Day 47 - Room to Swing; Rod

We left Funter Bay in a driving rain and two foot chop this morning shortly after 5am. If I've learned anything about Southeast Alaska though it's that if you don't like the weather, wait an hour or move a mile. With that in mind, I told Kay that when we got to the other side of Lynn Canal and up Icy Straight, we'd find light wind and glassy water. The state of the conditions at that moment though were rough enough that all she could do was laugh and say: "In your dreams..."

It took us a couple of hours to cross into Icy Straight, but the further we proceeded, the smoother it got, until my forecast proved true. The pendulum rarely stops swinging however. By the time we entered Glacier Bay it was raining again and the wind was rising. Thankfully we would soon be out of it and into the bay. But first we needed permission from Parks:

"Bartlett Cove, Bartlett Cove, Sailing Vessel Quijote, one-six over.
"Vessel calling Bartlett Cove, go one-two, over"
"Bartlett Cove, Sailing Vessel Quijote on one-two, over"

"Quijote, Bartlett Cove, go ahead."
"Bartlett Cove, Quijote, requesting park entry, we have a permit, over."
"Quijote, permission granted, proceed to the public dock for orientation at 14:00; stay center channel on entry, over."
"Roger that, Quijote monitoring one-six."
"Bartlett Cove monitoring one-six."

And with that, we were in. The orientation was nothing we hadn't already read and printed off their web site; most of it restrictions designed to protect wildlife. We were able to fill our water tank at the dock, fill our bellies at the lodge restaurant, and fill our inboxes with the park WIFI.

Our intended anchorage, the so called south bite of the north bay of Fingers Inlet is fifteen miles from Bartlett Cove, so it was after 7pm before the hook was finally set in the deepest anchorage of the trip so far: we let out 250 feet of chain in 70 feet of water. Thankfully we don't have to share the anchorage with anyone, so we have plenty of room to swing.