ICEBERGS SURROUND US. They’re as clear as glass and as brilliant as turquoise gemstones. It’s a sunny summer day in Alaska’s Tracy Arm, but the air holds a chill. Suddenly, an explosive blast rips through the South Sawyer tidewater glacier, and a house-size hunk of ice thunders down the face, creating a sizable wave.
My partner, Bill Watson—a ski boat handler who knows a thing or two about waves—watches transfixed alongside me in our 10-foot inflatable as the wave approaches from a mile or so away. The rise and fall of seals relaxing on broken-off bergy bits mark the wave’s progress. The 15-foot wave slips under them, and then us, making its way down the long, narrow fjord to where we left our mothership, a Nordic Tug 37.
It’s a moment as memorable as any on our 10-week trip aboard Osprey, which we chartered through Bellingham Yacht Charters in Washington state. Modern electronics, excellent cruising guides and close attention to weather make the round-trip itinerary to Alaska far easier and safer than my voyages here in the early 1990s. Back then, when I was professional crew on sail-training boats, passages were often rushed with few opportunities to actually cruise. With Osprey, we could take a leisurely pace.
Osprey departed Bellingham in late May and became home to Brian Cantwell, who served as crew for the entire round-trip voyage to Juneau. Sailmaker Carol Hasse (like the rest of us, retired) was aboard for the initial two weeks.
With its new sights, sounds, scents and occasional adrenaline
