On Saturday morning, National Geographic Quest made her way through the Tracy Arm Fjord system. It was a beautiful, cool morning as we maneuvered the ship up to the Sawyer Glacier to get looks at the wall of ice, before repositioning the ship near Sawyer Island. From this vantage point, we took our guests out on two rounds of Zodiac tours. Our drivers took guests through a maze of freshly fallen icebergs and small chunks of ice, to get up-close views of the South Sawyer Glacier. While gazing at the massive, brilliant blue wall of ice, our guests were delighted to see towers of ice and sheer granite rock cliffs towering over hundreds of harbor seals hauled out on the icebergs. After the tours, we slowly worked our way out of the fjord, back towards Stephens Passage, taking in the sights of the tall mountains covered in low hanging clouds and the emerald-green waters slowly turning back to blue.
7/18/2024
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National Geographic Quest
Freshwater Bay, Chichagof Island
This morning before breakfast, the bridge team of National Geographic Quest spotted orcas in Freshwater Bay. Eager to see this iconic whale species, the bow was quickly occupied by excited guests, staff, and crew. We could not have asked for better conditions. A sunny, calm morning with at least a dozen orcas! Wow! After breakfast we went ashore at Kennel Creek on Chichagof Island and split into aerobic, moderate, and casual walking groups. After yesterday’s wet forest at Fox Creek, we welcomed the firm, dry ground of an old logging road. Along our walks there were abundant signs of brown bears. One of the two aerobic walks had fresh bear tracks on top of their footprints upon their return. In the afternoon cruising down Chatham Strait, we enjoyed time on deck soaking up the sun when an eagle-eye naturalist spotted a group of humpbacks ten miles away! As we approached, we could see that this was no small group, as twenty-three whales were bubble net feeding! This day will long be imprinted in our memories of wild Alaska.