June 27-30 – 12 miles north of Juneau
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| A stunning view of Mendenthall Glacier coming into Auke Bay. |
Heading south down the Lynn Canal
to meet Rick & Judy, who were arriving in Juneau on June 30, we looked at
the charts and decided it made more sense to dock at Auke Bay, about 12 miles north of Juneau. This would save us more
than 30 miles going around Douglas Island from Juneau to head out toward Icy
Strait after they arrived.
Coming into Auke Bay we were
treated to a beautiful vista, with the Mendenthall Glacier towering above as a
backdrop. We were advised that larger boats could make reservations to secure
space at the transient dock – and it’s a good thing we did, the harbor was full.
We tied up on the outer dock
between Ocean Pacific, an 88-foot
trawler that was built in Oregon in 1984, and Shogun, a 122-foot motor yacht built by Flagship in 1993 and
recently retrofitted to look like new. We have seen Shogun a few times in the Coal Harbor Marina in front of our condo
in Vancouver, so it was fun to see it up close and personal at the docks. Ocean Pacific we learned was soon
leaving for Oregon to provision and then was planning on heading down to
Brazil. Boating in Alaska is not for the faint of heart, and inevitably we meet
interesting boaters who’ve made some impressive long-range cruises.
One of our favorite activities at
a new harbor is to “walk the docks” and peruse what always promises to be an
interesting collection of boats. We did so before dinner after we arrived in
Auke Bay, and beyond many hard-working fishing boats, found one that made us
snicker – BUTT UGLY – aptly named.
During the three days we spent at
Auke Bay, we were impressed by the constant flow of activity at the docks. We
saw carts going up and down the ramps filled with everything from engine oil to
boxes of Cheerios ... fisherman repairing nets on the docks next to their boats
... deck hands washing yachts ... charter boats coming in after a day of
touring cruise ship passengers around Lynn Canal ... fishing captains tinkering
with equipment at their stern ... boaters walking their dogs, every conceivable
breed from a pair of tiny Chihuahuas to a huge black Newfoundland ... and a
non-stop stream of boats entering and leaving the harbor at all hours of the
day and night. The Coast Guard cutter Liberty
is also home ported here.
The only blemish to an otherwise
interesting stay in Auke Bay was a big gouge we found on the bow of our boat
after returning from running errands ... a boat docked in front of us (after Shogun left) hit us on the way out of
the harbor and never reported it. We reported the accident of the harbormaster
at Auke Bay, but doubt anything will come of it.
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| Duck, duck, duck .... and no geese ... passing by us at dock in the harbor. |
In the meantime, Rick & Judy,
our NEW CREW, landed in Juneau early Sunday morning and after stowing their
gear and running to the store for some provisions, we pulled away from the
docks at 12:40 – and within an hour saw whales! Even more unheard of, it was 65
degrees and sunny.
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| Rick & Judy ... our new crew! |
We dropped anchor that afternoon
in Couverden Island Cove, just on
the other side of Swanson Harbor. The entrance was riddled with rocks along
both sides, making for tricky navigation ... but our Captain prevailed.
Roland and Rick put the tender in
and quickly set out to drop crab traps. It was a lovely secluded cove, but
unfortunately the flies outnumbered the crabs and we had only one female crab
the next morning (no, it wasn’t Judy
or me) which they threw back.
Pulled anchor at 11 a.m. Onward!
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