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Saturday | July 16

The Capitol City of Juneau

“Find your place on the planet, dig in and take responsibility from there.” --Gary Snyder

"If I were to choose the sights, the sounds, the fragrances I most would want to see and hear and smell--among all the delights of the open world--on a final day on earth, I think I would choose these: the clear, ethereal song of a white-throated sparrow singing at dawn; the smell of pine trees in the heat of the noon; the lonely calling of Canada geese; the sight of a dragon-fly glinting in the sunshine; the voice of a hermit thrush far in a darkening woods at evening; and--most spiritual and moving of sights--the white cathedral of a cumulus cloud floating serenely in the blue of the sky.  Edwin Way Teale, "On a Final Day"

Disembarkation day!

It’s off to many different destinations around the country for our guests. It is very tempting to take them up on their offers to stay if ever we visit their hometowns. Juneau is bustling this morning as we dock alongside the pier adjacent to large cruise ships and a float plane dock

A local tells me that the recent U.S. Census had between 5 and 6,000 people moving out of the capital city of Juneau, a drop from around 31,000 to 25k over the last 10 years.

Crew work hard in anticipation of another group that will board in less than 8 hours.

Monday | July 11

Klawock

“The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, we would die from a great loneliness of spirit…for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of earth.” --Chief Seattle, Puget Sound Suwamish Tribe 1854

More sunshine! We awake early and enjoy the slow cruise and docking at the pier in the town of Klawock, located on the windward side of Prince of Wales Island.

Our Tlingit hosts take us on a walk to see the totem-carving shed.

We also see the longhouse that holds the newly carved and painted totems.

A ¼-mile away behind the local shopping mall lies an empty lot that has dozens of old totems lined up in a row, exposed to the sun and rain. On the 1-mile walk back toward the ship, we visit the totem park at the center of town. Celebrations and pole-raising will take place in early August for 5 or 6 totems. Years of hard work and carving have gone into these amazing totems.

I have a couple of volunteers help me with a plankton tow on the pier. The pier lies in the middle of an estuary, where the river meets the sea. We can see the bounty of life floating beneath the ship including schooling fish, ctenophores and the lions mane jellyfish.

Back aboard, I set-up two stereoscopes and pour the contents of the plankton tow into specimen dishes for observation.

In the afternoon, we are back in Sea Otter Sound. Our wildlife spotters are able to find a couple of sea otter rafts. An announcement from the bridge alerts guests about a small-craft advisory in effect. Therefore, we won’t be crossing Chatham Strait over to Baranof Island.

As a result of the small-craft warning, we’ll be looking at an itinerary change that we all will be excited about. It sure is appreciated when folks on an expedition-style voyage have a flexible attitude, adapting to different circumstances!

The unknowns on any trip add to the excitement! Our expedition leader and captain spend hours pouring over the charts to determine what would provide the most interesting alternative (to sea-sickness and possible damage to items on the ship).

Where is gMack now? InnerSea Discoveries Expedition Week 9

It has been an exciting week on the InnerSea Discoveries Expedition Click Links Below to read daily updates from Week 9 of the Trip:

June 25 - July 1, 2011

 

Saturday | June 25th

Ketchikan

Sunday | June 26th

El Capitan Passage, Caves and the Oyster Pick-up

Monday | June 27th

Klawock and Sea Otter Sound

Tuesday | June 28th

Little Port Walter

Wednesday | June 29th

Patterson Bay:  Scat and Cataracts!

Thursday |June 30th

Frederick Sound

Friday | July 1st

The Green Flush and an Ice Swim

 

 

Thursday | June 30th

Frederick Sound

Last night we motored into this most stunning of bays on Baranof Island. The majority of guests decide to kayak up the fiord to the splendid waterfall that seems to fall out of the sky down a precipice covered in conifers. Just beyond at the head of the bay on about two hundred acres of mudflats and meadows, a grizzly bear feeds on grasses. Kayakers line themselves along the edge of the river opposite the bear. A bald eagle is perched on a stump, providing another photographic opportunity.

What is the difference between a BROWN bear and a GRIZZLY bear, you may ask? They are the same species, Ursus arctos. The coastal grizzly is called a brown bear. It is significantly larger than the interior grizzly bear because of diet and climate.

Salmon are in abundance along the coast of Alaska. Because the waters of the Gulf of Alaska warm the air enough to moderate the temperatures along the coast, brownies can stay active a couple of months longer than the interior grizzlies. The latter have to deal with temperatures that drop well below freezing, triggering the hibernation response.

We spot a brown bear on the flats and kayak upriver a few hundred meters to get a better look. An eagle perched on a beached stump above the mud-flats was a favorite photo-subject for kayakers.

