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Saturday | July 16

The Capitol City of Juneau

“Find your place on the planet, dig in and take responsibility from there.” --Gary Snyder

"If I were to choose the sights, the sounds, the fragrances I most would want to see and hear and smell--among all the delights of the open world--on a final day on earth, I think I would choose these: the clear, ethereal song of a white-throated sparrow singing at dawn; the smell of pine trees in the heat of the noon; the lonely calling of Canada geese; the sight of a dragon-fly glinting in the sunshine; the voice of a hermit thrush far in a darkening woods at evening; and--most spiritual and moving of sights--the white cathedral of a cumulus cloud floating serenely in the blue of the sky.  Edwin Way Teale, "On a Final Day"

Disembarkation day!

It’s off to many different destinations around the country for our guests. It is very tempting to take them up on their offers to stay if ever we visit their hometowns. Juneau is bustling this morning as we dock alongside the pier adjacent to large cruise ships and a float plane dock

A local tells me that the recent U.S. Census had between 5 and 6,000 people moving out of the capital city of Juneau, a drop from around 31,000 to 25k over the last 10 years.

Crew work hard in anticipation of another group that will board in less than 8 hours.

Saturday | July 2

“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”  --Loren Eisely

 

The M/V Wilderness Discoverer lifts anchor and motors north through Gastineau Channel and docks beneath the rising peaks of Mount Roberts and Mount Juneau.  All (departing passenger) luggage is taken off of the vessel and carried up the dock ramp to the waiting buses.

 

A fond farewell takes place between crew and guests as the latter disembark to hug and shake hands with their favorite crew members on the dock.  Great memories and sad goodbyes!

 

The excitement for the morning is when I crashed a fully-loaded, heavy rolling cart on the ramp leading down to the pier.  Luckily none of the eggs in the 13-dozen box broke.

 

Note to self:  Do not use a cart that lacks hand brakes when the tide is low.  All of the carts but one has a hand brake.  Kristen helps me re-load and we get back to transporting stores from truck to ship.

All available hands on the ships crew prepare for a new group of passengers that will board the vessel at 16:30 hours.  All decks are swabbed, port holes washed, sheets changed, cabins and heads cleaned, dirty laundry and garbage hauled off ship, and galley stores stowed.

 

After our welcome aboard orientation meetings with the deck, engineering, hotel and expedition leads, the M/V Wilderness Discoverer pulls away from the Juneau dock and heads south in Gastineau Channel.  We spot some Humpback Whales feeding just outside of the Taku Inlet and enjoy the sunset on the outside decks.

 

Our destination for tomorrow will be the one of three spectacular fiords in the Tracy Arm—Fords Terror Wilderness, about 46 miles south of Juneau.  The area encompasses close to 700,000 acres of rugged Coast Range mountains bordering Holkham Bay, the spot where we will be anchoring tonight.

 

The three dramatic fiords are Endicott Arm, Fords Terror and Tracy Arm, all of which trend west-to-east through the Coast Mountain Range.  The three tidewater glaciers drop down from the Stikine Icefield and regularly calve ice bergs into the ocean.

 

Saturday | June 4th

Everybody is still talking about our marvelous voyage and the jaw-dropping tidewater glacier we saw yesterday in the Endicott Arm. We appreciate the value of small-ship cruising when we dock adjacent to one of the mammoth-sized cruise ships in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. While packing suitcases, guests take pictures of our maps and the wildlife list that I kept up-to-date during our week-long excursion.