Ford’s Terror – Riveted

Taku, Dawes Glacier, and Ford’s Terror (again)

Laura Domela — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 22:33:36 +0000

We spent the past five days with our friends Todd & Loek, visiting from Holland. They flew into Juneau and we took them down to Taku Harbor, Tracy Arm Cove, down Endicott Arm to see Dawes Glacier, and then spent two nights in Ford’s Terror before returning to Juneau on Saturday.

Here are Todd and Kevin out surveying the icebergs in Tracy Arm Cove:

For the bourbon!

We saw one small brown bear in Tracy Arm Cove:

In the morning we headed down Endicott Arm to go check out Dawes Glacier before going into Ford’s Terror for two nights. There was a pretty thick layer of fog out in Stephens Passage, but none inside:

We got a couple good closeup views of humpbacks on our way in:

We made our way through quite a few icebergs and finally got a glimpse of Dawes Glacier, past this cruise ship. (That cruise ship is still about 3 miles from the glacier.)

The two tiny boats you can see (barely) at the base of the glacier…still a half mile from it.

We continued on past the cruise ship and picked our way through many, many icebergs, and finally made it to a nice clear spot where we could watch for calving for a bit. (We saw and heard some really dramatic calving, too!)

Looking back from our clear spot:

I spent some time on the bow with the boat hook, pushing some of the smaller bergs away.

Lots of seals on icebergs:

We left the glacier with enough time to make the high slack timing at Ford’s Terror. This Dawes Glacier area isn’t very accurate on the charts, either. Example A:

Yellow on the chart, upper left window, is supposed to be land. Notice where our boat is. On land, or in 86 feet of water? (I was on the bow fending off little icebergs while this was happening, or this image on the chart would have freaked me out a bit.)

More icebergs with cool texture:

This cliff had some great texture on it, up high:

Titanic iceberg:

We were a little early at Ford’s Terror so we waited for about 30 minutes and entered around 5:15pm with pretty much no current at all. We stopped and poked the nose of Airship into the big crevice with the tall tall waterfall and gave Todd and Loek a nice view in from the bow, and then headed to our anchorage in the west arm.

We saw a black bear and cub when we first got in, and the next day we watched this big black bear eat some grass and then head to the beach to scrape and munch on some barnacles.

The four of us took the dinghy out exploring for a couple hours. We went back to the tall waterfall in the crevice, but man is that thing hard to photograph (or video). I took a vertical video of it (because that’s the only way I could capture the whole thing, so just hush).

Another waterfall:

And another waterfall:

Lines/texture along the cliff face:

We kayaked in the afternoon and took the drone up for some aerial shots. (Still not tired of this incredible place.)

We were the only ones in Ford’s Terror on Thursday night and all of Friday day. On Friday evening, our friend Sam and his mom and brother came in at the later high slack and we all had dinner together on Sam’s boat (fun!). We left Ford’s Terror early on Saturday morning and headed for Juneau. The early high slack had us transiting the narrows around 5:30am…a little late, but with no drama at all.

Back in Juneau, Todd & Loek went into town to do a hike along the Gold Creek Flume Trail and then to do a little tourist shopping. We did some work and a couple boat maintenance things, and then met them in town for dinner at The Rookery Cafe (super yum!)

It was a great week! Airship is back in Juneau now and Kevin’s in Boston for a business trip. We’ll move on to some new scenery starting Friday!

The Third Day of Terror

Laura Domela — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 00:40:18 +0000

High slack on Sunday evening brought in our friend Sam (and some visiting family) on Safe Harbour, his Nordic Tug 37. We were the only two boats in Ford’s Terror for the next two nights and it was fantastic. In the morning Sam took his family out for a Terror Tour in his dinghy, and we took our tandem kayak out. The weather had improved quite a bit since yesterday.

