Alaska - A Month Long Adventure - Trip Report
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**chezp** · 07-08-2013, 01:09 PM

What a lovely day - and I love the shot at 9:30pm, that shows how light the evenings are.

**Colexis Mom** · 07-08-2013, 01:37 PM

What a great time in Bartlett Cove!

Great pics!

**Cam22** · 07-08-2013, 03:33 PM

This day sounded nicely relaxing!

It is so hard to believe that that picture was taking at 9:30 at night.

Russi01 · 07-09-2013, 12:05 PM

Your pictures are just amazing. I know that I have told you that before. But WOW!!! Can't believe that last picture was taken at 9:30 at night. SO much light out there! Can't wait for more.

Pris · 07-09-2013, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russi01

Your pictures are just amazing. I know that I have told you that before. But WOW!!! Can't believe that last picture was taken at 9:30 at night. SO much light out there! Can't wait for more.

I know what you mean about the brightness at night. When we were in Fairbanks (on June 8) it was that bright at around 10:30-11 at night. It never really got dark, just dusky for a few hours. My signature picture was taken at 4 am and you can see the sun was rising.

rlb38 · 07-09-2013, 03:54 PM

Love the shafts of sunlight streaming down in the kayak shot. Interesting (yet painful) fact about the otter's nose.

shazza · 07-09-2013, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pris

Glacier Bay looks like a great place to visit. We did Hubbard Glacier on our cruise, and, although it was beautiful, I really didn't think it was as enjoyable to see as Sawyer and, from your photos, Glacier Bay. Your next update looks intriguing!!

I would like to see Hubbard Glacier as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lauriep

What a lovely, quiet day, with moments of excitement! Lou definitely has an affinity for bears-- I love the look on his face as he spots one! I never saw any mountain goats, although I suspect they were there, but hard to make out. I love your teaser!

Lou is very good at spotting wildlife. It was a quiet, but enjoyable day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chezp

What a lovely day - and I love the shot at 9:30pm, that shows how light the evenings are.

It is interesting how it stays light for so long. On the earlier weeks, we got more darkness, but as we approached the Solstice, it sure did stay light a long time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

What a great time in Bartlett Cove!

Great pics!

Thanks, Marnie.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cam22

This day sounded nicely relaxing!

It is so hard to believe that that picture was taking at 9:30 at night.

I know - but can you imagine how it is in the winter, when it gets dark so soon?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russi01

Your pictures are just amazing. I know that I have told you that before. But WOW!!! Can't believe that last picture was taken at 9:30 at night. SO much light out there! Can't wait for more.

Thanks, Deb.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pris

I know what you mean about the brightness at night. When we were in Fairbanks (on June 8) it was that bright at around 10:30-11 at night. It never really got dark, just dusky for a few hours. My signature picture was taken at 4 am and you can see the sun was rising.

Lou joked that I could stay up for sunset, have a cup of coffee, and then get the sunrise photos

Quote:

Originally Posted by rlb38

Love the shafts of sunlight streaming down in the kayak shot. Interesting (yet painful) fact about the otter's nose.

Thanks, Roberta. I found out about the otter's painful habits when I googled "Pink Nose Sea Otter." I was worried there might be some type of disease like the Tasmanian Devil, but it's just a normal after effect.

shazza · 07-09-2013, 08:47 PM

June 5th: Day 5 of Week No. 3 (fourth full day of cruising)

There wasn't much to see when I got up at 6am. It was drizzly and cloudy. The menu looked good:

Even though it was raining slightly, I went on my scheduled Skiff Tour. This was the worst tour we'd had in all 3 weeks, and not because of the weather. We again had the inexperienced skiff driver (I know everyone has to learn ...), and we may have missed some opportunities. At one point, we saw at least 3 bears on shore, but we weren't able to get close at all. I did get this photo, but it's from a long distance, so you can tell it's a bear, but that is about it:

I was disappointed. If I had any complaints about this third week, it was that they seemed to treat the Skiff Rides like a second class activity. And, without even having Ranger Fay with us, the rides in general just weren't as good as they were on the other boat. (Or maybe we were just exceptionally lucky with our guides and drivers the previous two weeks.)

