Day 30 ~ West Arm of Ford’s Terror to Tracy Arm Cove

We all got to sleep thanks to the tides and currents at the entrance of Ford’s Rapids that we had to wait on. When Dad got up he glanced out the port hole in the master cabin and was more than a bit surprised that we had a fast moving creek racing past the port side of the boat. He promptly went up to the cockpit to inspect the situation. He found that the stern anchor was holding well and the flow of the creek had pushed the boat out to the maximum length of the line. The tide was so low that the primary creek which we saw when we first arrived was then split into two arms. The stern anchor was embedded in one arm of the creek and the beach between them was about 20 feet from the stern of the boat. The fathometer indicated that we were in 54 feet of water. Dad contemplated pulling in the chain to move us forward and then decided against it because we were sleeping. He spent the rest of the morning working on a Sudoku puzzle monitoring the situation.

We had coffee cake for breakfast before we pulled anchor and left our peaceful cove, which definitely ended up as one our most favorite places. We slowly approached the rapids at Fords Terror waiting for the currents to subside. We wanted to capture our exit so I got in the dinghy and fought the current to the other side while they waited. I was charging along when Dad jumped on the radio and suggested that I give it more throttle because I was going backwards.

Once on the other side, I beached the boat and poised myself to video the big boat. Dad and Wendy waited about 30 minutes and then charged forward. As they came out it looked like they were running ashore. Then as they charged past me, I got great footage of the narrow passage, the boat and the water fall.

We weaved our way through the bergie bits to the head of Endicott Arm and then we crossed over the Tracy Arm bar into Tracy Arm Cove where we set anchor and had cheese, crackers and cocktails.

The cove was wildly spectacular!  While hanging on the hook we could see whales spouting, bergs floating by and cruise ships leaving after spending the time up at the glaciers. Wendy really wanted to get up close and personal with a berg, so after three attempts (the rain kept coming down) we finally headed towards a beautiful berg. Our goal was to secure some cocktail ice and Wendy wanted to kiss a berg. We fished a small clear bergie bit out of the water and then circled the berg three times before we decided that it was too unstable to touch.

Our evening was spent creating a detailed float plan for our trek up to the glacier. We are all excited about the next day as it would be the first time that we have actually seen a glacier up close. After dinner we finally had a movie night only we didn’t pick one of the 75 that we brought. Instead, we watched some of the videos that we had taken including the one where we were exiting Fords Terror earlier in the morning. There has been so much to soak in that it was fun to watch and relive some of the moments that we had captured.