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Oil tankers filling up it takes about 24 hours |
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7-7-04
Prince William Sound
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Today I am in Valdez and going on a cruise of Prince William sound to a
couple of glaciers. We depart past the end of the Trans Alaska Pipeline
and head out to sea. This trip was by far the highlight of my adventure thus far, and I cant say enough about the Captain, Crew and Stan Stephens Cruises. I highly recommend them if you travel to Valdez. Our captain really loves what he does and it shows every time he points out something of interest. Stan Stephens Cruises is a family owned and operated business and they have top notch people working for them. In fact the captain had his family onboard, it was so great to see someone who enjoys what he does and gets to have his family with him. |
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Check them out here www.stanstephenscruises.com |
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Oil tankers filling up it takes about 24 hours |
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Sea Otters checking out the tourists. |
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A Bald Eagle perched atop a tree |
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A Salmon boat at work, and about to bring in the haul |
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They never actually bring the fish on board the fish tender at left comes along side. |
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They suck the fish out of the water and in to bins that weigh the fish then in to 33 degree water below deck to keep the fish super fresh. If you look really close at the end of the tube by the water you can see fish in it. |
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Stellar Sea Lions |
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This is the navigation aid put on the reef that the Exxon Valdez hit in 1989 |
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Blue Ice carved by waves |
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An Ice Berg from the Columbia Glacier |
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A fishing boat headed to work |
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Orca!!!. I was hanging by the captains station and overheard his conversation with the captain of one of the other charter boats from Valdez. The other captain told him that they had encountered a pod of 8 Orca about 5 miles out. The captain and first mate talked it over and decided to reverse our itinerary for the day in order to catch a glimpse of the pod. The fun part about this, was at this point none of the other passengers knew about this until we found the pod. And what luck was that, it's a big ocean and small whales. The first mate, John was instrumental in finding them, he has excellent eyes and a monster set if binoculars. |
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We only got close to 3 Orca, A baby with it's mother and a large male that was further away. We could see the rest of the pod out in the distance but they were to far away. This is the female. |
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Here is the male with his long straight dorsal fin. |
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And mother and baby diving together. |
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Here is the baby all by his self |
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Here and the next two are a nice series of the female surfacing. |
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And look what John spotted about 5 min after we left the Orca. Humpback! |
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We've been fluked. That's what they call it when the whale shows there tail when diving. this usually indicates a deep dive of 10 min or more, but this one was just showing off. |
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Spray |
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Spray is really hard to catch because the whales exhale as soon as they surface and you cant see where they surface ahead of time |
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A nice shot of these small islands with a good reflection of the background too |
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The Mears Glacier. it's to big to fit in one shot from several miles away |
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The left end of the glacier |
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Some good up close shots of a Bald Eagle |
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Looking for fish in the water |
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Diving for food |
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The eagle has not landed, he pulled out of this dive at the last second, missing his target. Fish or squid. |
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This eagle hung around for quite a while |
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Eagle soaring in front of the glacier |
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One of the first good calving's of the visit |
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A small splash |
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That splash is close to 50 feet high |
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This is hard to see but there is muddy water boiling up from below the glacier under great pressure |
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Here is a cool 3 pic sequence of a humpback's tail. Our second humpback of the day! |
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The Columbia Glacier |
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At this point we are as close as we can get but still 8 miles away. there is to much ice between us |
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You can see how far below the surface the ice goes |
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More cool Blue Ice |
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The good ship American Eagle |
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To go to the next day click HERE |
