Thursday, September 5, 2013
The drama of the mass whale feeding went on for hours last night. It
was a whale tail extravaganza in Frederick Sound! Long after we had gone to bed I heard a whale
breath very close by. I sat up and looked out and realized one was right
outside my window. I called Clay and there were 2. The bridge has some kind of
spotlights they turn on to see things at night and they were on. The 2
humpbacks were gliding along right beside the front half of the port side and
as the 2nd one raised its tail, I swear the right tip of the tail
grazed the side of the ship. They moved off about 6 feet and then another 10
feet but they were keeping pace with the ship. Finally they were 20 feet away
and dropping back, but it was incredible while they were so close. Of course it was too dark for photos of black whales in black water in the dark!
We sailed south down Frederick Sound and the water was crazy
rough. This is the downside of a very small unstabilized ship. We were tossing
about. About 3am, I woke up to the spotlights off the bow again and sat up and
looked out to a giant washing machine of bergie bits, the big ones that Lynette
described. I guess the bridge was trying to avoid having one tossed onto us! I
don’t know what glacier we were close enough to for all that large ice to be in
the channel. Just before dawn we entered Chatham Strait and things began to
calm down. By about 5am we had entered the mouth of Red Bluff Bay which had a
couple of jogs to make to get all the way inside. Once we reached the end where
there is a small salmon spawning river or stream, there was a brown bear or
grizzly feeding and hanging out there all through breakfast. We are on the back
side of Baranof Island from Sitka. We have passed and anchored just beyond a
perfect tall cascading waterfall. I am sitting out in the sun on the aft deck 3
and can hear the roar of and see it and a pair of bald eagles. We have had an
incredibly scenic trip. Today is beautifully bright and sunny.
The breakfast special today was French toast with house made
raspberry sauce. I had it with raspberry yogurt and bacon, delicious. Clay had
eggs, toast and bacon with orange juice. We were joined again by Lynette and
she pointed out a brown bear on the shore. We asked her about the small black and white
diving birds and she said they were murrelets in their winter plumage. She said
all summer in their mating plumage they were dull brown things that looked like
baked potatoes floating in the water. She said they had just recently changed
plumage for winter and now they are the more attractive black and white. They
are amazing at how long they can stay underwater and how deep and far they can
swim. When they fly, they swarm around like butterflies.
Clay said our room steward was on ice watch to get the minute the berg bit melted away in the lounge. It is 8:30am and it is gone. So, Clay is out of the running. The 2nd DIB group has just gone and we are next so I better go and see what I need to put on for that. I wore a pair of long underpants on a recommendation of an early DIBer, but that was overkill with jeans, a sweater and a fleece jacket under the lifevest. We had 15 on our DIB again. Same exact group. I was on first and made sure I sat on the starboard side by the tub and away from the engine. It was good. We saw a brown bear pull out and carry up the shore a salmon and feed on it. He kept staring right at us like he wished we’d go. Lynette explained that brown bears and grizzly bears are the same bear, but generally the brown bears that feed on fish along the shore are called brown and bears that live inland on mostly berries are called grizzlies.
Then we went to get a very close up call at the spectacular
waterfall. After Jon told us there would be no need for waterproof gear! I
think Adam was amusing himself with the close encounter. Clay thinks he got a
good photo of Adam as we left the waterfall. I got his email address in case we
did.
After we got back, we were still waiting for our room to be serviced and
got a chance to visit the bridge. The Captain was up there all alone and it was
a great 360 degree view. Lynette is about to give a presentation before lunch.
So, I’ll be back later with the lunch and dinner menus and a full report.
Lunch was white bean minestrone and Baranof Beef Dip with a
twice baked potato or strawberry chicken salad with carrot cake. We both had
soup and I had beef and Clay had the salad. I think we were both a little
disappointed. I had chocolate ice cream and Clay had carrot cake. We sat with
Ken & Beth, a pair of attorneys from Naples, FL where Beth is also a circuit
court judge.
