Day 55; June 23: We headed back out to Chatham Strait this morning headed to Hoonah. The strait was calm and we had a few whale sightings in the distance. A cruise ship pasted us on the strait and was also headed for Hoonah. Once we got checked in, we took a ride to the cruise ship stores and to look around. It was a quick trip with no purchases. We went to a restaurant called Fisherman’s Daughter and had Halibut and Salmon deep fried bites.

Day 56; June 24: Left Hoonah today to get to Glacier Bay National Park. We needed to get there to attend the noon orientation that is required once a year. We slowed several times to watch whales but we made it with plenty of time to check out the loge and grounds. After orientation we headed north up the west arm to Blue Mouse Cove. We stopped multiple times to watch whales. It wasn’t a cloud free day but, in the distance, we could see majestic mountain peaks with the sun shining on them. Rain rolled in this evening.

Day 57; June 25: Low clouds, fog and ice are the summary of the day. We got a late start, about 9:30 this morning hoping the fog would burn off. We did see a few whales as we left the cove but none after that. Once we got to Tarr Inlet the ice got thick and the fog thickened up like pea soup. We tried to get through for a few miles but the fog ice combo was better than me today. We turned back and headed for Ried Inlet to anchor. Once we got to the mouth of the inlet, we discovered that ice had choked the mouth. I slowly picked our way through to find the spot we anchored in 23 was full of ice as well so we proceeded to the face of Ried Glacier. Half way up the inlet we found that there is no ice closer to the Glacier. We dropped the anchor deep to allow for the tides. The tides have been about 23 feet. Since we have been anchored it looks like the ice in the mouth of the inlet has gone out with the tide. Let’s hope this is the case this morning. Shortly after getting settled Carolyn spotted a bear by the glacier. He would eat for a little bit then lay down and then get up and eat some more. He repeated this a few times be for sauntering away. There were kayakers camped on the beach about 0.5 miles away but he didn’t make any movements toward them.

Day 58; June 26: We got up too much better-looking skies, there were still a lot of clouds but most were up high so we could see mountain peaks. As we exited the inlet the tide had indeed moved all the ice out of the mouth. We followed two cruise ships up toward the glaciers, one turned at Johns Hopkins and the other proceeded to Margarie Glacier. Once we got up Tarr Inlet the first ship was a bout done and the two ships swapped positions. We were able to check out the face of the glacier just fine even though the cruise ship was there as well. Then we went down to the Johns Hopkins Glacier Inlet hoping to get to the park closure boundary. The park closes JHG at times during the year so the seal pups won’t be disturbed after being born. The inlet had a lot of ice in it so we didn’t get to the deadline but what a view. The mountains are just amazing, much Misty Fjords but with a lot more snow and ice. After we were done with those sights we moved down the bay to North Fingers Cove to anchor for the night.

Day 59; June 27: We got up to cloudy, rainy grey skies, we got lucky yesterday that we could see what we did. We headed to South Marble Island hoping to catch some whales playing. On the way, in the distance, we saw a whale come out of the water vertically, a great sight. We saw a couple whales but they weren’t too active. It is time to leave the park and head back to Hoonah for the night. We ate at the second restaurant in town. They were doing a BBQ special for the high school wrestling team and the place was packed. We had tacos, beef brisket and pork belly burnt ends that all were excellent.

Day 60; June 28: The goal today was to get to Swanson Harbor without getting soaked. Todays forecast is 0.94 inches of rain. The trip going to Swanson is only 16 miles, one of our shortest days yet. Although, tomorrow’s trip is planned to be ten miles. We tied up to one of the two floats that are in the harbor. The floats are there to tie up to but they don’t connect to land. The other one has several crab pots on it and an aluminum boat tied up.