OK, no more whining. The day was about to get a WHOLE WHALE of a lot better. But, first, we had lunch, and then we had to slow down to pick up some hitch hikers. Two groups of kayakers went out for a long row and a rainy hike - they took boxed lunches with them, and we picked them up on our way to Icy Strait at about 2pm:

Just after 4PM, in Icy Strait, we spotted our first humpback whales. It was still drizzling some, and the conditions weren't perfect for photos, but who cares - it's Whale Time!

This guy might be Ernie's cousin, as he was logging around, and then even did some fin slapping:

We watched a number of whales - some way out in the distance, and a few closer by. Most of you following along already know that the markings on the humpback's fluke are like fingerprints, and are used to identify individual whales:

At 5pm, the Orcas showed up. As best as we could tell, there were 5 (maybe 6) and one baby:

If you look closely, you'll see a couple of Sea Lions on that buoy - they didn't seem at all concerned as the Killer Whales circled them:

The Orcas didn't do much exciting, just swam around, occasionally turning on their side a bit and blowing:

I didn't need a show - it was fascinating watching them:

The youngster did poke his cute little head out of the water once:

We watched the Orcas for 45 minutes or so, and then we noticed the Kittiwakes raising quite a ruckus. There were at least 30 of them in front of the boat - here is a pair of them:

It turned out they were being pestered by a Parasitic Jaeger - one of the guides was explaining how the Jaeger waits until the Kittiwake (or other bird) snags a fish, and then goes in for the attack - the object being to make the other bird drop the fish so it can get it:

(And, yes, that is a lucky shot - I had no idea the Kittiwake had a fish, I was just tracking the Jaeger as it was chasing the Kittiwake)

We also saw the National Geographic Sea Lion - a vessel similar in size to ours. We had considered cruising with them, but preferred the pricing and itinerary options for the Un-Cruise Adventure Tours.

Pretty cool to see all those whales, right? But, we aren't done yet (just skip the rest of this is you are tired of whale photos

). At 6pm, we started seeing LOTS of whales, and not all that far from us:

We were seeing lots of fluke action, but they were sticking together, and weren't going down for long dives:

It was awesome to see two flukes at once:

This is the point where one of the guys said, "We are just a crouton in a bowl of Whale Soup." While we were focused on the whales closest to the boat, they were all around us, some much farther out, but we could see the spouts.

The fact that this group was all circling together, and we could see some bubbles, made us think we might get lucky enough to see some Bubble Net Feeding; we didn't see that, but they didn't disappoint us. Watching them slowly swim, dive, and show their flukes was mesmerizing - almost like a whale ballet.

How

was that? Synchronized fluking. And, I was so lucky that the 3 tails just fit in my frame, as I was too stunned to even think about adjusting any camera settings.

It just kept going on ... and on ...

A different type of triple:

I went in for a quick bite of dinner, but a number of us were soon back out on deck. As I was scanning the horizon, looking for more action, something caught my eye:

Holy Moly Batman

I was excited - it was a breach. For reference, this was taken at 370mm, which would be about 75% of the zoom on a camera like the Canon HS260. I've cropped the following captures, to show more of the whale:

A bunch of us stayed out until 9:30pm, still spotting whales, even after it was too dark to take photos.

During the last hour, we did see the Island Princess go past us. They would have had a fairly good view of some of the humpbacks, but there didn't seem to be many people out on deck or their balconies. We decided the movie they were watching was the new Oz film:

To say it was a good day might be an understatement

In a stupor from the afternoon and evening entertainment, we made our way to our cabin for a good night's sleep.

lauriep · 07-10-2013, 05:03 AM

Seriously?? Since I'm stunned by your whale photos, I can't even imagine what it must have been like to be there. Just phenomenal. That circling really did look like the beginning of bubble-net feeding. So many spectacular shots. The triple-fluke! The "other triple"! The baby orca's face! All the spouts! The BREACH! And that action shot of the bird action is pretty darn amazing, too. YIKES!

Russi01 · 07-10-2013, 08:24 AM

Awesome picture of the whale out of water!! Great shot!

Pris · 07-10-2013, 09:07 AM

Fantastic whale shots! We, too, had an whale of a day on our trip. They are amazing animals! We were blessed with at least 3 sightings of bubble net feeding, but only one breech of an Orca. No pictures of that, though.