It was a beautiful morning as we sailed toward and into Pavlof Harbor. We were greeted by a brown bear mother and cub walking along the shoreline. We dropped our Zodiacs and cruised over to a nearby waterfall, where there was a group of brown bears of different ages catching pink salmon and playing in the water. We floated quietly and watched them go about their fishing. We then set sail through the huge fjord of Chatham Strait, looking for charismatic megafauna. After spotting a bunch of spouts in the distance, we headed toward the shoreline, where we witnessed a dozen humpback whales blowing, fluking, and bubble-net feeding. We celebrated the magnificent day with our final cocktail hour, recap, and the guest slideshow. It was a wonderful way to end our Southeast Alaska adventure.
9/2/2024
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National Geographic Sea Lion
Iyoukeen Cove and Pavlof Harbor
Good morning from Southeast Alaska! Today is our first full day aboard National Geographic Sea Lion and WOWZER it was absolutely a top-notch day! It seemed like a dream, to be honest — this was one of the most amazing first days of the summer season. We woke up and as we sipped coffee on the bow came word from the bridge: “Killer whales off the bow.” We stayed with the animals for an amazing encounter; ID photos were taken and submitted to local researchers. We learned who was who in this family pod: we observed T035A (with her offspring), and her sister T038A (and her calf). After lunch we made our way to our afternoon anchorage, and approximately 4-7 humpback whales were spotted exhaling near shore. Our afternoon activities included kayaking around a small bay filled with sea otters, and then Zodiac cruising up an active Pacific salmon spawning stream in hopes of viewing some bears. And you guessed it — coastal brown bears were at the waterfall, gorging themselves on the salmon traveling upstream to spawn. From sunrise to sunset, this day was one for the record books. All we need now is Northern Lights this evening! Manifesting starts now.
