Captain’s Log: Dundas Inlet and Glacier Bay

April 5-8

Hi All,

Well we did not leave Elfin Cove as intended. I was in favor of going but the Admiral overruled. She was concerned about weather….windy, rain et al crossing Cross Sound….. as well as a……” Critical Infrastructure (CI) owners and operators and other users who obtain Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) from Global Positioning System (GPS) devices should be aware of the GPS Week Number (WN) rollover events and the possible effect a GPS WN rollover event may have on the reliability of the reported UTC. The legacy GPS navigation message has a ten (10) bit parameter that represents WN. Thus, the WN parameter in the GPS navigation message ‘rolls over’ to zero every 1024 weeks starting from 0000Z January 6, 1980. The next WN rollover will occur April 6, 2019……”

Fortunately all our GPS units worked…although it took the Raymarine we use for the Nobeltec chartplotter several anxious minutes to get a position fix….in fact I had concluded it was not working and had switched Nobeltec to the ACR AIS GPS (how’s that for 3 acronyms….let’s just say another GPS:))) We did that for the passage to Dundas Inlet and then I switched back to the Raymarine unit and it seemed to be working fine….we shall see…..we do have a spare:))))

Weather: Arghhhhh…..it is now late winter again…..windy, cold, rainy, low clouds…..not great for sightseeing. The forecast says this will last for a while….maybe a day here and there with broken clouds, but nothing like the bright blue skies we had for several weeks.

The weather improved slightly so we left a day later on Saturday 4/6……so, we had a relaxing day…..you know, a snow day….there actually were some snow flakes amongst the rain!!!! We did have a little socializing in Elfin Cove…..one of our gas cans started to leak so we quickly drained into the dinghy and then discarded the gas can in Pelican. Turns out the young woman at the fuel dock opened up at 2pm and had a new 5-gal can as well as gasoline…..$8 for the can and $20 for gas ($4.35/gal)!!!! She and her partner, Eric, a local fisherman with his dad, and her 90-lb dog, Osly, took me back to Mystic via a skiff saving a long walk back with the 5-gals. We invited them onto Mystic for a beer (Osly had to stay outside, wet and sad, but Cookie Lady took good care of him)….and we had a nice time socializing about Elfin Cove in the winter and overwintering in Juneau!!!!

Fishing: Eric did tell us that 2018 was the worse salmon fishing in Cross Sound for the last 30 years…..wow and ugh!!! Also, the herring season in Sitka never opened. While there were plenty of herring, they were 30% undersized and <10% mature roe…..normal is 30-40% mature roe….good for the AF&G to not buckle to political and commercial pressure and allow the herring to try and make a come back!!! Having said that, the commercial fishermen in SE Alaska are certainly hurting after the lousy salmon season last year and now no herring. We are sure hoping/praying for a better 2019 salmon season for the fishermen as well as all the critters. Eric told us that from Juneau to Elfin there are reports of very skinny, starving bears:(((((

The passage to Dundas Inlet (west of Glacier Park and considered part of the NP) crossing Cross Sound was a non event…yea, just like we want…..there was only 1 small stretch where the tide had turned early and we had a little wind against tide and a few splashes on Mystic….ugh…..but it rained later so Mystic got a good rinse:))) As we learned last year Inian Pass can have currents up to 8kts….we only experienced in the 2kt range so much better timing this time!! Although, we have 3 current tables….all different of course…turns out “Total Tide” had it right and Nobeltec and the published tide tables were 1-2 hours off….go figure!!

Dundas Inlet: DDG…..it’s a fairly wide fiord going 10-12 miles back up a glacier carved inlet…..from the Brady glacier. While the lower elevations have matured from the glacier erosion, you can still see razor sharp glacier carvings in the upper elevation. AND, drum roll please…..we sighted our first BEAR of the season….wow….as Kathy wrote in an email…..”We’re up in Dundas Bay, an absolutely stunning location! We’re way up in the fiord surrounded by mountains, and it’s just us and the otters and birds (ugh! John didn’t even bother to put the crab trap out! The otters are adorable, crab-eating varmints!) Oh! We did see our first bear of the season yeterday afternoon!! A large male brown bear (Grizzly) came out of the forest and was walking the shoreline looking for eats. He found a few nibbles, clams and such, and a few sprigs of grass just coming up. He was HUGE, and surprisingly, he didn’t look terribly thin! Guess he had a good fall season of salmon! So YAY! Spring is definitely coming if the bears are waking up! Anyhoo, we’ll stay another night before we move on to Glacier Bay. Raining today and cold (so much for spring), so a good day to stay put and stay in and do emails!”

