Prince William Sound, 1996

Blackstone Glacier Prince William Sound, 1996

We took the boat out of Whittier into Prince William Sound several times during the summer of 1996. On one amazing visit to Blackstone Glacier (see photo), almost a third of the face of the glacier calved into the sea. Not long after we left the glacier, we discovered that our engine compartment was flooded with saltwater! We frantically bailed and headed back for repairs. It was, thankfully, not serious.

We then went to a large island, where we camped for the night. Dennis and I camped on shore and our friends Marv and Pat stayed in the boat. We woke early and looked out the door of the tent. The boat was fine, so we drifted back to sleep. The next time we looked, the boat was gone! Wind had risen and the anchor was dragging. We quickly broke camp, paddled out, pulled anchor, and fired up the motor.

We moved to what looked on the chart to be a very sheltered cove. But williwaws howled down off the mountains and we continued to drag two anchors. After several tries at setting them, they finally seemed to hold. We took a breath and relaxed for only a minute before we noticed that the dinghy had come untied and was drifting away! So it was back to pulling anchor, this time to chase the raft. The wind blew it onto the rocks just before we reached it, and it stuck (the tide was falling). Several attempts to hook it failed. It looked as though one of us would have to swim. Fortunately, the other boat anchored in the cove saw our predicament and offered to retrieve the raft for us.

By afternoon, the wind had died down. Dennis and Marv went fishing. The silver salmon had just arrived and had never seen a lure. They struck on nearly every cast. Unfortunately, our lines kept breaking, but we still ended up with a lot of fish.

The first order of business when we returned to town was to buy a better anchor!