Early start today! We wanted to get back to Juneau with enough time to do some more in town stuff before Taylor and Lauren have to leave in the morning, so the alarm was set for 5:30am. I know, ew.
Kevin and Taylor popped out to retrieve the crab traps…they were full, but full of females! Two too-small males, about 30 females — 17 in one trap! Taylor snapped a photo before they unloaded and threw back all the crab.
We cruised north up Stephens Passage, and just as we were past Tracy Arm, along shore we spotted a humpback spout. We slowed to see where it would come up, and it next came up not too far off our bow, then dove. We put Airship in neutral and just drifted a bit. But about one minute later, the young whale breached right in front of us! Several times! We noticed it was stuck on some gillnet (kind of looked like it was trying to show us) but it didn’t seem to be interfering with its ability to dive or breach or slap its tail. Looked like it was trying to get the dang thing off!
We called the non-emergency Coast Guard to report the entanglement and the location, and they connected us with a woman at the whale entanglement division of NOAA, Juneau Sector. They were super thankful, said no one had reported the incident or a missing gillnet. We emailed high resolution images to her, and a little bit later we heard a sécurité call on VHF 16 asking mariners to keep an eye out for the entangled whale. Looked like a young whale, but not young enough to still have its mama with it. Poor thing!
Today, it’s gray and rainy, but we aren’t complaining at all. We got so lucky with the weather for this past week!
After we got to Juneau and did the quick boat chore things, we all suited up in our rain gear and boots (the rain was actually pretty heavy at times, but didn’t stop us) and headed into town. Lauren snapped this photo of Kevin and me near the boatyard as we headed to town:
We made dinner reservations the day before for In Bocca al Lupo, but no availability until 8pm (late when you’ve gotten up at 5am!!) so we had some time to kill. We decided on a local sampler for lunch: a reindeer corndog at Alaska Fish & Chips Co., then dumplings at Pel’meni, then a beer at the new Harbor Mountain Brewing Co.
We stopped at the Sealaska Heritage Center again to check out the gift shop, and Lauren and Taylor got to see the exhibit on traditional native fishing methods.
We wandered about town a bit and went in and out of some shops until it was time for dinner, then had a wonderful meal at In Bocca al Lupo. We haven’t been in a couple years because timing just didn’t work out, but we were glad we went back. Food was great!
Taylor and Lauren leave in the morning (sad face)…we had SUCH a fun time with them — some of the very best boat guests ever!