Glacier Bay

Leaving Glacier Bay

Icy Strait, North of Hoonah, 5-AUG-2018 — I lay in bed for a while this morning after the alarm went off at 4. I wasn’t tired, but I thought it might be darker than we wanted to leave. Sunrise is around 4:50 in the morning these days.

It probably wasn’t, but I lay there anyway. About 4:20, I got up, used the head and found my clothes in the main cabin where I left them. Socks are always the problem. Without turning on the lights, dark socks in dark shadows are generally found aboard Caro Babbo by feel: either underfoot, or on hands and knees. Continue reading “Leaving Glacier Bay”

South Bight of North Fingers Bay, Glacier Bay, AK, 30-JUL-2018 — We’re in Glacier Bay! With good weather no less.

The Glacier Bay web information says that e-mails are given precedence over phone calls when trying to get a short notice reservation. On the advice of Megan, who works in the Glacier Bay Office, we sent an email and called. When Emily answered the phone, she told me that she didn’t have our email, unless my name was Brian, but why didn’t she just process a permit for us. Seven days would be fine.

The NOAA weather said 20 knots and three-foot seas. The PredictWind grib doesn’t give inside waters weather. A second grib said ten knots and a third said five knots. Five knots was the winner, more or less. We motored.

The weather has not been the Alaska we know. It has been sunny and warm with highs climbing into the 70s. There is a drought.
Continue reading “Glacier Bay”

Leaving Juneau

At 5 am, after I had showered and returned the key fob to the marina office, Jennifer and I cast off from the dock at Juneau’s Harris Harbor.

Caro Babbo had been on the dock 16 days, while Jennifer and I went off to Atlanta to get work started on some properties there. We are currently hands-on investors and are trying hard to transition to hands-off by selling our real estate investments there and giving the money to Roy who handles the rest of our money.

We arrived Juneau Sunday evening, shopped for groceries Monday, and cleaned house Tuesday before Erwin and Laura arrived. This is the third of four years that Erwin and Laura have joined us. Last year we didn’t feel we could have guests while we were dealing with Hilary’s needs.

We hit the gift shops yesterday and were treated like cruise boat tourists. It is a very different way to be treated. The sales people quickly qualify a prospect, deciding whether there might be a sale. Jennifer and I were in the way of people making their living.

Continue reading “Leaving Juneau”

Sorry to be out of touch.

Decatur, GA 14-JUL-2018 – Everyone, I’m sorry we’ve been out of touch.

We went a few weeks with no internet, except for the Iridium, which does terrible internet. I did not write posts to be posted when we received internet and still haven’t set up the facility to post by email. I don’t feel like a slug, but apparently have been.

It has been a busy time, divided amongst sailing, motoring, and surprisingly, engaging in social activities with people we’ve met before and people we’ve met for the first time. Continue reading “Sorry to be out of touch.”