It was an early start to the day’s activities as the sun, yet again, bathed Southeast Alaska in glorious light. We set off in Zodiacs to explore LeConte Bay, southeast of Petersburg. Here we cruised through numerous icebergs, bergy bits, and growlers that had been recently shed off the LeConte Glacier, southernmost of the tidewater glacier in North America. The brilliant light reflecting off the ice provided incredible photographic opportunities as we slowly meandered through the bay. The second round of ice tours was interrupted early when a small pod of killer whales broke the surface very close to our lead Zodiac. Our ice-tour changed abruptly, and we redirected our boats to follow the animals back out of the bay, towards National Geographic Quest
After brunch, and a short lecture on glaciers and the ice age, we arrived at Petersburg. Shortly before we docked, our killer whale friends surprised us by once again surfacing close to our ship and only a hundred yards off the docks of Petersburg. We spent the rest of the day exploring this authentic Alaskan fishing town, flightseeing from float-planes or hiking to a muskeg bog on Kupreanof Island nearby, across the Wrangell Narrows.
A crab-feast dinner was next, followed by an informative talk on whale behavior by Dr. Andy Szabo of the Alaskan Whale Foundation. Our evening ended as our day had begun, bathed in late summer sunlight in an area of extraordinary beauty.
