Here we are leaving Petersburg with the first snow covered mountains we have seen for some time.
Some of the passageways are very narrow and the ship has to steer between marker buoys. This one with seals resting on it.
No sooner did we see the snow on the mountains than the mist descended and we were in quite dense fog! When the fog lifted the stunning scenery continued.
Not long after the fog cleared and we saw our first humpback whales. Most of the time they were some way from the ship but one breached very close to the ship’s bow and Bob took this wonderful photo of the whale leaping out of the water.
Bob took this photo of us enjoying ourselvs.
The next place we visited was Kake, another very small Alaskan town (400 people) in a really remote place. We went ashore and walked a couple of hundred yards to a small store. We only had 30 minutes before the ship departed, so we hurried back with a few minutes to spare. The Taku tied up at Kake.
We were told that a bald eagle had built a nest in one of the pines close to the ship. I managed to film the two chicks, which were nearly fully grown. I had to use maxim zoom to get a picture of them, so the photo is rather fuzzy. I’m no David Attenborough!
We left Kake and soon were amongst several large groups of humpbacks. Mostly they were swimming some distance from the boat but occasionally one would surface nearby and we could take a photo. Hope the whale in this shot is visible at the lower left of the photo!
They are magnificent creatures and when they dive, lifting their tail flukes, it’s a wonderful spectacle.
We also saw a large group of sea lions but unfortunately they were quite far away so my photos did not show them very well.
The next three hours of the trip were through amazing scenery. The ferry wound its way through very narrow channels with a member of the crew at the bow giving directions to the captain. It was very exciting.
At one point Bob and I watched a bald eagle fly across the boat. Sadly, I was too slow with my camera to take a photo. Apparently in Haines, where we will be in a few days time, there are thousands of eagles. I'll try and take some photos there and post them to the blog.
We arrived in Sitka at 8.45pm as the light was fading. We got a taxi to take us to the Channel Club, but we arrived too late for the kitchen staff!!. We took the restaurant courtesy bus in to the centre of Sitka and had a meal at the Westmark Inn Hotel. We returned to the boat at about 10.30pm. We leave for Juneau at just after midnight.
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