Photos
Friday, September 6, 2013
It was a quiet night anchored in Middle Arm of Kelp Bay. We were awoken
at 5am by our neighbors’ alarm clock. It was fine because it meant we were
already dressed and out on deck when we got an earlier than scheduled wake up announcement of a lot of whales.
Evidently the crew or bridge saw a breaching whale. It was beautiful and
perfectly calm and quiet and there were a lot of whales spouting and you could
hear them, but no more breaching sadly. It was a nice wake up after a quiet
calm night. The whales were at the intersection of Middle Arm and South Arm of
Kelp Bay. Based on our experience coming out of Hobart Bay into Frederick Sound, I think humpback whales must really like intersections. Anyway, it was a magical morning so quiet except for the sounds of the whales. And there were so many of them all around us!
Breakfast was at 6:45am and our muster was at 8:30am, so we
had a nice leisurely breakfast with Margaret from Australia. She was in the
first DIB group and all they saw was eagles. We were in the 2nd DIB
group and all we saw was eagles, sea birds and salmon jumping. We rode past a
small spawning stream but it was low tide and the salmon can’t get in yet. Very
disappointed in Portage Arm not to have a morning bear, we’ve gotten spoiled.
Lunch menu is chicken & wild rice soup. Dungeness crab
melt sandwich, turkey club wrap, or always available hamburger, veggie burger
or salad.
Dinner menu is sweet potato soup, steakhouse salad, crab
stuffed halibut or prime rib or baked tortellini or always available sirloin,
chicken breast, salad or baked potato.
As we began our sail out of Portage Arm, I went up on the
bridge to find the captain all alone. He welcomed me as his first visitor of
the day. I think he had gotten lonely. His name is Paul Figuenick. He said
Admiralty Dream was built in 1979. He soon let Ken, the master chief, drive the
boat. As we neared the intersection of 2 arms again, we saw a bunch of humpback
whales and orca together. We followed along with one orca on the port side almost
all the way out to Chatham Strait. Ken, who was driving saw the humpbacks
first, but I spotted the orca first. Lynette came up to the bridge and asked
Ken to stop the boat or even turn around because there were some people on the
starboard side watching the humpbacks and some orca together. No one on the
bridge had seen them and they were traveling away pretty fast. Ken called the
captain and asked and he said it was Lynette’s call if she wanted to be late to
Lake Eva. She didn’t. I told her we should just stay with the one orca close along
the port side and the people on the starboard side could come to the port side and
watch him as we travel on. It worked out perfectly.
Back from lunch. Dessert was huge and incredible. It was a
ramekin of peach and strawberry crumble with vanilla ice cream. I will justify
the huge carb load by saying at 3pm we are to go ashore at Lake Eva for a 3
hour hike.
Tonight is the Captain’s dinner and at 7:45am tomorrow, they
disembark us. We will fly out of Sitka in the morning and be in Raleigh by
Sunday morning.
The ship has just stopped again, so I have to go out and see
what there is to see. Well, we dropped anchor. It seems we arrived early at
Lake Eva and the announcement has just been made for the 1st DIB
group to get ready to go. They have yet to announce whether we need boots for a
water landing or if they can set up steps and we can wear regular shoes.
Hopefully, by time for DIB 2 we’ll be told. We would rather not hike for 3
hours in heavy rubber boots we borrowed from the ship if we don’t have to, nor
pack shoes over there. Also, the gift shop was finally set up in the lounge
after final bills had been presented. We each got a t-shirt since they had maps
on the back. The shirts were $20 each. Recommended tips are $15 pp/pd for 8
days. We gave an imprint of the credit card on embarkation day so we should be
closed out now.
We’re back from our medium paced walk. It felt like it was
a death march! I don’t know that we went much slower than the fast paced group.
We walked all the way to Lake Eva and back, 4 miles, without seeing a bear. Our
entire last day spent without seeing a single bear. I am sad. I am especially
sad because on one of the first stone stairways on the way back, I dislocated
my right kneecap again. I shortly got a chance to step out of line on the trail
and push it back into place when Lee pointed out a baby bear print in the mud.
Clay and I and some other photographer lagged behind and brought up the rear.
Clay and I and Lee and Frasier, the deck hand were the last ones to DIB back to
the ship as the tide just kept getting lower. It looked to have dropped 15 feet
or more while we were ashore about 3 hours. When we got there the tide was
higher than Lee had ever seen it and part of the trail was underwater. We had
to make a detour around and over a couple of logs and streams to get to the
other side. When we came back the water was down and the trail of stepping
stones was exposed. That was good since we were hurrying to beat the dark and
the tide. While we only saw an eagle, it was still a good day. It was about 60
– 63 degrees and partly sunny with not a drop of rain all day.
So, now we’ve done some packing and we’re dressed for the
Captain’s dinner. Just jeans and clean shirts! It looks like it might be a good
sunset. It turns
out the round table at the back of the dining room that we have used every
evening for dinner is the Captain’s! Since it was reserved for him and his 4
guests tonight, we moved to our usual breakfast spot and it was fine. Usually
they only have 4 places set at that table though. We sat with the photographer
from our walk today and his wife. They are from Colorado. They always serve one
red wine and one white wine with lunch and dinner, as well as any beer they
have that you ordered. Clay has had a lot of beers and some red wine. I have
had only a glass of white wine at dinner and liked them all. But, tonight they served
a chardonnay and neither of us liked it. Also, they had some kind of failure on
the soup tonight and it was just awful. It’s too bad to finish on an off note. After
dinner, they introduced the 3 kitchen staff. It is incredible to think that
only 3 people in that tiny kitchen have put out such good meals all at one time
every meal. They introduced all the waitstaff/room stewards again. At this
point at the end of every meal, the waitstaff usually tell each table what is
for dessert. The desserts and pastries and cookies have been delicious and we
have all always been told that Sunshine bakes them while we sleep and she
sleeps at night. Tonight no one had told us what was for dessert except that it
was a surprise. They served everyone a small stem-less glass of sparkling wine.
After the Captain made his toast, you know the one about tall ships and small
ships but best of all friendships; they announced a dessert buffet extravaganza
in the lounge. Where we all got to meet Sunshine!
The 3 expedition leaders all spoke again and they told us
that wake up tomorrow is 6am and breakfast is 6:30am and between 7 and 8am an
expert would board and speak in the lounge about our disembarkation. Luggage is
to be outside the cabins before we go to breakfast and we’ll find it wherever
we are heading when we arrive. Jon did a slide show of photos that he, Lee and
Lynette had taken all week. At the end, he said he would hand one out to each
Alaskan Dream Cruise booked cabin and Lynette would get them to the Orbidge
folks via their photo sharing site. That was a very nice touch.
Our final onboard bill was $356. We spent $16 on a print at
the Orca Point Lodge and Clay charged it to our onboard account. We bought 2
t-shirts for $40. We put $300 of gratuities on the account. The recommended
amount according to the book in our cabin was $15pp/pd. Jon suggested $15 to
$20pp/pd.
Photos
