9/2/2006: Rain, rain go away, come again some other day. Spent the afternoon getting ready to take KW into Whittier, and spent the night in it to be ready for tomorrow’s whale watch trip.
Las Vegas not Alaska
The tunnel into Whittier is very interesting built for trains; it is about two and half mile long under a mountain. In 2000 they setup the tracks installing smooth surface between and along side the rails so vehicles can drive through. They alternate directions into Whittier on the half hour, outbound on the hour and trains when they are scheduled or need to go. We won the argument with the toll booth folks, they wanted to charge me $35.00 like a commercial truck, I wanted the MH rate for my size, which was $12.00, and I was ready to pull out the title when they finally got the picture.
When we got to Whittier we found a place with a view of the bay and a large cruise ship, nice fishermen neighbors and it was free. Staying in the KW went much better this time we made Lynn’s bed warmer, not perfect but better. (When we took the truck to the Grand Tetons, it was cold and rainy and her airbed became the same temp as the ambient air, BRRRR!)
9/3/2006: Up at 6:30 AM we went down to the harbor and had breakfast at the Whittier Inn, nice view, OK food. We found Sound ECO’s boat, “Sound Access” before Capt. Gerry Sanger got there. We are ready; I forgot to mention the weather is beautiful, a great sunrise and the fog should burn off the Prince William Sound with the sun.
Headed out of the harbor the water is like glass and some spots of heavy fog running on radar sometimes. As predicted the fog burned off. Capt. Gerry said this was one of the nicest days he has seen on the sound this year.
The scientists from The Orca Whale Foundation are out on their boat today doing research; Capt. Gerry contacted them for info on any pods. We found out they have a pod showing on their satellite feed from a tagged Orca. The Capt. headed for that pod sighting.
When we came into the area we began to spot the distinctive dorsal fins: Orcas (killer whales) have an identifying patch on their dorsal fins, (only on the left side), unique to each of them. We began to spot them everywhere in this area. There were small pods breaching, tail slapping, rolling, doing the spy hop, it was just an amazing sight. We had come upon the whole AK super pod gathered for breeding; we were witnessing an Orca orgy!
The AK pod is a resident pod, meaning this is their home and Capt. Gerry said they are fish eaters only; no seal, sea lions or sea otters on the menu. Transient Orca pods will eat seals, sea lion, otters, and other mammals when given the opportunity. They are the ones who move around. This was a fantastic Mega pod, action everywhere! Capt. Gerry thought he had never seen this many at any one time in the 30 plus years he has worked the PWS as a game biologist. We estimated somewhere between sixty and one hundred Orcas, all doing the breeding thing!
We left this area after an hour of watching and headed to the Icy Bay Glaciers, Capt. Gerry had to find a way into the bay, because there was a lot of floating ice at the mouth of the bay. Once into the bay, we saw the glacier with lots of heavy ice floating at the front of the glacier with hundreds of Harbor Seals laying on it, just a nice sunny day on the ice. Lynn said that it seemed like we were floating in a punch bowl filled with chipped ice and when you consider we are in a 30-foot boat in front of a mile long glacier that was actively calving. I agree with that.
The rest of the day was spent hunting Humpbacks. We found two or three but nothing as active as the Orcas, fun hunting none the less. What great fun!
We came upon some Dall Porpoise pods; these guys are about four to six feet long and are very fast in the water. They love to “bow ride”, swimming in front of the boat and doing crossovers at whatever speed it takes to stay ahead of and circle the boat, throwing up rooster tails of water!
The best way I could describe it is, being the slowest car on the racetrack being passed on both sides and from underneath by everyone! They will make you smile and laugh like a little kid, what a hoot! Getting a clear picture is very difficult.
As we returned to Whittier Harbor we saw a few Sea Otters. Capt. Gerry said this was the best day on the water he has had all season, including sunshine and animal action. GREAT!! After 10 hours on the water, and as the sun was setting over Whittier Harbor, we headed back through the tunnel and to the RV Park. They had a forest rock festival going on, but we were beat, found the earplugs and went to bed.
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