King crabs – too bad we’re not allowed to keep them
Our trip from Gambier Bay to Tracy Arm felt like a full Alaska experience, all packed into a single day.
Our morning check of the crab pot yielded no less than 13 King crabs, our first Kings of the trip. Non-residents of Alaska are only allowed to keep Dungeness or Tanner crab, so we returned the king crabs to the deep.
Grizzly looking for breakfast – glad we’re on board and not on the beach
Back at the boat, we saw our first brown bear on shore. Huge and slow-moving, he meandered across the low-tide mud flats and rocks eating clams. Just behind him were a pair of Sitka black-tail deer.
Sitka black-tail deer
After some relaxed bear viewing entertainment, we pulled up the anchor and motored out of our anchorage. We were immediately greeted by large humpback whale spouts, not more than 200 yards outside our cove.
Humpback
We headed north up Stephens Passage towards Tracy Arm in intermittent rain showers, a key feature of Alaska weather. As we approached our anchorage, we spotted the first glacier and navigated through our first icebergs of the trip.
It feels like we’re in Alaska!
Sumdum Glacier – Sumdum is apparently the Tlingit word for the sound that a glacier makes when it calves, and this glacier is named after the sound
First bergie bits of the trip