We stayed two nights in Dundas Inlet….could easily stay a week and move around a bit….Sunday was a very dark, dreary, rainy day so not much to see….ugh!!

On Monday April 8 we left Dundas for the 25nm passage to Bartlett Cove in Glacier Bay NP. A bit adventurous as we rounded Point Carolus (SW corner entering Glacier Bay)…..hmmm, what are all those white caps up ahead….and then slam….full on 3-4′ headseas…..we had been doing 10-11 kts as the flood tide in Inian pass had started but it was still ebbing out of Glacier Bay so bam….and throw in a 20-25 kt SE wind (expected 15 kts) and we had wind against tide for about 10-15 min…..felt like we were back in the Aleutians:)))

Bartlett Cove is the headquarters for GP rangers…..we tied up to the dock for the night….allowed to stay for free until 5/1…..the Ranger station does not open until 5/1 but there are ~8 Rangers here year-around many doing maintenance and some opening up the office. We had nice chats all around. They all commented on the mild winter, how little snow is left and thought we might get to see some exciting wildlife over the next week before all the “tourists” show up…..just as in Pelican, we were the first “tourists” of the season although one Ranger thought there might be a few private boats in the Park….we shall see.

AND….ODG….there is wifi internet near the Ranger office but our Bullit antenna could get it on the boat….so we have been madly catching up on the news, emails and I even will get this blog posted with a few pictures.

Boat Stuff: Another 14-15 year old electronic instrument is starting to fail…first it was the IS-15 units, then the Autopilot, then last year the CA44 unit and now this year the Simrad RA52 radar…..arghhhhh…we just can’t seem to get to Seattle fast enough to replace all these aging electronics. As we left Dundas yesterday, Kathy wanted to run the radar as it was dark and misty….it started up ok but within minutes all the echo images went away. After spending a few hours troubleshooting and a few emails to the techs in Florida, Zack and Vince, it looks like we have a power supply issue from the display unit….it is producing 35volts and should produce 250volts….ugh. Not sure what we are gong to do yet…..the techs in Florida want us to send the display and “guts” of the antenna to them for repair….hmmm. Fortunately, we do have a back-up…..the CA44 unit has a radar and we fired it up yesterday and all seems to be working. So we might just have to run on this unit for the season….we shall see…..actually we don’t need radar that often as cruising inside SE Alaska is just done during the day so as long as we have good visibility, as in no fog or drizzle, we won’t need the radar that often!!

The Plan: We will be in Glacier Park for the next 5-6 days!!! Glaciers and wildlife!!!

Critter Stats:
Dungeness crab: 9
Prawns: 2 Spotted
Whales: 10 Humpbacks
Salmon: 0
Bears: 1
Wolves: 0
Otters: 100+, several with pups

Hope all is well!

John
Mystic Moon
Bartlett Cove Glacier Bay Alaska

PS: A few pictures on the website:
PSS: Kathy did find in one of her books a good explanation of some of the dying trees we have seen. We had mistakenly thought it was beetle kill….so, the rest of the story….published by Alaska Forestry in 2006:

Throughout the southern and western Tongass thousands of yellow-cedar trees are dying, and the grayish-brown trunks of these standing dead tress contrast with the surrounding hemlock and spruce. Cedar wood is rot-resistant, and these trees may remain standing for up to 100 years after they die.

The decline of yellow-cedar is not caused by disease or insects, and evidence indicates it began about 1890. Foresters suspect that gradual climate change is playing a role. Yellow-cedar tends to grow in wet, poorly drained soils and has shallow roots that are vulnerable to frost damage. Ideally, in mid-winter, a blanket of snow protects the roots systems from sub-freezing temperatures. But the onset of the cedar decline coincides with the beginning of a warming trend in Alaska. Warmer winters mean less insulating snow at lower elevations to protect the roots from a midwinter cold snap.

In some areas, stands of partially defoliated Sitka spruce are also visible, under attack by spruce aphids. (These aphids are different from the spruce bark beetle, which has killed millions of acres of spruce trees on the Kenai Peninsula in Southcentral Alaska). The aphids were introduced into the region in the early 1900’s, probably on some nursery tree stock, and have since naturalized in the region. Their populations are usually held in check by late spring frosts and cool wet weather. A string of mild winters has contributed to an increase in aphids in coastal areas of Southeast Alaska in recent years.

….And now we know the rest of the story!!!!!

Position: 58 27’19.67 N, 135 53’13.10 W
Course: Stopped.