July 3 – Bartlett Cove & South Fingers Bay
Glacier Bay National Park is unlike any other national park in the
U.S.
Until the 1800s, most of it was
covered in ice, but by 1879 when explorer John Muir made his first visit to the
area, close to 50 miles of ice had retreated and as early as the 1890s the bay
was already a tourist destination, with steamboats touring passengers through
the bay in summer months on a regular basis.
Today Glacier Bay is home to 16
tidal glaciers, most of which are slowly to rapidly receding, with the exception
of Johns Hopkins, which was named after the university that years ago sponsored
an expedition to the glacier. It is the only glacier in the Bay that is
steadily advancing, often making it hard to visit due to the outflow of ice.
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| A shy Puffin ... very hard to photograph these guys! |
This was our second visit to
Glacier Bay, so we knew the routine. Sixty days in advance you need to fax in
an application in hopes of obtaining one of the 12 long-term permits they offer
to the park. Only 25 pleasure boats and two cruise ships are allowed in the
park (which consists of 3.3 million acres) on any given day; 48 hours in
advance they also offer 13 short-tem permits, which are even more difficult to
get, so better to plan ahead. You must call in 48 hours in advance to confirm
you will be arriving at the time of your reservation...
The Park’s rules and regulations
are onerous, and throughout our travels in the Southeast we heard many boaters
complain about them ...You can’t enter the park without a permit ... Once you
enter, you must report first to Bartlett
Cove and attend a park initiation class ... But you can’t keep your boat on
the dock for more than 3 hours ... At the class you learn that many of the
glaciers are closed at certain times due to wildlife, other areas are not open
to motorized vehicles, other areas have noise restrictions, in whale areas you
must not exceed 12 knots and stay 1 mile off shore, on the islands with sea
lions you must stay 50 yards away from shore ... the list goes on. And you
should listen to your radio every morning at 8:30 for the “Park Report” to see
if any of these rules have changed. Clearly ... the scientists are running the
show in!
Nonetheless, our feeling is the
rules are protecting an amazing environment ... and if those rules ensure
Glacier Bay’s health for generations to come ... so be it. Engelenbak won’t go faster than 8 knots anyway ;)
Beyond that, the wildlife is worth
the extra measures of protection. Leaving Bartlett Cove en route to our anchorage in
Fingers Bay, no sooner had we passed a group of puffins then we saw several sea
otters swimming in the water on their backs, including a mama carrying her pup.
Sea otters are cute, playful,
interesting creatures ... they have a secret side pouch where they store stones
for cracking clam and crab shells on their stomachs to eat while floating on their
backs. And they ARE voracious eaters, consuming 25-30 percent of their body
weight each day (which some say is ruining crabbing in Glacier Bay and other
parts of Alaska) ... but the good news is they also are beginning to regain in
population. Hunted almost to extinction by early Russian traders, they were sold
for their fur -- having the thickest fur of any mammal, one million hairs per
square inch – at $2500 per sea otter in today’s dollars.
After a fairly long day of
cruising, we set anchor at 6:10 in the South
Arm of Fingers Bay ... and it finally stopped raining.
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