When do you start out blue and end up black and white? In Le Conte Bay we started our morning cruising amongst the sapphire burgs calved by Le Conte glacier, then we received a radio call from our ship that killer whales had just crossed the terminal moraine and were heading towards us. Awesome.
Our focus went from sculpted ice bobbing in the bay to a pod of at least five killer whales swimming up the fjord. We maneuvered our boats carefully amongst the ice and were rewarded with views of dorsal fin silhouettes in the foreground and blue bergs as the backdrop. A couple of the boats maneuvered around a humpback whale that had also swum into the bay as we navigated back to the mother ship National Geographic Sea Bird.
The tide was high and subsequently the barrier of the terminal moraine that holds back the largest bergs from floating out into Frederick Sound was no barrier for these marine mammals. Speculation went around as to whether they were transients, going up the fjord for a meal of naïve harbor seal pups, or perhaps a small resident group seeking a fishy meal.
The town of Petersburg was our destination for the afternoon and we filled our time with a variety of activities. Peddling around the perimeter of the island some of our guests came across killer whales once again. To be watching killer whales swimming in the Wrangell Narrows while you bicycle is an amazing event. This is what is known as coloring outside the lines, we left normalcy way behind. Also filling our sunny afternoon were walks in the bog, photo walks, and a mosey to investigate the marine invertebrates dangling on the underside of the floating dock.
Our evening ended with the dismemberment of steaming plates of fresh Dungeness crab. Shells flew, butter sloshed, and appetites were satiated with our authentic Southeast Alaska dinner. A great time was had by all, except for the crabs.
