We left Warm Springs Bay this morning around 8am…partially sunny (mostly cloudy) but not raining. We’ll take it!
An easy 9nm cruise up to Takatz Bay, another favorite stop. We saw some humpbacks north in the distance, but a little too far to go visit…maybe they’ll be there in the morning!
There was one boat here when we arrived, Chichagof Dream, a larger passenger cruise boat, but they usually anchor outside the inner bay…considerately saving the head of the bay for smaller boats. They send their guests out on smaller tenders and kayaks for bear watching and exploring the bay.
Kevin and I went out in the dinghy after a while to look around. First we headed up river to see how far we could get (not that far, since the tide was still quite low), but it was beautiful!
As we slowly cruised the perimeter of the bay, we spotted one bear on the rocks, but after a minute or two, it retreated into the woods.
We pretty quickly spotted another bear across the bay, so we headed over there to get a closer look. This one didn’t mind us at all, so we called the others (via quiet VHF) and pretty soon we had our four dinghies plus a kayak from the small cruise boat floating and watching this bear eat grass.
I neglected to bring any camera besides my iPhone, so all of these are shot with that. Not bad!
After an hour or so with Bear No. 2, Kevin spotted another one over on shore by the waterfalls, so we cruised over there for Bear No. 3.
We left the others watching Bear No. 3 and headed back up river, since we’d killed enough time for the tide to come up significantly…we got way up and around the corner for a peek at the river/falls, but didn’t seen any more bears up here. We did see one on the way in, on the far side of the inner bay, but my iPhone photo was mainly a dark blob on shore, so no documenting of Bear No. 4. Missie and Russ dinghied across to watch it though, so if pressed, we could provide proof.
Tonight, since it wasn’t raining (yet), we opted for another grill night on Airship! Super fun dinner…good food, interesting conversation…an overall great evening.
Also, Bear No. 5 taken from Airship during dinner:
