Our trip to Glacier Bay was fantastic and filled with lots of good fishing and jaw-dropping sights! We left Juneau on June 15 and headed down Gastineau Channel in light, misty rain. We stopped along the way to pull our crab pot and were pleased to get several Dungeness crab. Our passage to Flynn Cove, just outside of Hoonah, where we anchored for the night, was nice and calm.
We made our way to Bartlett Cove via Point Adolphus to do some whale watching. We were happy to see several Humpback whales in the area. Point Adolphus is the most reliable spot for seeing whales that we’ve ever experienced. We have never been disappointed with whale watching there.
After attending the Park Service orientation at Bartlett Cove, we made our way into Glacier Bay. We stopped to do some fishing and caught a couple of nice Halibut. It seems that fishing will not be a problem during this trip. At the end of a great day, we anchored for the evening in Fingers Bay.
On June 17 we had a leisurely breakfast and headed out of the harbor to do some more fishing. We had another great day of fishing and were delighted with the sizeable King Salmon and Halibut we caught. The weather was fair and the seas calm.
As we proceeded to Reed Inlet to anchor for the night we spotted a large brown bear on the beach. We all had our binoculars trained on the bear, and much to our delight, it walked right into the inlet ahead of us and swam across the opening. It reached the opposite shore and waded out of the water, only to be dive-bombed by the birds that resided there.
The following morning we woke to fog and the sound of water rushing from the nearby waterfalls. We waited for the fog to lift as we breakfasted. It finally cleared when we reached Lamplugh Glacier. Next we went to the face of Margerie Glacier where we saw lots of glacier calving activity. Just imagine the sight of a tremendous amount of glacier ice dumping into the water! It creates quite a wave when the ice hits the water. We spent the night in Blue Mouse Cove and dinned on crab cakes for dinner.
We awoke to another beautiful, calm, sunny day in Glacier Bay. We spent some more time fishing, and then went to observe the Sea Lion rookery, where we also found several Tufted Puffins. The young sea lions acted as sentinels and swam out to the boat to check us out. The huge bull sea lions were surrounded by many females and babies. It was a sight to behold.
That day the water was flat calm with plenty of beautiful sunshine. We sailed to the village of Hoonah, where we planned to spend the night. The final day of our trip was overcast with a slight chop. We spent much of the day running back to Juneau, where we ended our trip.
We had a wonderful trip, made new friends, and caught Halibut and Salmon that were a wonderful addition to the menu. We saw mountain goats, brown bear, sea lions, puffins, humpback whales and more. A good time was had by all.
The Captain and Crew of the M/V Susan Dawn.
