In Pictures, Part 2 By MichaelAUKE BAY, AK

Since leaving Victoria two months ago, we've been overwhelmed by all we've seen and experienced. Now that we've reached our northern-most point at 59 degrees latitude, we're going to head south, back to Mexico. I thought this was a good time to pause and reflect the past two months chronologically, in the skads of pictures that never made it on to the blog. Check back tomorrow for the last group. Enjoy!

Continuing a theme of our trip, the Gorge Harbour resort was
empty when we arrived. It is just outside Desolation Sound and
would require reservations just a couple weeks after we were there.

This table in the laundry room at the Shearwater Marina shows how
much wood is available to folks up here, for cheap. Granted, it has a
crack, but the word is that in Southeast Alaska, quality lumber can be
had for just the milling cost. (Near Bella Bella, BC)

This bald eagle was in the tree outside the laundry room
pictured above. Bald eagles are everywhere, really. In our
family, we say, "eagles like seagulls" when we spot one.

This juvenile bald eagle swooped onto the dock in front of us
to claim a piece of fish thrown there by a fisherman. There were
several adults nearby, carrying on and hassling him, but they
wouldn't come down. The juveniles are much more bold.

Surprisingly, bald eagles don't sound tough. Their calls
are timid and sing-song.

This is a seabus. They are all over and are the cheap
way that people get from island to island. Kids take them
to school and people take them to get groceries.

Here we're waiting to board another seabus, this one in
in Bella Bella to return to Del Viento at anchor near
the Shearwater Marina.

This could have been a blog post, but never was. We met a
fascinating guy near Shearwater, Jean-Marc. He is a researcher
and jack-of-everything who lives on the 70-foot aluminum
sailboat he built himself on the dock in front of the houses
he built himself. They are amazing places, currently inhabited
by student volunteers, biologists. This is about half the greenhouse
area he has woven into his houses, where indoors and
outdoors blend and where fruit trees and every kind of
vegetable (and even cactus!) thrives in this low-light,
cold, wet place.

Windy in typical passage mode, looking for logs in the drizzle.
Though since reaching Alaska, the weather has been
great and we even did a lot more sailing.

Northward through narrow passes. Tides are extreme up here
and we consider currents to time every passage. A 15-knot
current is tough for a boat that does 6.5 knots on a good day.

Play time at anchorage, though this would be more fun in
warmer waters, when it could be coupled with jumping and
swimming.

Logs in the rain. Hit one and it might be the end of
our uninsured boat. Fortunately, once reaching
Alaska, the number of logs in the water decreased
dramatically--now we have ice to worry about.

Navigating underway.

I made eggs Florentine to enjoy a
sunny morning at anchor. More
days than we expected have been
like this since leaving Victoria.

Most of the towns and cities we've visited on this trip
are on islands. Here a barge makes it's way up the
Wrangell Narrows on the way to Petersburg, on
Mitkof Island, AK.