Postcard from Alaska – Watery Sunset

The day ends late during an Alaskan summer, there are only a few hours of darkness each night. Sunset and sunrise last a long time, hours of low light in which the world becomes rich with color. Keep a camera handy at all times, you never know what you will see, what spectacular vista will greet the eye, or when an opportunity for a photo will present.

Watery Sunset
Sun setting over Saginaw Channel, near Juneau, Alaska

Postcard from Alaska – Sea Lice

There are reasons why I avoid sushi. I have cut apart too many deep sea fish, I have seen what is to be found on and in those fish. I really want those things to be well and truly dead before I consume them. Cook it!

Sea Lice
Sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) on fresh caught pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)

Postcard from Alaska – At the Helm

The boat is going from sunrise to sunset every day. In Alaska during midsummer this makes for very long days indeed. Everyone gets a chance to man the helm, taking their turn at the wheel. Boat policy is two people on the bridge at all times, one at the wheel and the other just to keep watch, a second set of eyes for safety. No problem getting volunteers, the best view is from the bridge.

At The Helm
Deborah Cooper at the wheel of the Chrisara, with Joy keeping her company

Postcard from Alaska – Iceberg

Ice dots the water across the entry, large bergs lie beached near the shore stranded between tides. We pick are way carefully though the crowd, many of the chunks larger that our vessel. The bar across the entry to Tracy Arm is betrayed by a long line of icebergs grounded to reveal the shallow water beneath. Here the history of a thousand winters lies shattered about the landscape like broken glass.

Iceberg
Icebergs in the entrance to Tracy Arm, Alaska

Postcard from Alaska – Snyder Mercantile

A store from another time… A clapboard sided box just above the harbor. A small room with shelves crammed with everything you could need… Baking soda, potato chips, paper towels, beer and engine oil just over from fishing tackle and charcoal. The cash register is a 1920’s model ordered new from a catalog and shipped across a continent. The front window displays the work of local artists and a rack of postcards for the visitors that wander through in the summer. A hand written sign in the window warns of a bear seen in town a few nights previous. …A store from another time.

Snyder Mercantile
Shopping at the Snyder Mercantile in Tenakee Springs, Alaska

Postcard from Alaska – USCG Anthony Petit

The U.S. Coast Guard is tasked with maintaining the many critical navigational aids throughout the waterways of Alaska. Tracy Arm is entered across a narrow gap in a large bar, probably on old glacial moraine across the mouth of the fjord. The channel is marked by two buoys, one had been missing for a few days, ripped from its mooring by the impressive tides that surge across the bar. The buoy was back in place when we arrived, replaced by the crew of the USCG Anthony Petit, a Coast Guard buoy tender.

Anthony Petit
The U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender Anthony Petit in Tracy Arm.