After kayaking, we hung out a bit on Sam’s top deck and Sam and Kevin both flew their drones for some nice footage of our anchorage:

When it was getting close(ish) to low tide, Sam and Kevin and I went out in Sam’s (fast) dinghy to check out the shoals at the entrance. Wow, was THIS an educational trip. The current was still pretty hefty (ebbing at about 10 knots) when we got there. We did a little “testing” in the dinghy to see what the current felt like (safely). Here’s what the waves/overfalls looked like from the slightly calmer side of the entrance:

We pulled into a little notch just before the rapids, secured the dinghy, and went ashore.

Sam brought his drone to get some aerial shots during low tide…shoal research!

This was extremely educational, since Ford’s Terror is not very well charted (or charted at all, in most places). There are shoals that don’t show up on any charts, and charted rocks that aren’t even there. And in fact, the best path from the waterfall outside of Ford’s Terror to the narrow entrance into the fjord actually takes you directly over one of the charted “rocks.” Sam is writing a full article about Ford’s Terror for Slowboat, so I’ll just show you one quick shot from Sam’s drone, and then come back and link to that article when it’s ready. It’s gonna be good!

In Sam’s shot below, his drone is basically backed up to the tall waterfall, looking toward the narrow entrance. The yellow line is the recommended path from the waterfall to the narrows:

Here’s what the charts show. This is the Navionics vector chart, showing our path from the waterfall (bottom of chart) in through the narrows:

And this is all the info you get on the NOAA raster charts:

Not too helpful, is it?

Sam took the dinghy back out on his own while Kevin used Sam’s drone to get video of him going in and out of the narrows while it was still churning a bit.

We all hung out on shore watching the rapids slow so we could see when slack was, and on this day low slack occurred about an hour and thirty-five minutes after Juneau low slack.

Right about low slack now:

When we took the dinghy back out to head home, we first headed out to the tall waterfall and then came in on a direct line from the waterfall to mid-channel, using the depth sounder to find the lowest water (7.2 feet on a 1.2 ft low).

Bonus while we waited on shore watching the tide change: tidepools!

On our way back to the anchorage we got a nice closeup of one of the MANY waterfalls in here:

Looking into the east arm of Ford’s Terror at low tide, you can really see the rocks and shoals that stick out in the entrance:

(We did a little depth sounding here too and found about 3 feet…eeek!)

Back in the west arm we got a little more quality time with our grizz on shore while he moved some more rocks:

We did a group dinner tonight on Safe Harbour…so much fun, in such an amazing place. Can’t wait to be back!

Taku Harbor to Ford’s Terror

Laura Domela — Sat, 25 Jun 2016 23:40:52 +0000

What?? No crabs at all? (One male, but too small, and tons of kelp.) Boohoo. Taku has always come through in the past. (There are a ton of other traps in here though, so we definitely are late to the party this year.) Oh well. On to try for some halibut!

The seas were nice and calm this morning and we dropped halibut lines about an hour before slack tide and fished through it. We got nothing. Not even a nibble. Eventually we pulled the halibut lines and trolled a couple of spots for salmon, but got nothing there as well. We did see a big humpback hanging around the shore though.

Okay so, no fish today. We timed our arrival outside of Ford’s Terror for the time of high slack in Juneau (which today was 5:45pm). (You can only enter Ford’s Terror on a high slack tide, and high slack at Ford’s Terror is typically between 20 and 60 minutes after high slack in Juneau, depending on the size of the tide swing.)

When we arrived at the tall waterfall there was an UnCruise boat anchored in there (not going into Ford’s Terror) and the Discovery out of Juneau, a gorgeous wooden smallish passenger boat. (This is my kinda cruise, if we didn’t have our own boat.)

We binoc’d the entrance and there was definitely still a bit of current. Small icebergs were hauling ass around the corner and into Ford’s Terror. And you know what that means….as soon as you turn the corner into that narrow entrance, there will be icebergs.

The Discover headed in on the early side (to us) but seemed to do just fine. We waited another 5 minutes or so and made our way slowly between the shoals and still had about a knot or two of current with us (and the icebergs weren’t a problem). We went in 35 minutes after Juneau high slack (6:20pm) and I don’t think we saw less than 16 feet under our keel.

