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Our weather window has arrived and we will slip through a brief opening after waiting 10 days in Ketchikan. We feel a sense of sadness as we untie the lines at dawns first light. We begin our passage south and will leave the beauty of Alaska behind. As autumn approaches the message is brought by the howling winds, the pounding rain and the raging seas that the veil is dropping and the treasures that we have so enjoyed will become inaccessible behind it.
Salmon will spawn and die and then be reborn again. The wildlife that feasts upon their remains will return to their dens and nests nourished for the long winter ahead. Rivers of ice will thicken in the winter snow storms hopefully enough to sustain them in the coming seasons. Rain soaked residents will go on about their business in the land of the midnight sun and the winter darkness.
We will remember with delight what the “The Last Frontier” has given us. The thrill of seeing our first iceberg! We felt a spiritual experience of seeing nature’s wonders at their best in Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay. We witnessed iceberg sculptures carved by calving glaciers for our eyes only at that moment in time, never to be seen again. How can one forget seeing a stealth grey wolf in the wild pursuing an awkward young moose or the magnificence of a group of Humpback Whales bubble feeding off of Point Adolphus? We felt sheer and utter joy seeing the whimsical Tufted Puffins of St. Lazarius Island bobbing in the surf. We will never forget the multitude of Bald Eagles we saw soaring and diving in their mating rituals. Then there are the bears that we watched for hours, mothering and teaching their young. I was in awe when I saw my first Grizzly with her twin cubs feeding along a river choked with spawning salmon.
In our dreams we will sail along the fijords lined with snow capped peaks where no man has walked before and remember the remarkable warm and generous people we have met whom have chosen this land of extremes to live in.
Farewell Alaska and we hope to meet again!
Our Chart Plotter displays the US - Canadian Border.
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