We woke this morning in Sitka to….SUN!!! Sure, there are still some clouds, but one whole part of the sky was just BLUE. Andrea pulled up an urchin from a line hanging over the bull rail: Look at all that blue sky!!! We know, it won’t last, but we’ll take it while we get it! We saw several humpbacks today, some sea lions, another jumpy dolphin, and several brown bears. … Read more
We spent a few days in Sitka soaking up the sights, shopping, walking, going out to dinner, and doing boat chores. We didn’t take many photos here on Airship (sorry), but the days in port are always pretty busy for us. We had a group dinner one night at Mangiare, which was great, and we picked up our friend Andrea who will add some naturalist goodness to this next leg … Read more
We pulled out of Baby Bear Bay this morning around 8:30am so we’d arrive at Sergius Narrows near slack with some time to spare. We got a nice push on the way there, but first, right outside of our anchorage we were treated to this fantastic show by a lone Pacific white-sided dolphin. So much fun watching it leap and twist! We saw a few humpbacks along our route, and … Read more
This morning brought more fog and gray and drizzle, but especially fog. Always good on a day when seiners will be thick along our route, but by the time we left the bay the fog was mostly just a haze, and visibility wasn’t bad at all. There was one packer inside the bay on our way out, and a few seiners in various stages of operation just outside the bay. … Read more
More rain, more gray, still beautiful. The great conditions originally forecast for today changed to just okay, as a low pressure system is headed in. Looks like wind could be increasing to maybe 20-25kts by the afternoon, and this evening might even bring a few 35kt gusts. Airship and Turnagain de-rafted and Turnagain headed to the dock to try a quick hot spring soak before heading up to Takatz Bay. … Read more
I took this photo late last night of Admiralty Dream and a superyacht whose name I can’t remember, all lit up. These boats on charter seem to stay lit up like this all night! Kinda pretty, kinda not. We’d set the prawn traps toward the entrance the day we arrived, but only procured one (very large) spot prawn with that set, so in the morning before we left Kevin headed … Read more
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 … Read more
We left Cannery Cove and Pybus Bay around 6am and headed into foggy but super calm conditions. Our destination today is Explorer Basin on Kuiu Island. Today is a long day (roughly 58nm), and a bit of a detour to make between Pybus and Red Bluff, but the opportunity to see a lot of humpbacks and potentially some bubble net feeding is a huge draw, and today the gamble paid … Read more