This place!! I’m (a) so glad to be back here, and (b) so glad we are planning to bring our friends here with us in just over a week. It’s still the most incredible anchorage ever, and worth the trouble and planning to get in here.

There was a sailboat already in here, so three boats total. We made dinner and played a game and called it a (rainy) night in Ford’s Terror.

When we woke up this morning we were the only boat in Ford’s Terror. Apparently the sailboat and the Discovery caught the early high slack (around 6am) this morning, so we had the entire Terror to ourselves all day. The next high slack will be around 7pm tonight, and I believe Sam and some visiting family will be coming in then.

So, Ford’s Terror is kind of a T. You come through the entrance channel, and then turn left at the end to anchor in the west arm. We’ve never actually been in the east arm. Last year with Tiffani and Deke (and our substandard outboard) we thought we’d go over there to explore a little bit but the tide was flooding and the current started pulling us in fast, so as we turned around and gunned it to get out of there, our engine died (like it did often). We had a short bit of panic thinking we might be stuck in there or have to portage our dinghy over the grassy bit of land that separated the east arm from everything else, but we made it out. Whew!

This morning when we woke up and realized that it was just after high slack tide, we decided another shot at the east arm was in order. We could explore all we wanted, and by the time we came out, the current would be in our favor! It was raining a little bit, so we each donned what we call “the Full Alaska” (Grundens pants/jackets, Xtratufs, and Atlas gloves) and headed out!

There are waterfalls everywhere here. I don’t think there is any one moment where there are less than four in view. It’s crazy.

To the far right of that low bit of grassy land in the shot above is where the narrow entrance is to the east arm. We made it fine (had about a knot of current against us) and once inside the water was icy blue and this arm is just as insanely beautiful as the west arm.

We wove our way in to the very end and then turned around to come home. (Through the narrowest part we maybe saw 3.5 knots of current boost.)

The scale of Ford’s Terror is hard to show in photos. It’s so easy to just get lost in it, visually…like vertigo, or a dream. You’re gliding along in the dinghy or a kayak on calm water, with mountains thousands of feet high surrounding you, water falling from everywhere, and reflections diving deep that look almost as detailed as the land above. It’s a crazy dizzy feeling of beauty and I just love it.

See that waterfall down there at the end of the west arm? See the tiny white dot to the left of the waterfall? That’s Airship.

We got back to the boat and I made us some breakfast (brunch by now, since we were out for almost 3 hours touring around). Oh yeah, we took both Torqeedo batteries with us. Our first battery almost did the entire trip…we had to swap ‘em out when we were only about a quarter mile from the boat.

While I cooked breakfast, I watched this black bear on shore.

Later on this afternoon we noticed a brown bear on shore and decided to take the dinghy for a closer look. One of the best things about the Torqeedo electric outboard is how quiet it is for watching wildlife. You could not have done what we did from such a close (but safe) distance in a gasoline outboard.

This guy looked like he noticed or smelled us once or twice, but he could not have cared less that we were there. He was just going about his business of moving gigantic rocks out of the way so he could eat the good grub underneath. The crows stayed nearby and seemed thankful for their super strong neighbor.

Dinner tonight is some grilled king salmon (that we caught!) with some risotto and roasted broccoli.

Leaving Ford’s Terror, and Humpbacks All Day

Laura Domela — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 15:55:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska

Quiet morning in Ford's Terror:

Also, another black bear on shore (taken from Airship):

We left Ford's Terror at the first high tide (about 20 minutes after high slack in Juneau, and there was just a little bit of current at the pinch point as we came out).

Fissures in the steep cliffs on our way out:

This water!

The narrow spot, looking pretty calm:

Deke had his GoPro on the bow and has been recording a bunch of video for time lapse…we'll be posting that later on after he has a chance to do some video editing.

Looking back at the "terror":

What a fabulous experience, being in this remote spot for two nights…definitely one of the highlights of this trip.

