Tuesday July 7- departed Auke Bay around 9:30am.
We traveled 50 miles from Auke Bay, dropped anchor in Sawmill Bay.
We anchored here.
Craig is making dinner, a Smith family favorite meatloaf recipe, served with baked rice.
Wednesday July 8- we departed our anchorage at 8:30am. We have a permit to enter Glacier Bay!
During normal times, the application to obtain a permit to enter Glacier Bay had to be requested 60 days in advance of the day you wanted to enter. Because of Covid-19, it’s now 14 days. They (The National Park) limit the number of boats in the Bay on any given day, you are only allowed to stay for 7 days. Normally that would be 25 private vessels, 2 cruise ships, 3 tour boats and 6 charter vessels. Charters, tours and cruises are not operating now.
First stop, the visitor center. The yellow circles with anchors represent possible places we will anchor for the nights.
That’s so great to see Glacier bay without those obscene cruise ships!
Quite the rare event now. Enjoy
Warren m
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Yes it is! We didn’t see another boat for 3 days, encountering 6 in total! Would not have been as enjoyable with up to 30 boats in there.
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What is the temperature in Alaska? Looks like it won’t be too crowded in Glacier Bay, almost your own private getaway. Love the view of the mountains and the Bays💖
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The temperature range was high 40’s to mid 60’s. Only a handful boats were there.
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Mother Nature at her best !!!! Funny how unfortunate times can turn into such fortunate times……….. enjoy the beauty !!! Love taking the journey with you !!!!
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Yes indeed! Thanks Carissa and Kerry!
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Glacier Bay was just featured on an NPR piece this morning. The absence of the noisy cruise ship and visitors has changed the whale communication sounds picked up on the hydrophones on the floor of the bay! Enjoy the special sound rarely heard!
Cheers Warren
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Link to npr report
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/14/890716904/pandemic-reaches-all-parts-of-the-globe-including-underwater
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From the interview, I believe the biologist is the same person we met at outside at the visitor center. She told us that same information and more.
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It awesome, thanks for the NPR link.
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