Another long day underway today, so we all left the anchorage before 6am. Once out in Frederick Sound we had some low clouds and a little chop, but eventually the chop evened out and the sky started to clear. There were quite a few other vessels showing up on AIS that we couldn’t see visually…a tug towing a barge, a couple cruise ships, fishing boats, a pleasure boat or two….lots to pay attention to!
We eventually began feeling some swell from the south end of Chatham Strait where it opens to the Pacific…which was not uncomfortable and just serves to remind you where you are.
We saw a few humpbacks scattered along our route, and as we approached the north end of Tebenkof Bay, Ralph and Jeanette on Free Solo (a couple hours ahead of the rest of us) texted us to tell us there was a pod outside the bay bubble net feeding. Woohoo!! Fingers crossed they would still be there when we arrived. Sure enough, as we neared our Explorer Basin turn-in point, we spotted two pods of humpbacks bubble net feeding.
I got some unintentionally close up shots of one of the pods as they popped up pretty close to Airship and crossed our bow (we were stopped) and wow these are huge huge animals.
It was a super exciting day for us all…everyone in the group got to see the bubble net feeding, plus more Dall’s porpoises, lots of otters, and a who bunch of eagles. We’ve had summers up here where we haven’t seen any bubble net feeding at all…so glad this won’t be one of those summers!
We’re all anchored in Explorer Basin now, and the sun even came out for a bit.
Kevin took his new Mavic Pro (the one with the Hasselblad!) up for some shots of our anchorage:
We’ll do dinner on our own tonight, and then head up to Red Bluff Bay tomorrow morning. What a great day!
