Sitkoh Bay and Chatham Strait
This marvelous-weathered morning we were already in the vicinity of Sitkoh Bay. This area was extensively logged in the past, and there is an old road available for walking. We divided the group at the beach, and different speed walks were organized, all enjoying the forest along this road, partially overgrown with huge red alders. These cover part of the road, making it a wonderful walk. Along the way we saw quite a few slugs, some of them yellow with black spots, just like a leopard skin. We even saw and photographed an albino slug! Some lovely flowers were to be seen such as monkey flowers, monkshood, red columbines and Siberian miner’s lettuce (not edible!).
In the meantime, kayakers had a ball paddling to their heart’s content in the calm waters of the bay, enjoying a nice time in the quiet of their kayaks.
By noon we were all back at the ship, and had taken off for the longest and straightest fjord in the world (around 200 miles), and at the same time, very deep (parts were up to 1,600 feet deep).
Lunch was taken care of, and we kept on sailing south along this strait, along the coast of Baranof Island, one of the big islands of Southeast Alaska, named so in honor of Alexander Baranof, first of a series of Russian governors of the Russian America. We detoured momentarily at the impressive waterfall of Kasniku and later on at a lovely small bay with more waterfalls, all of them snowmelt cascades, with a great amount of very cold water! And then, looking at the end of the small bay, on a small meadow, we saw a brown (grizzly) bear calmly eating away at the dunegrass of the meadow. At moments it lifted its head and looked in our direction, as if smelling our presence, as the wind was between us and the animal. It was a good while that we watched the bear, until it disappeared in the forest behind it.
So on we sailed into the strait, till shortly before recap time, when we spied a series of humpback whales, but going north instead of south. We watched them for a short time, but eventually left them to their own program, and began our recap for the day.
