We decided to leave early from Flynn Cove today to make the slack (or close to it) at Inian Pass, and also allow some extra time in case there was any good humpback activity near Point Adolphus. There were definitely quite a few whales around the point. Just milling about though, no bubblenet feeding this time.
This one we were able to identify via Happy Whale as SEAK-5383:
The whales came quite close to us as we drifted in place, then headed closer to shore and we continued on.
The published times of slack current at both North and South Inian Pass differ wildly between on onboard Garmin and the Navionics app (like, an hour an a half difference!!) If the current is running 6-7kts at max (as it is today), that mistake could be all sorts of bad for a slow moving boat. We used the onboard Garmin slack times, which turned out to be closer to accurate, but the fact that I use Navionics on my phone for so much planning, it’s frustrating to have them so off (especially when they’re both owned by Garmin!)
The water here is so clear and the color so turqoise!
And this view of the Fairweather range is pretty amazing as we turn north after South Inian Pass, headed for Mosquito Cove.
Sea lions greeted us curiously as we headed in.
After we anchored in what we hope will be a slightly less kelp-on-the-anchor spot than we’ve chosen the past couple years (seriously, we usually pull up a Mini Cooper-sized ball on the anchor every time!), Kevin took the drone up for some stills and video. Here are a few stills.
Kevin made a run past the sea lion coast near the anchorage. I didn’t realize they had their own little swimming area/kiddie pool inside the kelp there near shore!
At first this blob looked like the skinned sea lion we saw a few years back out at Coronation Island after some orcas finished with it (gross, but interesting), but it turned out to be just the gnarly underside of a big Lion’s Mane jellyfish as it drifted pass Airship.
The sea lions are just constantly around the boat here…snarfing and splashing and coming to the surface with salmon, flinging them around to break them up, while the seagulls swoop in for scraps. It’s pretty great entertainment!
This guy was so close I could smell his breath from the pilothouse door!
These two were pretty funny, just watching me from their little two-sealion-pile:
In addition to the sound of all the gulls, the background din of sea lion sounds from the north shore is pretty great…really obvious that we’re on the edge of everything out here!
Kevin also put together a video from his earlier drone footage. Super fun!
Dave and Kyle on Turnagain rejoined us this evening, and we’ll probably head over to Pelican tomorrow!