Pavlov Harbor
This morning was the first sunrise of our expedition; 4:30 am is quite early though so the wake up at 7:00 allowed for us to see the approach to Pavlov Harbor and a couple of brown bears roaming the shoreline (that makes 5 so far this trip). The sun was out on this cool and wind free morning, so we made the most of it and offered chances to walk, kayak, or Zodiac cruise near the outlet stream of the lake nearby. The rushing cascades that flow water from the lake to the sea are a healthy salmon stream later in the summer, for now we were content with eagles, ravens, and other birds flying by in hopes that the salmon had in fact arrived early.
The Zodiac cruisers enjoyed sights of harbor seals, many birds, and a lone humpback whale that entered the bay in search of its fish meal of herring. The whale made a few dives, but decided that Chatham Straight would be a better restaurant and so continued east.
Once we were all aboard and required safety drills were completed, we spent the afternoon with a few humpbacks and had amazing views of the snowcapped mountains that are the backbone of Chichagof and Admiralty Islands. It was quite a start to our expedition in Southeast Alaska.