Scenic and Wildlife Cruise--July 23

This was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and it was clear. This was a 9 hour cruise out thru the Valdez Narrows into Prince William Sound. I have pictures as we pulled out of the dock that shows the other side of the port where the oil tank farms are located and the tankers are filled. The tanker Sierra was being filled the day we were on the water. They also have a power plant that burns off the vapor fumes from the filling and it also produces electricity. Since the spillage they have plenty of booms and a ship to contain sucked up oil and other things incase of another spill. I guess the coast guard was lax in upgrading a particular radar navigation out near a point--they had diverted funds for its modernization to other places and this is what happened. We as people in the U.S. seem to be short sighted--we don't think ahead and then have to react to situations. They also failed to test the pilot early enough for alcohol and I guess he was a well known heavy drinker and was drunk at the time. Also he ran into heavy ice and wanted to change shipping lanes to avoid it but the Coast Guard wouldn't allow him to do this. He also put another man in charge while he went to his cabin and thru mistake or miscommunication the accident occurred. All around the sound is the Chugach Mts.

We saw lots of cute sea otters with pups. We went past an area where the fishing boats were very busy. They use different types of boats but one is called a seiner which puts out a large net and then pulls it in to put its catch in the hold and there is a small helper boat or skiff which helps keep the net out of the props and they are called purse seiners. Then you have large boats called fish tenders that come out from the canneries to suck the fish out of the fishing boats so that they can keep fishing and not have to continue to go back to the cannery. While in Homer we saw the Time Bandit and then here we saw the Northwestern and the Kodiak ships that are featured on "The Deadliest Catch" tv program. We saw beautiful Anderson Falls coming down the mountain side and then Andrews Rocks which sits out in the shipping lane. After passing there we went past Buoy #9 where several sea lions were resting.

Our captain was a 30 something female--real nice. She then took us up to the Columbia Glacier which is a tidewater glacier. There are about 4 different types of glaciers:tidewater, piedmont, cirque and hanging. The Hubbard Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in Alaska and Columbia is next. Columbia is the 2nd fastest moving glacier in the world. It travels about 80' per day and discharges 2 cubic miles of ice into the sound annually.It is currently 34 miles long, 3 miles wide and 3,000' thick. It is the biggest North American glacial contributor to increasing sea levels and boy did it get colder the nearer we got to it. I was out on the bow all of the trip going and some of it coming back until I went into the wheel room and that was a magnificent view. It was very large and there were others up there so I stayed for a good while. I digress. Then we went thru the glacial passage of ice. She showed us Miner's Bay which was the epicenter of the 1964 earthquake and the mountains on that side rose and on the other side of the sound they shrank down some.

They served us lunch as we were going thru the glacial passage which was very good (baked chicken on rice with a white sauce over, various colored wax beans and a stick of bread and lemonade). It would have been even better had I been able to eat it hot---just after we were served(last) she told us she had sighted a humpback whale so up top I went. It was a nice sighting. It doesn't jump a lot but some and we had a few tail flaps and after a while I went back to finish lunch. We did see more on the way home. Whales are always a treat but we haven't been able to see an Orca yet.

She took us to see the Meares Glacier next. It is known for its calving or breaking off and falling parts of the glacier. We saw small pieces but no large hunks but you could hear it groan. As we went back she showed us Bullhead Point where a lot of Stellar Seals hang out and there were a lot of them. The tankers have to have pilots who are familiar with the area come on board and guide them thru the Sound so the pilots work 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. There is a cove where two boats are kept--one is for accomodations while the other is to take them out to the ship which is in motion and no matter the weather they have to board her by way of a ladder up the side of the ship--very dangerous. It was a wonderful cruise and of course we saw our different birds.

We arrived home at 8pm and took off for the fish hatchery where it was reported that because of the salmon returning to the stream a mother bear with 3 cubs was frequenting the area to teach them how to fish. The night before others saw them up close but while we were there and we were there until 9:45 they decided not to arrive. We will try again tonight after our potluck. A wonderful day.