Kelp Bay, Baranof Island, Southeast Alaska
On our first day of adventure we saw the sun come up late in Kelp Bay on big Baranof Island. Alexander A. Baranof, the first Russian Governor of the Russian America Company, started his work in the first capital, on Kodiak Island. Exposed to all the merciless bad weather of the Northern Pacific, it made a terrible place to live. Baranof explored and established the new capital of Russian America in Sitka, then called New Archangel.
Here we cruised slowly in and promptly espied a humpback whale, which we followed. It was soon swimming near us, and we had great sights of its blows, blowholes and enormous back, followed by the huge fluke or tail, as it commenced a longer dive. Quite a while before breakfast we observed the animal, and eventually left it to continue with our search of wildlife. And it was there: salmon jumping, Bonaparte’s Gulls, Bald Eagles, other different gull species, as well as a lonely hummingbird buzzing across our bow. Other humpback whales were spotted and followed after breakfast. This was the time for a series of ship drills, and so the crew did a fire alarm, and all of us did an abandon ship drill. Lunch followed, and by its end, we were at our afternoon’s destination: the end of the South Arm of Kelp Bay.
Kayaking and hiking were the attractions of the afternoon, until everybody got their fill of the lovely temperate rainforest, with at least 160 inches of precipitation a year. Some of us even had the opportunity of seeing harbor seals up close! These animals were here, following the great numbers of salmon beginning their run up the local river. Eagles were also enjoying the extremely rich run of this year, bigger than the runs of recent past years.
On land we had the opportunity to see many meadow plants, including dense patches of salmonberries, interspersed with such different plants as skunk cabbage, the horribly poisonous Indian Hellebore, Northern Blue Geraniums and Sitka Burnets, this last one in the rose family! We hurried to get back to the ship at the end of the day, as the tide had dropped phenomenally. Besides tasting wild plants, on ship, a short while later, we had a wine and western products tasting evening, with lip-smacking cheeses, cold meats and 18 different wine varieties!
On our first day of adventure we saw the sun come up late in Kelp Bay on big Baranof Island. Alexander A. Baranof, the first Russian Governor of the Russian America Company, started his work in the first capital, on Kodiak Island. Exposed to all the merciless bad weather of the Northern Pacific, it made a terrible place to live. Baranof explored and established the new capital of Russian America in Sitka, then called New Archangel.
Here we cruised slowly in and promptly espied a humpback whale, which we followed. It was soon swimming near us, and we had great sights of its blows, blowholes and enormous back, followed by the huge fluke or tail, as it commenced a longer dive. Quite a while before breakfast we observed the animal, and eventually left it to continue with our search of wildlife. And it was there: salmon jumping, Bonaparte’s Gulls, Bald Eagles, other different gull species, as well as a lonely hummingbird buzzing across our bow. Other humpback whales were spotted and followed after breakfast. This was the time for a series of ship drills, and so the crew did a fire alarm, and all of us did an abandon ship drill. Lunch followed, and by its end, we were at our afternoon’s destination: the end of the South Arm of Kelp Bay.
Kayaking and hiking were the attractions of the afternoon, until everybody got their fill of the lovely temperate rainforest, with at least 160 inches of precipitation a year. Some of us even had the opportunity of seeing harbor seals up close! These animals were here, following the great numbers of salmon beginning their run up the local river. Eagles were also enjoying the extremely rich run of this year, bigger than the runs of recent past years.
On land we had the opportunity to see many meadow plants, including dense patches of salmonberries, interspersed with such different plants as skunk cabbage, the horribly poisonous Indian Hellebore, Northern Blue Geraniums and Sitka Burnets, this last one in the rose family! We hurried to get back to the ship at the end of the day, as the tide had dropped phenomenally. Besides tasting wild plants, on ship, a short while later, we had a wine and western products tasting evening, with lip-smacking cheeses, cold meats and 18 different wine varieties!
