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Alaska -July 20, 1998
Position: Alaska -July 20, 1998 On July 9th SeaQuell finally departed Florida for its Pacific Tour. This is over 2 months later than anticipated as the refit at Derecktors was prolonged. The last 2 weeks were spent trying to correct the cause of a new serious vibration of the port engine. Our refit experience has been full of all the evils previously heard from other boat owners. Being 2 months late we had to make adjustments in our schedule if we still wanted to see Alaska this summer. Thus we chartered an Alaskan trawler, the Lady Faye, to cruise the Juneau to Sitka area. We traveled to Alaska with Todd in our plane. Our routing was from Aspen through Seattle to Juneau and on to Anchorage for 2 days of sight seeing. Then we flew back to Juneau to meet the trawler. Todd cruised with us 4 days then flew the plane back to Minneapolis on July 18th. The Hoopers joined us in Juneau on July 15th for a week of cruising the inland passage. We had a terrific time experiencing all that the Alaskan waters had to offer. We went through a field of icebergs to reach the base of the 300' high South Sawyer tidal glacier which is located at the end of Tracy Arm. We were in the middle of a school of Humpback Whales as they were feeding. We were 20 feet from a herd of sea lions where the larger males were fighting over the harem. The largest males weigh up to one ton!! They made quite a show of barks and groans. There were also close to 100 seals barking in the water along with the sea lions. What a noisy bunch they all were. We saw many Bald Eagles and one of the most special sightings was a family of 10 Orca (killer) Whales. Included in the Alaska experience was successfully setting our own crab pots and shrimp pots and a little salmon fishing. There is nothing like fresh crab and shrimp that you have caught yourself! The Kirkmans will join us July 22-31. We will return to Minneapolis on August 1st then travel back to Vancouver with the Campbells and Grandma Doc for 10 days of cruising on the SeaQuell. Richard and Carol and crew left Florida on July 9th, went through the Panama Canal on the 16th and were 12 degrees N on July 19th. They are scheduled to be in Vancouver, 50 degrees N, on August 13th. |
