Under blue skies we sailed to George Island, a small island involved in WWII. Landing on a beach of almost white granodiorite, we separated into different groups for the day’s activities; first, hiking. Under a lovely forest of Sitka spruce and western hemlock, we hiked up a trail to a big cannon that lies in its position to guard one of the entrances to the Inside Passage against any Japanese invasion. This never took place, but we were prepared.

Other hikes led us to the other side of the island to a large beach of almost black sand, and a large area of uncovered kelp, as the tide was very low. Different types of algae were seen – red, yellow-brown and green.

Meanwhile, others kayaked in the interesting bay, where birds were seen in caves. And even others preferred to be taken in expedition landing craft around the island, enjoying its broken rock character.

After all these activities, we sailed off to another anchorage in this group of islands, and began a series of expeditions to an island with a great number of different species of birds, among which were different gulls, cormorants, pigeon guillemots, and even a puffin.

Here we fought the strong tidal flows which bring in the salmon at this time of the year, and watched the fantastic Steller sea lions, also called western sea lions. Many were resting and sunning themselves on the rocks, but others were feeding in the strong current, coming up to breathe and break big salmon into smaller, swallow-able pieces. Small pieces flew around, and were immediately taken by a group of gulls.

This provided us with enjoyment for a good while, when suddenly we had a humpback whale among us. It blew a few times and then it simply fell asleep. As they do so, they “log” or float at the surface, blowing every few minutes. After studies undertaken by scientists in the field, it was found that these cetaceans, or all of them, sleep with half their brain controlling the voluntary breathing, and the other half resting.

During the day we had the opportunity of seeing Dall’s porpoise, and then having some of them bow-ride the ship.