Date: 19 June 2001 (Tuesday)

Start:

End: Seward Recreation Center (USAF), Seward AK (0 miles)

It was 53f with a few clouds when we got up. It looks like our beautiful weather has come back.

We ate, then relaxed around the trailer till it was time to take the shuttle to the Kenai Fjords Tours office. There, we traded our receipt for a boarding pass on the M/V Glacier Explorer, our tour boat.

The boat left the small boat harbor at 11:30 for the six hour trip. It’s a very powerful twin diesel 95’ cruiser with all the controls one could hope for, including hydraulic stabilizers to help keep it level while cruising.

We had lunch soon after departure, while in transit to the first sight seeing location, Cheval Island. During that period we saw the first sea otter, laying on its back in the water, watching us as we watched him. There wasn’t much of anything at Cheval, so we continued.

We bounced across a part of the open ocean to Aialik Cape, then we were in somewhat sheltered waters to Three Hole Bay, where we slowed and looked for bears reported to be in the area. No bears, so we continued again.

Now we headed for Aialik Glacier, which is some 700’ high at the face, and about a mile wide. We pulled in as close as possible through the ice blocks recently shed ("calved") from the glacier. Then the captain turned off both engines and the generators and got totally quiet. We listened and could hear the pops and snaps from the glacier as internal tensions let go, and we’d hear the crashing of whatever pieces of ice let loose as they slid down the ice face and hit the water. We stayed for about 20 minutes, seeing many small calvings, but nothing major. We did get pictures of some of them, which might come out ok. (Ed. Note: Nope.) Other tourists took our pictures.

Some of the blocks of ice in the water had harbor seals on them. The seals get on the ice to avoid being eaten by orca whales, some of which had been reported in the area (we didn’t see any, but two other boats did).

We came out of the glacier area and headed for Natoa Island, a regular tour stop due to the variety of animals on it. Here, we hit pay dirt. There were several bunches of "Stellar sea lions" on the rocks of the island, and many varieties of puffin and auklet and cormorants on the island. The murres (birds) that look like miniature penguins had their own district of the island.

Coming off Natoa and starting the trip back to Seward, we ran into a pair of humpback whales, then another pair that were more active. They (mother and calf) were slapping the water with their pectoral fins and doing an occasional tail slap. We stuck around and watched them for a while.

Then we headed for the barn (small boat harbor), docked, and got off. It was a very enjoyable day.

Then back to the little house for dinner and an attempt at e-mail at the next-door Army facility.