Later in the day, I get on the marine radio and make a call to the Alaska Whale Foundation. I talk with world-renowned humpback whale researcher Dr. Fred Sharpe. He says that he is available to join us for a talk aboard the ship! We meet him in Frederick Sound and he motors over in his small Zodiac. Fred and I have been friends for over 20 years. He answers lots of questions and entertains guests in the lounge with his humor and knowledge.

After just a half-hour, the swells on this inland sea magically disappear and become glass-like. Humpback whales are spotted “around the clock” in all directions from the ships decks. We estimate at least two dozen whales blowing from just a hundred meters to a couple of kilometers away.

Before disembarking, Fred mentions the influx of nutrients and plankton as a result of the persistent winds we had throughout the morning. Frederick Sound is in the middle of a nutrient-rich geographical area. The plankton feed the schooling fish which in turn feed the leviathans.

Wednesday | June 22

Wrangell is a good day for us guides. Our usual 12 to 14-hour day is cut down to only 10 or so hours. We work on projects and accompany guests on walking tours. We enjoy two hours of our own time in town to visit a coffee shop or a trip to the library.

My favorite spot is a toss-up between Chief Shakes Tribal House or the Nolan Center Museum. I get great vibes from the totem poles and absolutely love the performance by singers and dancers at the tribal house.

The Nolan Center is where I can duck my head into the bookstore and peruse good books and interact with visitors and staff.

Just after lunch, Luis and Justin, our chefs, have a fine time cleaning two garbage cans worth of Dungeness Crab on the dock below the main pier in Wrangell. We are excited about our dinner later tonight!

Kids in town sell garnets that come from a local spot in the mountains. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts benefit from the proceeds. It’s fun interacting with the kids that are hawking the garnets at the base of the pier.

Tonight it is Bar Trivia Quiz night w/ guides Kim and Megan. Most of the questions concern natural history facts. Some pertain to ship statistics such as: “How long is the vessel?” Answer: 170 feet.

“Geez”, I say to a fellow guest, “that sure is a small area to live in for 60 some odd passenger-guests and 26 crew.” That is 57 yards, the equivalent of a long field-goal in American football. We are 38 feet wide or almost 13 yards.

I start thinking of the size of my home. The crew quarters cabin I live in is 4 steps long by two steps wide. The bathroom or “head” is a place where if you put your arms akimbo, they hit walls no matter which way you turn. Sitting on the “royal throne”, shaving and showering can be done all at once…that way you don’t miss any wildlife or scenery highlights out on the decks!

Our maximum speed is not much more than 9 knots or 10mph…the speed of a bicyclist at a leisurely pace. We are anchored more than half the week, i.e. we are motoring about 10 hours or 100 miles a day. That’s less than 2 miles per day per passenger. The large cruise ships travel at least 18 hours a day and cover a much longer distance, from Seattle, Washington to Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, Glacier Bay and/or Skagway and all the way back down in 7 days. That’s close to 2000 nautical miles and at least 4 full days out of the week motoring 24/7.

Friday | June 17  

“I DATED YOUR SISTER!”

This is what I jokingly tell my guests on my 2nd small-boat tour after meeting Tongass National Forest wilderness ranger Solan Jensen.  We could see his food hanging in a tree above his camp adjacent to where we drop off guests for a low-tide circumambulation. Solan greets us and introduces us to fellow ranger Iris Neary. I knew Solans’ name had sounded familiar!  I met his sister back in the mid-90’s in Juneau.  We worked for the Glacier Bay Tours and Cruises (bankrupt since 2006) and I have not had the good fortune to work with her since that bygone era.

 

Aleria now works as the NOAA marine mammal stranding coordinator for the Alaska region.  Her brother Solan is an expert naturalist and is working another year as a kayak ranger.  One of our guests recognized Solan as the naturalist he had on a vacation to the Antarctic region years earlier.  During the northern hemisphere winter (Austral summer), Solan works for Quark Expeditions.  Feels like a small world today!

We tour the biologically diverse tide-pools.  Folks are mesmerized watching the standing waves of the outgoing tide that passes through this narrow part of the fiord.

Later we cruise up to the Dawes Glacier, a tide-water glacier that discharges 1000’s of tons of ice each day during calving events.  Harbor seals “surf” the bergs as they are carried away from the 250-foot wall of ice on the outgoing tide.

Thursday | June 2nd

The remarkable sunrise is appreciated by all as we depart the narrow and spectacular Patterson Bay fiord.

In the afternoon, we enjoy seeing the penguin-like Common Murre seabird floating on drifting logs.

We are also entertained this afternoon by a breaching humpback whale. I finally take a photo of a whale with the background for a change. So many times we take photos of our subject and only get water as the background. The viewer might wonder if the whale is really in Alaska  or wintering in its breeding and calving grounds down in Hawaii.

