Alaska 7 - Petersburg and LaConte Glacier
Moored: Petersburg, AK
Coordinates: 56º48.610N 132º57.895W
Anchored: Ideal Cove, AK
Coordinates: 56º49.42N 132º38.14W
Wrangle-Petersburg-La Conte Glacier-Ideal Cove
Leaving Wrangle full of shrimp we headed for Petersburg through the infamous Wrangle Narrows. Dido and Chuck finished cleaning what was left of the shrimp pile.
Teaching in the San Juan Islands I often take classes through Mosquito Pass as a navigation exercise because there are 7 lateral buoys. Wrangle Narrows has over 50+ buoys to navigate. One has to reach the halfway point with the flood tide and then continue on through with an ebb tide. On the chart it looks like a really narrow passage and in parts it is. As we approached the entrance I hailed a barge in tow that had been going half as fast as us and wanted to make sure it was ok that we go in first. To my surprise, they replied that they were about to speed up to 10 kts so we ducked into an eddy and let them pass. The barges don’t look that big until you look at them with binoculars and realize what looks like tonka toys are actually RVs and giant mining trucks.
In Petersburg we once again fueled up, provisioned, and had a lovely happy hour with the crew from Solstice and Tuuli. We couldn’t resist the Obi-One-Kenobi shower kimonos.
The following day we headed to La Conte Bay and Glacier. On our way out of the channel we watched some seals and sea lions playing king of the buoy. The buoy was already packed with sea lions and as others tried to jump on the big ones would bark at them. Very entertaining.
Below are shots of the mountains leaving Petersburg, an arial shot of La Conte Bay, and our first icebergs of the trip. We would only get about one third into the bay due to all the floating ice and didn’t actually see the glacier.
We ended up in Ideal Cove where the crabbing is supposed to be…well…ideal. Have to check the pot this morning. Laura did catch one Searun Cutthroat Trout in the dark…and rain. No obsession involved at all.
Today we are off to Thomas Bay where get as close as we can to Baird Glacier. Perhaps some Halibut fishing on the way.
