The link is to a couple excellent articles about the mega landslide & tsunami in Tracy Arm, SE Alaska this year on August 10. The unique 65 foot tour boat MV David B with its Captain & wife were anchored in near by Fords Terror, when this event occurred & along with describing how it affected them at their anchorage it also shares how shortly after the event, they checked out the damage in Tracy Arm.
Due to having cruised to both Tracy Arm & its tide water glaciers along with Fords Terror many times since 2004, along with seeing the David B at Fords Terror & anchoring by it there & other places in SE Alaska, this was extremely interesting to me. I hope to see for myself the changes this event created in Tracy Arm by cruising to there again this coming spring.
Jay and Jolee, thank you for linking to this article. It shows the dangers which face CDory owners as well as any mariners in the waters we all ply. Lake Powell also has its dangers--falling rocks, flash floods, High winds. Alaska is still a wild place. It is a miracle that no boats were anchored where they were lost due to the huge surge caused by the landslide. I always thought of Sawyer Glacier as an area where you could become trapped by the pack ice--as one boat was when we were there once. Of course they got out after a day--but what if.........
We all need to be vigilant where we anchor, and assess potential hazards. However, I never considered a huge wave caused by a local landside.
David B is an amazing boat--we aso had seen her a nunber of times. She is almost 100 years old and has the same Washington Iron Works engine when outfitted in 1929. Here is a link to the engine. Full 100 HP is developed at 300 RPM, It has to be manually oiled at 81 points before starting and every few hours. It is truely an industerial work of art.
I’ve been somewhat concerned about rock slide caused waves since our first trip into Fords Terror in 2004. On that trip going into the west arm, we could see where a large slide had come down in the resent past & the area of the mountain straight above looked unstable. On that time there, all went well until our poorly timed exit across the bar, which caused us a scare & loss of several thousand dollars of electronics. The next couple years there went without incident, but in 2012 parts of that mountain did come down again. It pays to heed Bob’s advice about being vigilant & for sure large waves from rock slides can occur. The below first link is to the Fords Terror part of the write up of our 2012 cruise & the 2nd a video of it.
