I woke up this morning at about 4:45. While I contemplated staying in bed, I decided to get up and work out. The exercise equipment is small and compact but it overlooks the starboard side of the boat. It was extremely foggy this morning so it was hard to see much. After a short workout, I went down and got some tea and picked up my camera so I could take some landscape photos. As I was standing outside my room, I happened to look toward the aft (back) and just past our wake, there was one lone humpback whale crossing our path. I immediately walked back and put my camera into video mode. I was able to get a really cool video of the whale [post trip note: I will need to find this video… of course after later events, it’s not so cool..]
When I lost him, I met up with Joan, a woman from Wisconsin and we chatted while standing outside watching the fog. She’s traveling with her family too – all 15 of them, including an infant. I had to tell someone that I saw a whale, and she was the first person I found. it got chilly on the deck after a while, so I went for more tea and then back onto the deck where I met Carlos, Gretchen and Pete (3 naturalists). They were excited to hear that I saw a whale and I asked what other animals we might see: otters, porpoises, dolphins, seals, sharks…
By that time it was almost 7 and I wanted to take part in Darcy’s yoga/stretch class on the top deck. It was only 30 minutes, but it felt so great and they even made us a smoothie afterward (post trip note: this smoothie enticed several others to join the class!). Breakfast was at 7:30 – where everyone wanted to know where the smoothies came from – but we were interrupted by Sue, our leader, to tell us that the captain had heard of a group of humpback whales who were cooperative bubble net feeding. As I understand this, it’s where the whales circle, blowing air up and “netting” the fish, before they jump up as a collective group to feed on the fish. It was so incredible to see this and we watched, slowing moving along in circles, for an hour. I took some video, but I also had Linda, our resident photography expert/naturalist, took at my camera so I could get some good shots of them.
After that excitement, Sue introduced her team to us: Linda, Carlos, Pete, Gretchen, David, Darcy and Jeff. Once again, we got interrupted to view a small brown bear on the beach. Jeff, the video chronicler, was on the bow and was able to point those us that couldn’t see him in the right direction. He was laying/sitting/lounging in a small clump of trees just off the beach, so it was difficult to see him at first, and he moved soon after that into the brush.
We have a map on board, tacked up on the wall, and we also have a television screen with a map that links up to the radar, so this morning I was trying to figure out where we were (and I asked the engineer, who said he “doesn’t read maps”). We sailed through a tiny passage between Baranof and Chichagof islands into the Chatham Strait, but we took a detour into the Tenakee inlet for the whale watching. Sue said it’s very unusual and we are spoiled already. I feel it already haha – a whale before breakfast, whales bubble net feeding AND a bear… all before 11:30 in the morning!
After lunch, we prepped for our first on-shore excursion – kayaking and hiking in Pavlof Harbour. They had us choose whether we wanted a fast paced, moderate or leisurely hike. I opted for the moderate one in order to kayak first – as did most of the family – which was good in the end because the moderate one was fairly intense.
We had a good sized space in which to kayak in, and we were able to get near a waterfall on one side of the beach. Our hike was highly amusing – mostly at the expense of others. Nick lost his boot in a mud bog, and Gresy and I were laughing too hard to pull it out. Then David stopped to show us bear scat, and lay down next to it with his face almost on top of it. Lastly, Ben stepped in a seemingly innocent puddle of water and fell into it up to his knees. We called for the camera, and Jeff promptly stepped backward into another “puddle.”
All joking aside, David did point out some great things about the Alaskan coastal temperate rainforests: kinds of trees, plants, flowers, etc that we saw along the way.
Cocktail hour included a wine tasting of some Northwest wines, crackers and cheese while David, Pete and Carlos recapped our day. Pete discussed the whale feeding in a little more detail and a more detailed whale mouth anatomy lesson, David talked about the forest and bears, and then Carlos talked about his scuba diving experience in the harbour.
They offered a short video after dinner, but I was exhausted from the great food, long day and thought of a nice warm bed.