peggy marveling at a good-size iceberg to Seaquel's port side.  Lower in Tracy Arm, the icebergs were present but spread apart (like below).  The further up the arm, closer to the face of the glaciers, the more prevalent and tightly-spaced the icebergs which required very attentive maneuvering...

Waterfalls were in view around nearly every corner...

Lots of habitat could be seen on the icebergs.  Below, an eagle is perched with a captivating view to find fish swimming near one of the many waterfalls...

Our little Ranger Tugs are humbled by the size and vastness of everything in Alaska, although they handled everything thrown at us including wicked waves, blustery winds, suffocating fog, periods of heavy rain, and of course icebergs!

Gorgeous blue ice!!!

From a distance, this blue iceberg did not appear all that large amid the towering mountains.  Up close, the size dwarfed even a large 70-foot yacht!

Sneaky clear bergies, the ones hardest to spot that can damage a fiberglass hull...

Increasing presence of ice as we get closer to the head of the glacier...

Sea Lions seem to really enjoy the rafting amenities provided by some of the lower, flatter bergs...

Journey taking in one of many waterfalls along Tracy Arm...

This kayaker had made a lonely camp on the only, tiny little island near the head of Tracy Arm, within reach to paddle to Sawyer Glacier...

South Sawyer Glacier beginning to reveal itself up around the last bend of Tracy Arm...

Navigating among the icebergs...

Journey and Beyond seem so tiny compared to the soaring heights of Sawyer Glacier...

More ice the closer we get to the glacier...

Looking back at Tracy Arm over the top of Seaquel at where we had come to reach the Sawyer Glacier...

Add a few pleasure craft along with a tour boat or two, mix with ice, and you have "Inside Passage" version of traffic congestion...

Small crafts out to view the glaciers coming from larger tour boats that cannot get as close to the glacier...

Glaciers, icebergs, waterfalls, abundant wildlife...today was a quintessential "Inside Passage" day!

Iceberg shapes are fascinating.  Here's a "rubber ducky" berg...

Bald Eagle feeding on a fish carcass on shore...

Another interesting iceberg shape: a motoryacht complete with flybridge and radar arch...

Seaquel back on anchor in Tracy Arm Cove, still with icebergs nearby...

Moxie was fascinated with the bergies that were stranded on shore at low tide...


Despite floating in salt water, the bergs are fresh water and a cool treat for Moxie...




World's largest dog slurpee…

After dinner, another chance to explore the larger icebergs at the entrance to Tracy Arm Cove...

One moment, we are admiring the beauty, shape, and size of this iceberg...

The next moment, a big chunk of the iceberg implodes, the collapse sending a wave at us and transforming the shape of the iceberg...

Capturing the excitement and thrill on video of the aftermath of a close-by iceberg collapse...

The iceberg's new, lower-profile variation of its former self...


Glen arrives in his dinghy to see what all the commotion is all about...

Peggy and Mark in their dinghy: iceberg shapes and colors (and size) are mesmerizing...

Here is what our Garmin showed for our route from the day - with added labels showing both North and South Sawyer glaciers...


Back in the cozy confines of Seaquel, reflecting on yet another magical day of exploration in Alaska's truly incredible Inside Passage...

What a day!  When we dreamed about doing Alaska and the Inside Passage, reaching all the way from our driveway in Anacortes to tidewater glaciers and icebergs seemed the ultimate fulfillment of that vision.  Today represented one pinnacle of what we hoped to see.  Tomorrow we try to get into the much more challenging "Fords Terror" inlet of the longer Endicott Arm off Stephens Passage for more adventure...

~Mark