Chatham Strait and Saook Bay
One could see for miles across the calm silvery water of Chatham Strait as we motored south in search of marine mammals. And then they appeared - killer whales! Five individuals synchronously surfaced nearby and dove beneath the ship, their white markings visible beneath the surface. Other groups flanked our vessel in the distance. This was Southeast Alaska at its best. We watched the whales rise and dive gracefully beside us. One youngster repeatedly splashed and jumped and slapped its tail. They acted as if we did not exist. We were surrounded by orcas, and they seemed to ignore us completely. With thousands of images filling our camera cards, we finally pulled away from these magnificent creatures to continue on towards Peril Strait.
Two morning presentations provided insight into the importance of salmon and bears in the coastal forests and the fascinating world of cetaceans. In addition, several young travelers managed to identify some of the killer whales as part of the AF group based on actual photos matched to a catalog of known individuals.
A true adventure unfolded for the afternoon. The ship anchored at Saook Bay, a scenic site that none of the naturalists had visited before. Due to a very high tide, kayakers managed to enter a stream that wound back into a lovely coastal meadow lined by red alders, Sitka spruce and western hemlocks. Zodiac cruisers discovered large numbers of lion’s mane jellyfish and a number of bald eagles that perched along the shore. Harbor seals stared curiously at the passing boats before sinking out of sight.
The hiking was billed as exploratory, and that’s exactly what it became. Soggy meadows, mucky mud and a maze of bear trails provided our hiking conditions. There were logs to climb over or crawl under. Bears do not need paths as high as those that humans expect. But what an adventure! We were definitely visiting bear country. Bear scat was everywhere. One of the hiking groups encountered a very well-behaved brown bear that was visible to many on the Zodiacs and in kayaks. Its fresh footprints were obvious in the soft mud. That special sighting along with the rugged terrain and dramatic scenery reminded us that Southeast Alaska is one of the truly wild and undestroyed places on our planet.
