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Alaska Cruise Review: Sea Bird

Monday, July 12, 2004

Chatham Strait and Red Bluff Bay

What an amazing first day of a Family Departure trip! The morning featured two mother humpback whales with their calves. One cow/calf pair napped at the surface, then awoke, then napped again. In between naps the calf took the opportunity to use a patch of floating seaweed as its jungle gym, right before our eyes. The second cow/calf pair was active from the beginning to the end of our encounter. Flipper flapping and breaching, rolling around and around, both adult and kid seemed equally full of energy. To close the morning out a pod of orca were sighted. Orcas live in tightly knit family groups led by the oldest female and their unity was apparent as they swam along practically touching each other.

After a wonderful lunch on the sundeck we headed towards Red Bluff Bay on Baranof Island. There we anchored the Sea Bird and launched kayaks and Zodiacs filled with excited explorers. Fathers and sons, grandparents and granddaughters ventured forth in two-person sea kayaks to view waterfalls and circumnavigate islands. Some returned with the smaller paddlers sound asleep in the forward cockpit. The Zodiac cruisers ventured towards the head of the bay to explore the tidal meadows and the river that feeds the bay. A female common merganser (a diving duck that nests in Southeast Alaska) with four chicks in the water and one on her back, swam upstream at our approach. The duck family successfully dodged a swooping bald eagle by hugging the shoreline and then regrouped near a large rock. All five chicks clambered onto the rock and immediately snuggled together while Mom Merganser maintained a vigilant watch from the top of the rock. In similar fashion the families of the Sea Bird returned safely to the mother ship and snuggled in for some well-earned rest after a day outdoors.

Author: Steve Engel, Naturalist