Moving On

Sunday June 9th, 2024

We left Juneau this morning at 6:00 am for a six hour cruise to Funter Bay. The first five hours were as predicted, calm seas with a few knots of wind. Along the way we encountered this fellow Nordic Tug “Kiahi” who left Glacier Bay this morning. We say from Marine Traffic that he docked for the night in Auke Bay.

We had a wonderful whale and eagle day. As we were rounding outside Point Retreat we saw multiple eagles dive bombing to the surface of the ocean. What’s going on. Watching closely we soon saw two humpback whales breach the water and dive back down, eagles gathering in for the left overs from the whales coming to the surface. WOW. Too fast to have pictures but great to see. Then, as we were entering Funter Bay we saw a pod of orcas, their blow hole sprays in full display. This was a good sign—read on for the “not so good” part of entering the bay.

As we entered into Lynn Canal the wind was coming from the south as predicted and we were at the very end of an outgoing tide, which resulted in what BuoyWeather described as a “slight chop.” All in all it was pretty much as predicted. However, as we proceeded south towards Funter Bay the wind and waves picked up dramatically during the final hour of our journey. We estimated at least five foot waves with very short periods. Fortunately we were taking the waves on the bow of the boat, which resulted in a bumpy but not overly uncomfortable journey. As we entered the bay the wind and waves diminished dramatically. We were glad to see there was plenty of available space at the floating dock. There are two small unoccupied boats here on the inside of the dock. We tied up on the outside of the dock and the water was generally calm. However, by 2:00 pm the wind and waves here in the bay picked up, presenting white caps inside the harbor. Needless to say, we are very glad to be tucked in to this protected harbor where we will spend the night and then determine if we move on to Swanson Harbor tomorrow. The “predictions” look good, but the “predictions” also didn’t pick up this recent weather change. Our boating friend Karen who has been experiencing quite a bit of this recent turbulent weather jokingly says, “Whatever the prediction is add 10 knots.” Sounds about right, ha,ha.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings. Oh by the way, it’s our 45th wedding anniversary. Last year this time we were in Foggy Bay, thankful that we made it through Cape Caution. This year we are in Funter Bay thankful we made it through Lynn Canal. There is a theme here: boating together keeps you together—it takes two to handle the wind, waves and the boat.