SO many more whales this morning, right off the bat as we exited Explorer Basin, outside of Tebenkof Bay. Breaching, bubble net feeding, tail-slapping, fin-slapping, all of it! Weather was super gray and foggy but conditions were calm so we just hung out and floated around for quite a while, watching the show.
And a few more for identification purpose (we saw some of the same whales as yesterday, but identified three more new ones):
Eventually we tore ourselves away from the fantastic wildlife show and continued on to Red Bluff Bay on Baranof Island. Airship dropped out by the cannery ruins to wait for everyone else to get space (since there were 4 boats already in when we arrived). Kevin used the time waiting to set out shrimp pots, and then we motored in.
We rafted to Kali to save a little space, which the three more boats who came in after us probably really appreciated. It was FULL in here tonight! Twelve boats, and two of them LARGE (meaning Admiralty Dream cruise boat and a gigantic super yacht that charters for $250,000 per week.
Friends Carol and Parker were in here on their Kadey Krogen Togo. They were on our very first Slowboat flotilla and have been good friends ever since and it was so nice to catch up with them.
The group met on Airship tonight for “Appetizers for Dinner” night … sometimes we do this by accident (meeting for happy hour and filling up on appetizers so we don’t want dinner) but this time we just went for it and made that the plan. Salmon dip and crackers, jalapeno poppers, loaded nachos, corn/bean dip with tortilla chips, mozzarella sticks with marinara dipping sauce…SUPER healthy. Fun, but I’m not sure we’ll do that one again, because vegetables.
We’re planning to move up to Warm Springs Bay tomorrow.
Oh, and we saw one brown bear earlier this evening…swimming across the river and climbing onto shore, then hanging out eating grass for a while. A few photos:
Another great day of wildlife!