Another marvelous day began today. Almost clear skies, a few high clouds, and calm oceans. At daybreak we saw we were already in the southern part of Chichagof Island, at Freshwater Bay. This place was so called, because in the olden days ships would come here to load up with fresh water, at a lovely small waterfall. But we were here to visit this waterfall and the waters surrounding it, as this is definitely a salmon river, with a lake behind the waterfall.
The tides were right for us, as we unloaded our bright yellow kayaks, and took them to the beach. As soon as all was prepared for the guests’ arrival, we began a series of hikes towards the waterfall and that area immediately below it. This consisted of a large flat area, where we hoped to see bears already feeding on SALMON! And yes, we were not wrong. We approached the area slowly so as not to scare the animals, and so we saw two young brown bears, visibly scared of the apparition of a bigger, older male, but notwithstanding, still trying to catch a delicious salmon or dolly varden. And yes, we saw one of them catch a big salmon!
We were always at a safe distance in this place, and if the bears saw us, they definitely ignored us in the heat of the fishing activities. Kayaking was good and interesting, and some hikes were made going further up the lake, to a point with a lovely view. Oh yes, and the MUD!!
Eventually we all returned to the kayak beach, donned our life vests, and were taken back to our ship, the National Geographic Sea Bird, where shortly after, we had a scrumptious lunch.
And then we made our way out of Freshwater Bay into Chatham Strait, and pointed our bow south, toward Peril Strait, that waterway that separates Baranof Island from Chichagof Island, where our sailing south was interrupted by a small group of ORCAS. We began following the animals, which was difficult as they were quite spread out around the ship, mostly at a distance. It seems it was a group of orcas known as transient, that are predators of large mammals. It was fantastic to see these animals even changing direction quickly, probably in search of some prey.
As we eventually proceeded on our way, we then HAD to approach a group of humpback whales that were bubblenet feeding. And again, after some time there, we proceeded again to our meeting with Peril Strait, as we had to be in the northern part of Sergei’s Narrows and cross it at a certain time, due to the tremendous currents forcing their way through this funnel of water.
Dinner was served after a short Recap, and we kept on our way towards tomorrow’s destination.
