Wednesday, July 3

 

Awoke to the sounds of the waterfalls right next to the boat.  It was amazing to hear the sounds of the water through the hull as the cabin is below waterline.  We were up and out of there early since it's a 30 mile trip to the mouth.

Found a couple of lunge feeding whales right at the bar at the entrance to Endicott Arm.  It's an amazing diverse area with an abundance of sea life - harbor porpoises, harbor seals, whales, eagles and a huge variety of birds of all types.

On our way back up to the area where we hope to see bubble feeding, we encountered a beautiful pod of 6 orcas.  There was one small whale but probably not a calf from this year.  Dennis thought it was a group that was seen with a calf earlier this year.  I shot video but Adam got a number of great ID photos as he has a permit for both humpbacks and orcas.  The sun was out and the ride was glorious!

Lunch was amazing, as usual.  We had chili, pasta salmon salad, and dilled potato salad with cornbread.  Nobody can ever say we don't have enough to eat!

We stopped to pick up the crab pots - Donna actually caught two in her pot but the largest pot had the most - the pot that used money for bait.  The shrimp pots produced the greatest bounty of the season - a whopping 415 shrimp that Ben, Sharon, and I teamed up to dispatch to that big shrimp heaven in the sky.  We saved the heads for bait and for fish stock.  These things were absolutely enormous!

We headed down past the Five Finger Lighthouse and toward Baranof Island.  The high, snow-covered mountains were a stunning backdrop for our meal of shrimp.  Ben and Nikki kept bringing out huge platters as soon as they were steamed.  We were absolutely blown away with the taste of the shrimp (let alone the size) which was that of lobster.  We ate an obscene amount!

From the area just off of Kake we picked up a singleton that was really traveling quickly through the area.  There seems to be no evidence of herring in this area - no sea lions or birds eating any small fish.  Tomorrow we will try again.  We anchored at Payne Island for the night.

Crab pot video

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l

A little hidden stream
in the fjord.

Triple falls

At the entrance to Endicott Arm,
the eagles stand guard

Wildflowers

Alaskan "beach"

Always be ready to shoot!

415 shrimp!


Five Finger Lighthouse


Probably a male - the
dorsal shows scars.

One way to commute in
Alaska - the Alaska Marine Ferry

 

Dusk

Only a few hours of night
at this time of the year.
 

 

 

 

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