Jon showed a video in the lounge about commercial salmon
fishing. I passed, but Clay went. Lynette’s talk and slide show was about the
environmental impact of the reproductive life cycle of Pacific salmon in the
wild. There are 5 types: chum, sockeye, king, coho, pink. All 5 have alternate
names but I am sure I can’t get them right. If I write them here, I’ll have to
look them up online later. OK. so here are the 2 names of the 5 types of salmon. Chum or dog. Sockeye or red. King or Chinook. Coho or silver. Pink or humpies.
Dinner is Pacific crab & corn soup and pear salad and
almond crusted bone-in pork chop or roasted garlic prawns or stuffed Portobello
mushroom.
I think I have an hour or so before we arrive at the salmon
hatchery and I haven’t had a good nap all trip. I hate to miss scenic sailing,
but the past hour or more has begged for some of those humpback whales with
nary a one in sight. So, nap time for me now.
The salmon hatchery trip was interesting, but not as
interesting as the bears making a meal of nearby salmon. Hidden Falls Hatchery is situated on a point of land near a small inlet caused by a hidden waterfall from Hidden Lake in the mountains above. Salmon can't spawn here because there is no river, but they can imprint on the fresh water falls and inlet when they are born here and return to spawn. All the hatchery has to do is let them in and harvest at spawning time, then incubate and wait for them to mature enough to release into the wild. There is no farming here. So, Hidden Falls. They really were hidden, behind a small island and then behind a stand of tall trees. Lynette said it was a sheer falls. Adam, who showed us around, said their freshwater supply was from the falls and from a surface water and deep water pipe running down from the same glacial lake, Hidden Lake, that supplies the falls. They also had a turbine installed in the water pipes to generate their own electricity. He said they only go into town, Sitka, about 4 times a year and they home school the kids that live there. It would be a strange life.
There was a mother and a cub nearby and
they fished from shore and swam in and fished some more. At one point we were
standing near the fish weir and a mink (or river otter) darted out from a hole at the bottom of the dam and
it sneaked along and across and down the other side. Clay did not get a photo
because he was too small and sneaky.
Clay had salad and prawns for dinner. I had salad and pork. I had cheesecake with
raspberry sauce and Clay had chocolate ice cream. We sat with a couple from
Beaumont, TX. After dinner Jon did a presentation on the life of humpback
whales.
During dinner we entered Kelp Bay and anchored in Middle
Arm. Tomorrow we will move to the windier Portage Arm because there are more
animals. We will have DIB tours in the morning there beginning at 7:45am. We
are in the 3rd group mustering at 8:30am. In the afternoon, we sail
to Lake Eva (or near there) for group hikes. We signed up for the medium-paced
group. We have 3 hours to hike and the pace will determine the distance. The
fast-paced group will go 1.9 miles to Lake Eva and turn around and come back in
3 hrs. The medium group is not expected to see the lake. The regal or
stately-paced group will get more flora talks as they stroll. Most are expected
to walk along an estuary and salmon stream. Social hour and dinner will be
later and that final dinner the will be the Captain’s. Jon also said the evening’s after dinner events
would be special and run later than usual. He suggested we start packing tonight since
we’ll have a long busy day tomorrow and they’ll want us off early the following
morning. I think we will save our packing for tomorrow or Saturday morning anyway.
It’s not a cruise until Clay has fallen. Just fallen down,
slipped, tripped, missed a stair and gone down. He slid down the last few
stairs right outside our room. He carpet burned his elbow and bruised it and
bruised his butt. There were witnesses, a passenger and our room steward. Clay
was asked if he was alright later by the safety officer, so there was a report.
I honestly can’t figure out what is up with Clay’s cruise falling. I can’t
think of any ship we’ve ever been on that he hasn’t fallen. It’s a miracle he hasn’t
really hurt himself. All I can do is ask to him to be more careful.
Photos
Photos
