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Alaska Cruise Review: Sea Bird

Saturday, August 07, 2004

Takatz Bay/Lake Eva

We awoke to find the Sea Bird gently cruising through the calm and misty waters of Takatz Bay on Baranof Island. After the frantic marine mammal activity that we experienced right up to bedtime last night, it was almost a relief to experience tranquility for a change. The pace picked up a bit as we got a close up view of Kaznyku Falls, complete with an optical illusion of the rapidly growing forest for those who engaged in Linda’s exercise in retinal continuity.

Continuing up Chatham Strait we saw the occasional whale or harbor porpoise, but nothing in the performance mode that we saw yesterday. The highlight of the morning was Andy Szabo, a researcher with the Alaska Whale Foundation, who explained the behavior of the whales that we had been observing.

After lunch we anchored in Hanus Bay where we planned to hike, kayak and do Zodiac tours along the shoreline. The hike continued the theme of tranquility, as we walked through an old growth forest and observed a salmon stream that seemed to be filled with fish that were temporarily exhausted from their labors to get upstream from a section of waterfalls and rapids. The long hikers continued on to view some of largest Sitka spruce trees in SE Alaska, where quite a few group photos were taken. On the trail, huge brown bear tracks were found and casted in plaster. Fresh scat and salmon carcasses were also seen, but the hikers were a bit disappointed that no large, furry land animals were around. However, as the hikers were passing the salt marsh lagoon, kayakers observed a very large brown bear moving up from flats into the forest in the same vicinity. After the hikers passed by, the bear moved back down to the salmon stream where it demonstrated its remarkable salmon fishing skills to a very appreciative audience of kayakers and Zodiac riders.

We ended the evening with a passage through the treacherous waters of Serguis narrows on our way to Sitka and the end of our voyage. Tomorrow we will depart the Sea Bird and return to our homes in many different parts of the world. However we will share an absolutely remarkable experience of what it is like to travel through the wilderness of Southeast Alaska.

Author: Marca Kidwell-Babcock, Naturalist; Photo: Cindy Manning