Turnagain Arm_D34A5069
This last weekend found me in Anchorage for the shortest day of the year. My wife and I drove up to Portage at the head of Turnagain Arm.
This is taken looking down the arm at sunset. As Turnagain Arm has some of the highest tides in the world (upwards of 36 feet), the tides pick up ice and move it up the arm and leaves it when the tide recedes. In the big summer bore tides provide an opportunity for surfers to get a 50 mile ride as the incoming tide overruns the outgoing tide and makes a wave about 6 feet high that runs up the arm.
Turnagain gets it name from it's discovery. Captain Cook sent his first mate, William Bligh of Bounty fame, in their smaller sailing vessel to see if it was the Northwest Passage. As the wind almost always blows down the arm, they had to continuously tack to go against the wind...or Turn Again!
Turnagain Arm_D34A5069
This last weekend found me in Anchorage for the shortest day of the year. My wife and I drove up to Portage at the head of Turnagain Arm.
This is taken looking down the arm at sunset. As Turnagain Arm has some of the highest tides in the world (upwards of 36 feet), the tides pick up ice and move it up the arm and leaves it when the tide recedes. In the big summer bore tides provide an opportunity for surfers to get a 50 mile ride as the incoming tide overruns the outgoing tide and makes a wave about 6 feet high that runs up the arm.
Turnagain gets it name from it's discovery. Captain Cook sent his first mate, William Bligh of Bounty fame, in their smaller sailing vessel to see if it was the Northwest Passage. As the wind almost always blows down the arm, they had to continuously tack to go against the wind...or Turn Again!