We left the pier in Sitka on July 10, 2022, and sailed through Sergius Narrows and into Peril Strait in the last hours of light. Our morning was spent sailing toward Sitkoh Bay. Utilized by the Tlingit for thousands of years as a place to fish for salmon, Sitkoh Bay was then settled by August Bushman and later a salmon cannery was built.
For a lot of our guests, today was their first experience in the Tongass National Forest, the second largest rainforest on the planet. It was a typical southeastern Alaskan day as far as weather: misty, rainy, and chilly. This weather allows the forest to thrive, and we saw quite a few banana slugs on the trail. A couple coastal brown bears were seen from the ship, across the bay from the trail and on the logging road we used as a path today. At the end of the day, after dinner, we saw a humpback whale surface and fluke next to National Geographic Quest.