Back out in Endicott Arm we saw what looked like a very strange rock (one that didn't look like any other rocks around it on land)….turns out it was not a rock at all, but a dirty iceberg!

Glacier on our way back out into Stephens Passage:

We decided to go all the way to Kake today, for some internet and cell service. On the way to Kake as we approached Kupreanof Island, we started seeing humpbacks. We saw more humpbacks than we could even count. Deke put the GoPro out on the bow and got some good video while we hung out and watched them. (Just above Deke's hat…that's a whale.)

Mama and baby humpback were super cute.

We got to see our first breach (by the baby!) I wasn’t fast enough to get the full out-of-the-water shot, but you get the idea:

I tried to narrow down the photos and only keep the best ones, but there are still a lot of whale photos. So here you go, people who asked for more whale photos.

SO. MANY. HUMPBACKS!

Ford’s Terror, Endicott Arm

Laura Domela — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 01:57:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska

Ford’s Terror is a very steep and narrow fjord 60 miles southeast of Juneau in Alaska’s Inside Passage. You can only enter or exit the fjord at high slack tide when the rapids (and the 2-3 foot waterfall!) have turned calm and there is enough water covering the shallow area to let you pass.

The Ford’s Terror name comes from a naval crew member (Ford) who, in 1889, rowed a dinghy into the narrow entrance of the fjord at slack tide. The tide began to rise, forcing its way through the narrow entrance, and Ford was trapped by the turbulent current for the next six hours. It is mostly uncharted, but with local knowledge and some careful timing, getting in and out of this fjord is a calm and peaceful experience.

The Ford’s Terror “waiting room”:

We arrived early (for the evening high slack) and parked ourselves over by the tall waterfall and binoc’ed the entrance. Yep, white waters over there. We decided to fish for a bit to kill some time. (Caught nothin’.)

When it was time (about 20 minutes after high slack tide in Juneau), we pointed our stern at the waterfall and headed carefully across, between the two shoals toward the entrance. We watched our depths as we made it around the shallow bend in totally calm water. I took no photos because I was concentrating at the helm, but it was really a non-event. Once inside, it was like going back in time.

Photos alone cannot possibly capture the beauty and the feel of this place. One person said it was a bit like having Yosemite all to yourself. We decided that might be slighting Ford’s Terror a little bit.

We had the place to ourselves and decided to stay two nights in Ford’s Terror. We arrived on Tuesday night around 8pm and didn’t leave until high slack tide on Thursday morning. It was not enough time.

I made crab cakes on Wednesday morning and we did a little Crab Cake Benedict for breakfast:

Then, we saw black bears on the shore:

Kevin had flown the drone earlier while gathering footage for his Ford’s Terror video, so it was all ready to go and he was able to get some footage of the bear (drone in upper left of photo):

Then, three or four Dall’s porpoises came over and swam all around our boat for a while:

Kevin and Tiffani went out in the kayak to see if they’d come close, and they did. They came closer than in these photos and were swimming all around the kayak.

Here’s an additional photo, for scale. White sliver = kayak:

We went for a dinghy ride and saw two eagles…one in a nest and the other keeping watch:

Ford’s Terror was worth every bit of the anxiety about getting in and out of there that I’ve had for the last month. It’s funny when you hear about a place like this. Phrases like “favorite anchorage in SE Alaska” and “favorite anchorage in the world” were by far the two most common, but in so much of the literature about this place, the entrance and exit sound so ominous. It’s poorly charted, and extremely remote, and so the “what ifs” your brain can create about things that could go wrong are plentiful. Luckily, with some careful planning and just general good thinking and common sense, it’s not much of a thing to get in and out.

And as I said, as nice as these photos might be, they cannot possibly capture the scale of this place. Alaska is ALL about scale.

Here is Kevin’s spectacular video of Ford’s Terror, taken with his new DJI Inspire 1, which is proving to be worth every dime spent to get it, and get it to Ketchikan. Wow. Wow. Wow.