July 1, 2017

Happy Canada Day!

It rained pretty hard last night but took a break this morning. Shortly before we were to leave, the wind came up inside the cove which was weird. Not much, just 5kts, but we had seen nothing other than 0.4 so far. When we got out of the cove it started building up like it was some sort of storm and we had 20kts of wind. Whaaaa? Then we got out into the passage a little bit and it all went away, back to 2kts or something. We think it may have been more outflow from the bay further south.

We had an uneventful ride up to Tracy Arm Cove. There were icebergs out in Stephens Passage as we made our way into Tracy Arm. When we arrived in the cove, we were disposed to stay to the West, because apparently there is a bar into the cove and the big bergs are supposed to get caught on the bar and not go there. But of course there was a big berg on the west side and and nice calm spot on the East side, so we went there instead.

We had coffee and lunch and then relaxed in the cabin. It varied between sprinkling and pouring rain and Greg kept thinking he should go out in the dingy and do something, but it never did happen. We were visited by two young Forest Rangers to came over to say Hello and make sure we were doing OK and did we need anything. They were very friendly and talked about what they were doing there. They had just gone for a walk in "the nook" and had been collecting trash, and now they were visiting each of the boats that were anchored in the cove. They were on their way back to Harbor Island which is where their base camp is. Apparently, they also sometimes camp at the head of the arm where the glacier is as part of their job. One mentioned how loud the glacier is when you are camping. She also mentioned that there was a lot of ice and that it would be difficult to go past Sawyer Island.

Then about 4:00pm, the wind came up and whipped up the cove. It was coming from the south west-isa and so the boat was facing into it, but the chop was coming into the cove so we were getting it broadside and the boat was rockin'. Probably should have anchored on the West side of the cove, but it was hard to tell for sure. It was *not* fun, and quite uncomfortable and of course, not in the forecast. Bella was not happy. Fortunately, our anchor was set well and so we just waited it out. It calmed down around 8:30 or so and so we had a quiet night.