This morning we woke cruising in Chatham Straight with typical Alaskan weather. A light drizzle fell under palladium skies as we approached Warm Springs Bay to pick up our guest speaker for the morning, Dr. Andy Szabo from the Alaska Whale Foundation. Not only is he a great speaker, but it was fascinating to learn about the research they’re doing on the bubble-netting humpback whales of Southeast Alaska. It was a great compliment to our sighting of this behavior on Monday, and he reminded us how we could submit our pictures in order to contribute to his research.
In the afternoon we set our anchor in Hanus Bay, on the north side of Baranof Island. The water was calm with an intermittent drizzle, which was perfect for kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding. The high tide allowed us to paddle deep into the lagoon and close to a beautiful set of cascades. Salmon were jumping all around under the gaze of many bald eagles perched on lichen-draped hemlocks. The forest service has made a very well maintained trail for us to hike on, which gave us wonderful views of the inside of the temperate rain forest. Along the trail we saw salmon, eagles, and a few of us even got to see brown bears! It was a very pleasant and exciting day in the forest.
The global explorers took their Zodiac driving lessons, and everyone survived! As we cruised northbound, whales interrupted dinner yet again. Everywhere you could see there were humpbacks breaching, diving, lunging, and surfacing. It was an amazing end to an amazing day.
