Lake Eva, Chatham Strait
As I awoke this morning and slowly made it to the bow, I was greeted by a wall of thick fog surrounding the National Geographic Sea Bird. There were blue skies overhead, which suggested that things were not so bad, but right then and there it was very poor visibility, and not much to see.
We were going to a place this morning called Lake Eva near the east end of Peril Strait, but it was unclear if the fog would lift enough to let our operations happen on time, or at all. Luckily, as we approached our anchorage the fog started to lift, and after breakfast we were on our way ashore. Soon the guests were dividing up into different hiking groups, the aerobic, long, medium, and short. The weather was getting better by the minute, and everyone was excited to be exploring more of this magnificent rainforest of Southeast Alaska. There were a few more options for the morning also, kayaking and Zodiac cruising, both had a lot of participation, and a few lucky cruisers even got to see a mother brown bear and her tiny cubs of the year.
Finally, it was lunch time and everyone went back to the ship to eat and get ready for our afternoon activity of cruising and looking for wildlife. Even though we had escaped the fog on our hikes, it was still around out in Chatham Strait, where we would be traversing during the rest of the day. We were looking, but the white shroud that enveloped us just didn’t want to give us a break!
Just about the time that I was about to throw my hands in the air and give up the fog got thinner and thinner, until it finally started giving us clear view ahead, and to both sides. Then suddenly it was gone completely; we were the clear! Our wildlife search was on again, and soon we were rewarded with the show that we had hoped for, “bubble-netting” humpback whales! They were in the same general area where we had seen them on several recent trips, and a building sense of anticipation went through the ship as we approached for a closer look.
Suddenly, the group of about ten whales erupted from beneath, exploding at the surface with mouths open, taking in huge volumes of water and herring! The weather was perfect, and the whales performed for us time after time, sometimes surfacing right next to the ship. What an awesome display! We were all beside ourselves with excitement.
Suddenly, it seemed as if the show was over as the humpbacks separated and ended their feeding behavior, but there was one exclamation still left to come, several explosive breaches by one of the whales. What a perfect way to end a perfect encounter!
