Cruising Southeast Alaska and Pavlof Harbor
It was an honest to goodness Southeast Alaska kinda day…none of that overrated sunshine and blue skies. Good old beautiful clouds…gray on gray! The day started that way and ended that way…and what a wonderful introduction to this incredible part of the world.
Our Expedition Leader woke us up in beautiful Saook Inlet on the north end of Baranof Island, just off Peril Strait. The water was flat and calm, with incredible reflections on the mirror like water that floated us along. There were many birds including bald eagles, common mergansers, marbled murrelets, pacific loons, northwest crows and harlequin ducks. When we reached the head of the inlet, there was a beautiful, green delta and a big brown bear in it. During breakfast we moved to Sitko Bay on the south side of Chichagof Island. The same array of bird species greeted us, but there were more bears in this inlet’s terminal delta meadow. What first appeared to be a huge brown bear with two heads turned out to be a mating pair copulating away in the meadow. Then a small bear appeared at the forest edge followed shortly after by a larger bear that we assumed was its mother. We soon realized it could not be a mother and cub because a mother would never have allowed her cub to roam freely in the presence of a male bear, especially one obviously in the mood for mating. A male will kill a cub so that the mother will come into heat and he can then father the next generation. It was fascinating to watch the drama unfold and the story change right before our eyes.
During the rest of the morning we cruised northward in Chatham Strait on our way to our afternoon activities at Pavlof Harbor. Along the way we were thrilled to see a number of groups of Dall’s porpoise whizzing along at breakneck speed with a rooster tail flying behind them. These porpoise are often mistaken for baby killer whales but are actually in a completely different family, the Phocoenidae. Killer whales are the largest members of the family Delphinidae. We also saw a number of elusive Harbor Porpoise that move much slower and never come close enough to the ship to ride the bow. And just before we reached our afternoon anchorage, we spotted a lone humpback whale cruising along in Freshwater Bay. We watched as it came to the surface, blew its dewy spout, showed its humped back and dove briefly under the surface only to pop up again a few tens of meters along the way and repeat its respirations. Calmly moving along over the glassy water we were led to believe that this whale had migrated back and forth to Hawaii many times during its life, swimming thousands of miles over open ocean to breed in the tropics and feed here in the nutrient rich waters of Southeast Alaska.
The day’s finale was a visit to the beautiful bay called Pavlof Harbor. Historically, this was the site of a seasonal Native American village and a salmon cannery. Both are now gone but the wildlife is still abundant and the setting stunning. We were able to take hikes along the salmon stream up to the lake above and also get into our kayaks and take a paddle in these protected waters. Spring has definitely come to Pavlof with all the new shoots and flowers showing themselves along with a brown bear sow and her two cubs. It is such a privilege to come to these places and begin to sink into the peace that comes with wild things.