The hours spent looking for wildlife is a perfect opportunity for me to put some educational hand-outs out on the top deck and give a presentation on migration, the natural history of marine mammals and the threats that they face from human activity.

Saturday | May 28th

Ketchikan turn-day. Off-load guests at 08:30 and take-on new guests at 16:15 hours.

Friday | May 13th

KRoth our E.L. wakes us all up at 0600 for an announcement that we have entered Alaska and that Dall Porpoise our riding our bow wave.

It is a spectacular morning with stunning scenery.  We do not have any kayak rangers with the Misty Fjord National Monument come out to greet us.  We go into Rudyerd Bay for some scenic cruising and go past Punchbowl and Owls Cliff and turn around.  Wanted to do our kayak operations but we have to postpone until after lunch and we’ll be doing that in Walker Cove.  I spot the first several Mountain Goats in more than 4 locations today and we spot a healthy black bear in the morning and a brown bear in the afternoon.

I give a geology talk on the top deck and ask Randall my roommate to give a glaciology talk with me.  It is very enjoyable since the day was warm and there was little breeze.  I use props such as different colored boots that represent accreted terrains and how the dock up against other terrains and make the geological story of the Coast Range very complicated.  We have the perfect background for the talk, being in the fjords with snow pack and avalanche gullies.

After lunch we have to cancel the kayak operations since the captain could not find a good anchorage and the winds were blowing a little too much for launching the kayaks from a moving ship platform.  Instead, Kevin the Chief Mate and I have a terrific time naturalizing together (he drove) along the shoreline after a 30-minute close viewing of the grizzly bear digging for clams.  I shot like 200 pictures and now have to do the sad job of deleting and selecting which ones are worth keeping.  I have so much coming back to me after almost a 3 year hiatus from my last time up in Alaska. Put a back of a sea star up against the back of a mans wrist and he feels the pincher organs called pedicillaria. Teach everyone all about the flora and the three different kinds of lichens and weathering (crustose, foliose and fructicose and chemical, biological and physical weathering, respectively).  Incredibly steep walls and lots of snowmelt.  See common mergansers, goldeneyes, raven, nw crow, hear hermit thrush, pigeon guillemot, marbled murrelet, belted kngisher.  Lots of Dall porpoise each time we were about to enter or depart an inlet.  Also had over half-dozen porpoise feeding right alongside two humpback whales at sunset.  Switched one hour back this morning/last nght.  Had antoher dinner outside on the top deck to soak up the scenery along with a staff meeting…usually three meetings a day.

Thursday | May 12th

I missed Klemtu…terrific last time with the Oceanus three years ago.  Captain Marce said she saw some Pacific white-sided dolphins at 3 a.m.  Today lots of rain squalls, most of them light rain followed by brief bursts of sunshine.  Lovely scenery that grows on you…endless mountains and glacial fjords, trees and waterfalls, eagles and inlets…. Right at the time that Lauri was to give a talk on the Tongass National Forest we arrived in Butedale.  Bosun was to take Randall out for pictures…Randall forgot his pics and I jumped on board to do a plankton tow with the net that Jacqui gave us for the season…another reason I really like her and wish we’d cross paths again soon.  We end up going over and talking to the two caretakers that have been on Prince of Wales island for a long time. Fun to see the dilapidated old cannery started in 1902 with a very cute stocky orange cat named “Tiger”.

We give them the very tasty breakfast burritos we had earlier and some of the fabulous bread that Lee cooks up for us every day.  Then we invite them onto the ship.  Bosun then drove Randall and I for some pictures of the waterfall and I do my plankton tow and put them in Petri dishes and have the passengers enjoy in the 20X and 40X of the stereoscopes. Ron gave a talk to the passengers for ½ hour or so and we said our goodbyes and it was fun to be a part of the dignitary group…reminded me of the chiefs of Ifaluk in the south pacific 3 years ago as well.  I feel I’ve reached a certain maturity and it is fun to be on the Bridge.  Before lunch, I grabbed the microphone and thanked the Captain, Chief Mate, Bosun, E.L. and Hotel Manager for their flexibility and for bringing us this serendipitous expedition stop and announced the new map on the wall that Randall and I put up, as we finished the previous one.

Beautiful rain squalls for more pictures and a project just before the rain of putting together all of our tents this morning going through all of our first aid kits and labeling items…. I gave a talk on the natural history of the 3 bear species in alaska and what to do around bears.  Entertaining and I also showed some slides of my program on the Great Bear Wilderness of the Kermode/spirit bear with some of my slides from Katmai.  Mentioned Timothy Treadwell from Grizzly Man.

Pass Prince Rupert at 11:30 and we will enter the State of Alaska soon after passing through the testy waters of Dixon Entrance, lasting 4 hours