Heading up Lynn Canal

Laura Domela — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 06:27:43 +0000

Kevin returned from Boston yesterday late afternoon and we just chilled on Airship for the evening at the dock in Juneau. I made us some dinner (chicken breast with truffled risotto and roasted brussels sprouts). This morning we still hadn’t decided if we wanted to leave Juneau today or wait until tomorrow morning. We knew we needed to go get a few groceries, but we also had talked about going to the new Alaska State Museum. They were rebuilding it last year, but apparently the new one opened a month ago — (a fact that I just learned two days ago…we’ve walked past it several times and it still looked closed. I really think they need a big banner out front or something) … anyway, it’d be a shame to miss it. At some point I said “Okay, let’s just go get groceries and get outta here” (meaning, let’s skip the museum until next time). But then the museum was so close to the grocery store, we ended up going over to check it out and we’re so glad we did. Wow, what a great museum! They’ve got an exhibition up right now (through September 5) called Living Alaska: A Decade of Collecting Contemporary Art for Alaska Museums. This is a very cool exhibit and highly recommended! The whole museum is wonderful…the history (both native and western) is organized so well. Anyway, great detour!

This was our favorite piece, by artist/carver Donald Varnell, entitled Logic Board, 2006 (detail shot on the right). The label didn’t show the size, but it’s maybe 3 feet wide by 6 feet tall. We both just loved it. The traditional shapes mixed with partially drawn in lines and scribbles and more modern imagery…it was very cool.

After the museum, we got groceries and headed back to Airship. We fueled up and then headed out around Douglas Island aiming for Bridget Cove. Our ETA was 8:15pm or so, and we figured as long as Lynn Canal was nice and calm we’d make as many miles as we could.

Got a nice view of Eagle and Herbert Glaciers on our way past Eagle River:

Bridget Cove is on the east side of Lynn Canal, and it’s a beautiful anchorage. I stuck some potatoes in the oven an hour or so before we arrived, and then after we anchored, Kevin grilled some of our recently-caught halibut while I put together a caesar salad. We dropped a crab pot that we’ll grab in the morning before we head out. Our new view:

We’ll leave fairly early for Haines and maybe meet up with Sam up there. (Haines will be our first SE Alaska town that has roads that lead to other places. It’s also where my mom, my little brother, and I started the ferry part of our trek from Anchorage to Southern California when I was 5…so that’s kinda cool.) Haines is 39 nautical miles from Bridget Cove and the forecast for Northern Lynn Canal is pretty tame for tomorrow:

LIGHT WINDS BECOMING S 15 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS
BUILDING TO 3 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. DRIZZLE IN THE MORNING.

Bridget Cove – Riveted

Heading up Lynn Canal