Day 32: Boating Around Resurrection Bay and Beyond

An All Day Choppy Small Boat Trip
Whale!

 The good news was no rain and only 3-5 foot swells out on the ocean; the bad news was cloudy, cold, and windy.  The better news is that we saw jumping fish, eagles, otters, harbor seals, sea lions, mountain goats, a variety of birds, and a whale.  However, we only have pictures of a few of them-- the otter, eagles, seals, goats, and of course jumping fish, were elusive.

 However-- the whale obliged.  That's him (her?) in the main picture, and again below.
Whale Again

Whale Diving
Here s/he is again in a short video:





The sea lions were not so much photogenic as too lethargic to even move. Here's a video, but might as well be a still.

Also on the wild-life front, here are murres-- birds that look like penguins when they stand up:
Not Penguins (they are at the South Pole), but Murres

 And finishing with wildness-- here's Lisa on the boat with very wild hair:

Wild Hair!

 The boat trip itself ran from about 8A to 3:30P-- so we had to get up bright and early to make it to the dock on time-- in fact before sunrise.  So, Gene this sunrise picture is for you-- and likely the ONLY sunrise picture you're going to see from us for the rest of the trip (if I have anything to say about it).

Sunrise over Resurrection Bay (taken from our cottage)

The boat ride through the bay was lovely.  Here we are motoring out:

Two Large Motors on our 30ft Boat (it went fast!)


And, here is a short clip:

But when we got to the open ocean it began to get choppy and windy.  Our captain (Stan-- a retired music teacher from Palmer, AK) told us that we would be heading back to the bay early as a storm was rolling in that was forecast to bring 17ft swells-- we were glad of the early retreat, as the 5 footers were about all we could handle.

But still, here I am having a great time (and getting soaked) by the spray:
Lisa looking out at the water from the boat

 Our journey took us past glaciers, calm coves, many rock formations, and gorgeous mountain views. Here are some of the highlights, in no particular order:

Our cabin on Resurrection Bay a seen from the boat

Ocean Spray

Glacier as seen from the boat
Trees growing out of a mountain
Cave an crystal blue water
Conversation Rocks (I think the big one looks like Homer Simpson)

Ocean View Through an Arch


We had a blast on the boat, and were so glad we hadn't booked one of those giant tour ships with 100 people vying for a peek over the rail. (We had just 6 people on our trip.)  However, we were glad to get out of the cold wind and choppy water when it was done.

We headed back to our cottage, and watched the storm roll in.  We've measured 40+ mph wind gusts this evening (yes, the cabin comes equipped with an anemometer).

Tomorrow we pack up and head for Denali (with a stop in the afternoon to visit with Kathy & Tom aka frequent Blog commenter ZippyPinHead).

Until then...

--Lisa

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