LeConte Bay, Alaska
This was a day that had enough highlights for an entire trip! Morning found us cruising through Frederick Sound in the company of a dozen or more Humpback whales feeding on krill, some using the cooperative bubble-net technique that we had seen earlier up in Chatham Strait. Our breakfast guests were Dr. Fred Sharpe and Pieter Folkens, researchers from the Alaska Whale Foundation, who gave us a “blow-by-blow” account of the behavior of these magnificent animals as we watched them just off our bow.
Near Taylor Bay we encountered a small pod of killer whales that lunged out of the water as they swam powerfully by. These were probably transients, who clearly had an agenda that did not include hanging around the ship to be observed. Fortunately we almost immediately found a much bigger pod of “resident” killer whales that were content to put on an amazing display. This included lunge feeding, breaching, and some youngsters who cavorted in a nearby kelp bed as we watched in total fascination.
After a barbecue lunch on deck, we arrived in Le Conte Bay where the plan was to do Zodiac cruising amongst blue icebergs and flight-seeing by float planes over the spectacular glaciers in the vicinity. However, we discovered that the fjord was remarkably free of ice and it was possible to take the Sea Bird all the way up to the front of the Le Conte Glacier for the first time in about six years. Here we found cliffs of granite and gneiss with waterfalls tumbling thousands of feet into the sea water below. At the glacier there were hundreds of seals on icebergs and an equal number of Bonaparte gulls in flocks heading south for the winter. To top it all off, the Le Conte glacier provided us with several thunderous calvings beneath the icy alpenglow of the peaks towering above.
The best thing about today was that most of what we did was unplanned and nothing that we did was on schedule. This makes the staff and crew a little bit crazy, but it is expedition cruising at its very best.
This was a day that had enough highlights for an entire trip! Morning found us cruising through Frederick Sound in the company of a dozen or more Humpback whales feeding on krill, some using the cooperative bubble-net technique that we had seen earlier up in Chatham Strait. Our breakfast guests were Dr. Fred Sharpe and Pieter Folkens, researchers from the Alaska Whale Foundation, who gave us a “blow-by-blow” account of the behavior of these magnificent animals as we watched them just off our bow.
Near Taylor Bay we encountered a small pod of killer whales that lunged out of the water as they swam powerfully by. These were probably transients, who clearly had an agenda that did not include hanging around the ship to be observed. Fortunately we almost immediately found a much bigger pod of “resident” killer whales that were content to put on an amazing display. This included lunge feeding, breaching, and some youngsters who cavorted in a nearby kelp bed as we watched in total fascination.
After a barbecue lunch on deck, we arrived in Le Conte Bay where the plan was to do Zodiac cruising amongst blue icebergs and flight-seeing by float planes over the spectacular glaciers in the vicinity. However, we discovered that the fjord was remarkably free of ice and it was possible to take the Sea Bird all the way up to the front of the Le Conte Glacier for the first time in about six years. Here we found cliffs of granite and gneiss with waterfalls tumbling thousands of feet into the sea water below. At the glacier there were hundreds of seals on icebergs and an equal number of Bonaparte gulls in flocks heading south for the winter. To top it all off, the Le Conte glacier provided us with several thunderous calvings beneath the icy alpenglow of the peaks towering above.
The best thing about today was that most of what we did was unplanned and nothing that we did was on schedule. This makes the staff and crew a little bit crazy, but it is expedition cruising at its very best.
