Fjord Boat Tour July 2007

Neil and I went on a Kenai Fjord National Park boat cruise so we could get up close with some marine wildlife plus to see the tidewater glaciers calving into the ocean. It was a perfect day with flat seas and calm wind.

On the way out of the harbor we watched two cute otters playing, rolling, diving.

As we sailed round a point into Aialik Bay, we were passed by a small group of Dall's porpoise. We sailed the length of the bay right up to Aialik Glacier, the largest tidewater glacier in the park, fed by the Harding Icefileld (one of the largest icefields in the US and spawns up to 40 glaciers.)

The glacier didn’t look that big to me as we neared but once we stopped close enough that the wall of ice towered over our head, I got a whole different perspective of the massive amount of ice. Calving is the phrase used for chunks of ice falling off the front of the glacier. When it happens, it sounds like a gun firing or a firecracker going off. After a loud bang and then you look around for ice plummeting in to the sea followed by a large splash and wave.

They brought in some of the ice that had calved off the glacier and was floating in the salt water. Neil not only had to touch it....

he had to taste it!

We cruised passed more amazing glaciers, including Holgate Glacier, and visited Three Hole Point.

We then sailed to the puffin and murre (closest relative to the penguin in Arctic) rookeries on some stony mounds in the middle of the sea. There are so many birds flying around these rounded little islands that they call them the “beehive” rocks.

This is a Horned Puffin on left and a Turfted Puffin on the right.

These are the Murres who nest directly on the rocks. Their eggs are shaped like snowcones so they roll in a circle and not off the cliff.

Sealions haul out to rest and digest their salmon! Using movie mode on the camera, Neil filmed a sea lion diving and coming up with salmon, which he promptly ate. Maybe I'll have to get movie clips put on this page. :)

On this whole trip, what I really wanted to see was Orcas, also known as Killer Whales, and my wish was granted on the way back in. The boat suddenly turned about 60 degrees from our heading and Neil and I looked at each other, got up without a word and headed to the front of the boat (we were sitting in the back for wind protection.) We have done enough Maui whale watches to know what sudden course changes mean. After about 5 minutes the captain said he was told there were Orcas in the area and right on cue they surfaced in front of us. It was a “superpod” (multiple orca pods gathering in one spot) and it was amazing to see about 40-60 of them swimming together. They were swimming so fast together that the captain said he was cruising flat out to keep up with them. We stayed with them about ten minutes and then they changed direction and headed out to sea. We were absolutely thrilled (like totally, dude!)

We ended the trip at Fox Island for a Salmon Bake. They call the beach there "Skipping Rock Beach." And we couldn't resist tossing a few of those pancake shaped stones. They were so perfect for skipping we saw one athlete get 11 hops with one throw!