A Whale of a Tale 2013

Friday morning about 6:30, this is the view out the door of out 5th wheel.  The water is the inlet from Prince William Sound to the commercial docks in Valdez.  No sense fighting the weather, it seems to always be overcast on this shoreline.  I’m very happy the water is so calm as today we are scheduled to spent about 12 hours on a glacier tour.

We are now on the boat sailing out the same inlet, our camper is the white one, a splash of blue shows the truck.

Lots of critters to be seen, these are Sea Otters, there are a great many of them.  Their job seems to be related to a dogs, they float on their back and watch the world go by.

Of course Sea lions have a much more strenuous duty, they are tasked with guarding the shipping lanes!

 

 

 

 

Soon we see ice, calved off of the Mears Glacier which is 15 miles up this Fiord.  Our tour guide notes that since the ice is ‘dirty’, it must be very fresh.  This berg is about 100’ long, remember that 80% of it is below the water.  The face of the glacier is on the shore line.  Contact with the 34° water constantly undermines it, causing huge block to cleave off or ‘Calf’.  The small dots on the picture on the left are seals resting on the ice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of our folks were lulled to sleep by the gentle movements of our catamaran style vessel.  Anne-Marie wore a patch and was not sick!

 

Proof:  Anne-Marie is shown here holding a fragment of the glacier that was fished out of the water, yes it was cold!

 

 

 

On the trip back, we did see several humpback whales one of which was a calf with it’s mother.  They were difficult to photograph as we never knew where they would appear, often they were at a great distance of the other side of the boat.

Our friends Jack and Betty Dostie captured these to ‘Tail Shots’.  We saw the action but my lens is not as good as theirs.

About 16 of us walked a few blocks to Mike’s Restaurant where we had a very nice meal and shared Fellowship.  Tomorrow is a day off after which we will travel southwest to Tok, AK.  Our 257 mile trip starts with the 7.5 mile 8% drive up Thompson Pass.