The next day, we went out to Tebenkof Bay in the Kuiu Island Wilderness Area in our Zodiac boats. (A lot of people have asked me, "What's a Zodiac boat?" So here is a picture of two of our guides in a Zodiac boat. A couple of pictures of me in a Zodiac boat come later in this post, but this shows you more of what it looks like from the side.
The only thing I wanted to see in Tebenkof Bay was otters. I love otters. (Who doesn't love otters?) They are so stinkin' cute! So we're driving around in our Zodiac boat (which is to say that one of our guides, Nate, was driving us around in our Zodiac boat), and we see some fish, and we see some birds, and we see lots of water, but no otters. I was promised otters. If I don't see otters, it's going to be a complete disaster of a day.
So we round the corner, and Jeremy (ship's photographer who promised me otters) says, "Patty! Otters!" So I get my binocs out. Sure enough, otters! I mean, really super far away otters, but I can see ... I don't know, the vague outline of a head? Even though I know I'm not going to get anything good, I get my phone out. Snap a few shots. They are terrible. So I get my real camera out, zoom in. But before I can get anything good, we start pulling away. I'm all, what in actual heck??? And I mean, we're really cruising. I'm starting on a pretty good Patty Pout™ when I see it.
A breaching humpback whale.
Now I have a Sophie's choice. If I want to get any good pictures of the whale, I have to use my real camera. But if I want to get any good videos of the whale, I have to use my phone. This is because [insert an explanation here that I understand but can't fully explain without putting you to sleep]. And I really can't have both out, because I don't know how long it's going to last, and I don't want to be going back and forth, so I decide that this is an action shot. It requires a video.
Little did I know that this whale would breach over and over and over. I took 9 videos, but we lost count after 9 breaches. 25! So here are a couple of videos, and then I have a couple of stills that Jeremy took. Along with a Jeremy otter.
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| Jeremy whale |
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| Also Jeremy whale |
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| Jeremy otter |
The day ended with this gorgeous sunset. (Note: The sunsets were simply stunning. I could have put in a hundred sunset pictures.)
We then woke up to this scene:
We are now in Petersburg. Petersburg was a charming little town. The main industry is fishing, and the people who live there tend to stay around. The highlight was at the Sons of Norway hall, where a group of young people (ages 11ish to 16ish) performed some folk dances for us. This is the hem of one of the dresses, which the girls make themselves, with embroidery representing the local flora.
On the way back to the ship, we saw another beautiful vista as well as my third seal sighting!
Back on the ship, we had a lovely dinner (I should say that all of our food on the ship was yummy. I've never had such delicious salmon, which we took on board, freshly caught, every few days.) and went back to our room to read. This was a very common occurrence.
Despite the fact that we were in Alaska and on a cruise, we had the door to our veranda open almost all the time, letting in that crisp, fresh Alaskan air. Well, this night, we heard these pfuussssshhhh-ing sounds, and lo and behold, thar be whales! We were cruising right through a pod of humpback whales blowing out of their blowhole and making that very distinctive sound! I would go out on the veranda and take some pix and videos, and then when it looked like they were gone, I would go back in. Then we would hear another pfuussshhh, and there would be more whales. I must have gone in and out of the room a hundred times in the hour and a half that we spent with the whales. With our cabin only a short distance above the water and the whales swimming fairly close, it was a groovy show.
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This day was also punctuated with a fabulous sunset:
At this point, I should tell you about the crud. A few days into the cruise, COVID-19 made an unwelcome appearance. The passengers who had tested positive were quarantined, and that must have sucked balls. Fortunately, we didn't get COVID, but that didn't spare us from illness. A few days into the cruise, Sue caught a nasty cold. She spent a day in bed and a couple of days doing fewer activities, and then she was fine. A few days after Sue's worst day, Mary got the bug. She did the same thing—spent a day in bed and a couple of days doing less.
The day we got to the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness Area, it was my turn. But it was glacier day, and I 100% was not letting some stupid cold get me down, so I bundled up in my coat that my stepson bought for me and my hat that my stepdaughter made for me and went. to. the. glacier.
We passed by waterfalls and brilliant blue icebergs ...
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| Look closely—those little black specks at the bottom of the iceberg are ... SEALS! |
... before getting to Dawes Glacier. Let me tell you something. Glaciers are cold. C-O-L-D. Here's how it was described to me by our guide Emily: As wind and weather meet the cold air of the glacier, the surrounding air becomes increasingly chilled. Because colder air is denser than warmer air, it floats down to the surface of the water. So although it was a relatively warm day, by the time we got to the glacier, it was only 35 degrees. Brr!
This is Dawes Glacier. Let me give you some perspective: It is 600 feet tall (the size of a 60-story building) and a half-mile wide. You can't even begin to imagine what this thing looks like close up.
Here's me in front of the glacier, doing the traditional "point at the thing you're looking at" pose from Crocodile Dundee. Emily took the picture, and she wasn't even alive when that movie came out, so I'm sure she thought I was just a complete idiot.
Fortunately, the ship sent out a hot chocolate/hot rum boat! This is the view of the Zodiac boat I promised earlier. I'm in the back row, second from the left, freezing my ass off and being sick as a dog.
Jeremy got some great video of the glacier calving, but I did not, so you'll have to take my word for it. There's nothing like the crack of ice breaking off a glacier and the whoosh of the glacier falling into the water. It was fantastic.
The next day was Kake. Did I mention I was sick as a dog? So this is the only view I got of Kake. I woke up, snapped this shot, and didn't leave the ship for the rest of the day.
See you in Sitka!
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