Flynn Cove – Riveted

Alaska Has No Clue How to Edit

Laura Domela — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 03:50:47 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska

One of the most important things I learned in art school was how to edit. So many students try to cram every idea they have and every technique they know into each piece they make, and one of the biggest challenges for professors is to get students to see that “less is more” and that too much stuff can overwhelm the audience. There’s an elegance in the simplicity of a piece of art that’s been pared down to its bare essence. Some of the most difficult things to design are the pieces that seem the most minimal, and most artists and designers struggle with this throughout their careers.

ALASKA TOTALLY DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO EDIT!

We woke up this Sunday morning in Flynn Cove with eagles flying overhead, otters swimming nearby, and salmon jumping out of the water all around the boat. While I was making breakfast (salmon cakes using the Coho we’d caught on our way into Flynn Cove last night, topped with an over easy egg and hollandaise sauce) Kevin grabbed the crappy little telescoping fishing rod that we used to throw in the kayak bag, and put a spoon on it and went out and reeled in a 5 pound pink salmon. Before breakfast. How ’bout that?

While we were heading out of the cove (past the humpback whale near the shore), we hooked another big Coho.

After a bit more trolling for salmon, we dropped the anchor in 120 feet of water to fish for halibut in a spot not too far from Flynn Cove (where we planned to spend another night). While that was going on and we were sipping a beer on the upper deck, across Icy Strait from the entrance to Glacier Bay National Park, two humpbacks were basically circling our boat, grazing at the surface the entire time we were fishing.

We came back into Flynn Cove to anchor for the evening and to cook up some fish tacos for dinner with the rockfish and salmon we caught today… (oh, did I forget to mention the rockfish? we also caught rockfish) …anyway, while we were heating the tortillas on the grill, some harbor porpoises came into the cove and swam around our boat for 45 minutes or so (of course, because, you know, that whole editing issue).

One of the many salmon jumping around the cove:

We ate our fish tacos (delicious) and then noticed that the sky was turning a beautiful blend of pastel pinks and blues, so we went out on the bow to watch the sunset.

Pretty, isn’t it? But no, Alaska can’t stop at a beautiful sunset, a tiny wooded island in the foreground, and the mountains of Glacier Bay behind. Alaska needs to add some humpbacks, tail- and fin-slapping, right there along with the F you sunset:

(You can click to see these two a little bigger if you want.)

(The only way I even got these shots is because I was ALREADY looking through my lens taking photos of the sunset.)

Here are the rest of the photos. I don’t even know what to say about them. “Ooooooh. Aaaaaaah. So pretty. Sunset. Barf. Whatever.”

And there’s no audio with these photos, but I’ll also tell you that there were wolves howling occasionally as we sat there on the bow of the boat, wondering where the hell we were where this was normal.

Oh, and then the moon rose, and I went up to the pilot house of the rocking boat with my zoom lens and managed to get this shot:

Let’s do this again tomorrow, Alaska!

Dundas Bay and Flynn Cove, AK

Laura Domela — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 02:54:38 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska

We left Pelican yesterday morning around 7:30am and headed toward Dundas Bay in Glacier Bay National Park. It was sprinkling a little bit, but the sky was clearing and we had a nice view of Brady Glacier underneath a cloud layer as we entered Cross Sound.

Cross Sound was literally swell-less…just a very slight chop. We made our way into Dundas Bay, an unrestricted part of Glacier Bay National Park that you don’t need a permit for. Since Glacier Bay National Park is about the size of Connecticut (well, most things are up here in Alaska) we decided to save it for another trip, since it's likely we won't have internet in there for a week or so, and we've already asked a lot of our team in the way covering for us while we explore all these remote areas with no internet). We headed for what was recommended as the best anchorage in Dundas Bay, the most NW arm with a view of Brady Glacier:

Yep, I think this’ll do.

Here's our track from Pelican to the Dundas Bay anchorage (36.2 nautical miles):

We took a dinghy excursion around to the mouth of the bay and saw tons of otters, sea lions, and lots of wood, but no bears.

More photos from the dinghy excursion around the bay:

The otters are so comic!

Oops. Sorry to interrupt, guys!

This one used the other one's head to "step up on" to get up higher for a better view. So rude!

Heading back toward Airship (teeny, teeny tiny white dot you probably can't see):

Later in the evening the clouds cleared again and gave us a nice view (as opposed to that earlier, crappier view):

We made dinner (a couple tenderloins and a salad) and watched a movie (Birdman) and got to bed again on the early side.

This morning the skies were blue as we left our anchorage in Dundas Bay, but there was a bit of fog once we got out of the bay. We took turns taking showers and manning the helm as we motored along and once out in Icy Strait the waters were calm and the skies and seas gorgeous silvers and grays:

Clearing to blue skies (and nothing was done to this photo…this is exactly how it looked in real life):

Jellyfish (also no color enhancement at all):

We anchored for a few hours and fished for halibut, but didn't get any into the boat. We had two hits, but lost them on the way up. We've read more about how to reel in halibut now so maybe next time!

We headed toward Adolphus Point (the place where we saw all the bubble-net feeding humpbacks):

Nearing the point we saw a feisty orca:

And then a few more humpbacks (more of those "too close" humpbacks):

This one had a little notch in his hump. Awwww.

We decided to anchor for the night in Flynn Cove instead of going to Hoonah.

Approaching Flynn Cove:

We have enough provisions (veggies, is really what we're talking about here) to last us another night or two so we thought this cove would be fun (since we already spent two nights in Hoonah) before heading into Juneau to refuel and re-provision. We trolled on our way into Flynn Cove and caught a nice coho salmon (27 inches, 7 lbs) just before our anchorage. Woohoo, dinner!

View from Airship:

Dinner was a(nother) risotto with peas and parmesan topped with a grilled coho fillet (two hours, line to dinner plate!). It was delicious!

Today's track (37 nautical miles). Dundas Bay (L) with Brady Glacier, to Flynn Cove on Chicagof Island (R):

Tomorrow: more fishing!