Chatham Strait & Saginaw-Halleck Bay
A change in perspective was perhaps the theme for today. Though a whale’s blow does hang in the cool Alaskan air for quite some time, a particular strip of white never did fall away into nothingness. It persisted. As soon as we realized that it was not the blow of a giant whale, but a three tiered waterfall voluminously streaming down the side of a mountain we headed in its direction.
As morning progressed we sailed southwest down the Chatham Strait and into Frederick Sound. Sunlight broke through the clouds and the water relaxed its need for attention. Though the arching backs and graceful terminal dives of whales might have been all the more beautiful in the glassy water, they did not grace us with an all-absorbing visit. The sea chose instead to reflect its surrounding beauty at large-- the land and the sky. The moment was further punctuated by sightings of ancient murrelets, a bird somewhat difficult to see in more turbulent water.
Most of the afternoon was spent along the southerly shoreline of Halleck Cove in Saginaw Bay. Again, we experienced newness. Warmth, for one, allowed us to shed layers of clothing. We ventured into the forest and frolicked on soft mounds of moss. Not only were we beginning to feel more like children in this natural wonderland, our differences in age became irrelevant. This was particularly true in looking at and touching 300 million year old fossils of branchiopods in the limestone lining the beach.
Continuing as a theme, an awareness of ourselves as mere humans, we visited an ancient rock painting of a face like the sun on a rocky outcropping perhaps 600 years old. It caused us to think about what life might have been like at that time and to wonder what life will be like for humans in the next 600 years.
A change in perspective was perhaps the theme for today. Though a whale’s blow does hang in the cool Alaskan air for quite some time, a particular strip of white never did fall away into nothingness. It persisted. As soon as we realized that it was not the blow of a giant whale, but a three tiered waterfall voluminously streaming down the side of a mountain we headed in its direction.
As morning progressed we sailed southwest down the Chatham Strait and into Frederick Sound. Sunlight broke through the clouds and the water relaxed its need for attention. Though the arching backs and graceful terminal dives of whales might have been all the more beautiful in the glassy water, they did not grace us with an all-absorbing visit. The sea chose instead to reflect its surrounding beauty at large-- the land and the sky. The moment was further punctuated by sightings of ancient murrelets, a bird somewhat difficult to see in more turbulent water.
Most of the afternoon was spent along the southerly shoreline of Halleck Cove in Saginaw Bay. Again, we experienced newness. Warmth, for one, allowed us to shed layers of clothing. We ventured into the forest and frolicked on soft mounds of moss. Not only were we beginning to feel more like children in this natural wonderland, our differences in age became irrelevant. This was particularly true in looking at and touching 300 million year old fossils of branchiopods in the limestone lining the beach.
Continuing as a theme, an awareness of ourselves as mere humans, we visited an ancient rock painting of a face like the sun on a rocky outcropping perhaps 600 years old. It caused us to think about what life might have been like at that time and to wonder what life will be like for humans in the next 600 years.
