A Tale of Whales and a Whale of a Tour
The big black and white killer whale -- his four-foot sail-like
dorsal fin erect and rising from a long sleek black and white
body -- came slicing rapidly through the water, seemingly on a
collision course with our vessel.
Sort of a black and white torpedo with eyes, fin, flippers, and
fluke.
The Kansas lady to my right gave a little gasp. "Might it hit
us?" she asked plaintively.
No time for her husband to answer. Seconds later, and only a
scant four yards from our starboard rail, the orca suddenly
dove, his body and dorsal disappearing from view. His course
took him directly under (not into!) our boat. A mad scramble
ensued as all of us raced through and around the ship's forward
lounge to the port side of the vessel. Most of us made it in
time to see the great dorsal resurface. The creature thrust
mightily with his horizontal fluke and sped away at incredible
speed.
"Oh my," said Kansas Lady, "that was a sight."
"Oh yes," replied Kansas Man, "a sight indeed."
But the great thing was, it was only one of many memorable
moments that day as we cruised the waters of Resurrection Bay
and Kenai Fjords National Park on an afternoon excursion out of
Seward. Our ship was the Alaskan Explorer, one of several
sightseeing vessels operated by Kenai Fjords Tours. In spite of
absolutely rotten rainy weather during some portions of the
trip, we (wife Marilyn and I) enjoyed one of the best waterborne
excursions we have ever experienced. Proof indeed that in Alaska
one should never forgo the pleasures of an outing just because
of inclement weather; just dress warmly, in layers, for it.
The trip began about 11:30 a.m., shortly after we arrived in
the Resurrection Bay city aboard the Alaska Railroad morning
train from Anchorage. After leaving the dock we heard words of
welcome and instruction from not one but two skippers, Chris and
Roy. They advised us:
"Keep your hat on your head. We don't go back for hats unless
you are wearing one."
"If you see any folks in the water, throw them a life ring -
whether of not they are from this vessel."
"A few nautical terms: 'Port' means left, 'starboard' means
right, 'aft' is toward the back of the vessel and the 'bow' is
the pointy end of the boat."
And, "If you feel seasick, go aft to the rail on the lower
deck. Repeat, aft!"
Shortly thereafter we had a tasty lunch, deli-style, consisting
of breaded chicken or breaded fish (or both), apple chips,
choice of light beverage, and cookies.
Our meal was interrupted (we didn't mind) by the sight of our
first critter of the day, a solitary sea otter who drifted by on
the port side of the ship. ("Left?" someone asked. "Yeah,
left.") The creature was reclining in classic sea otter pose -
flat on his back in the water, paws under his chin, with lower
legs and tail tucked up toward his tummy.
"He weighs about 100 pounds and he has," said one of our
captains speaking from the bridge, "one of the densest coats on
earth."
We heard lots of "Oohs," "Aaahs," and "Isn't he darling..."
coming from all over the lounge. One of our table mates, Pat
Horner of New Jersey, was enthralled. "Nothing like this in New
Jersey," she told us. Her daughter, Gayle Newfeld of Kodiak, has
seen plenty of sea otters near her Alaska home digs. But she,
like us, was thrilled as well.
Next on our mammal list came a Dall's porpoise, about a
hundreds yards to starboard. "He's one of the fastest swimmers
in the North Pacific," said the voice from the skipper's mike.
"Flipper in a tux. He weighs about 300 pounds and can travel
upwards of 35 miles an hour." Then - highlight of our trip by
any measure - came our romp on the wild side with the killer
whales (orcas), including the eight-ton male who threatened to
"torpedo" us. Incredibly, during the course of our cruise not
one but two separate orca pods, a half-dozen or so animals in
each group, joined us to frolic close by our vessel. Both
groups paced us, raced us, and surrounded us when we slowed.
They rolled, sounded, made shallow breaches, and approached
literally within inches of our ship.
Once, ignoring the rain and looking straight down from my post
at the forward port rail, I found myself gazing incredulously
into one creature's "blow" hole! Thank goodness he didn't take
that moment to exhale.
Another time the voice from the bridge announced the presence
of Steller's sea lions, the first of several large or smaller
sightings. A big bunch of them, maybe three dozen or more, were
sleeping, lounging, crawling, and climbing on rocky beach ledges
at the base of a steep granite cliff. A few were swimming in the
water, just off shore. Some looked dark gray, almost black;
others were light rusty brown in color. "Actually," we were
told, "they are all the same color. Their fur just looks dark
when they're wet." Whatever their coloration, these were
impressive specimens, weighing in at a ton or more for the
bulls, but "only" 650 pounds for the more diminutive females.
Even from within the lounge of our vessel we could hear their
incessant growls and bellowing.
Throughout our cruise, in spite of the weather, we saw a goodly
number of seabirds including cormorants, American bald eagles,
puffins (with little round "football" bodies and parrot-like
beaks, the most comical-looking bird to fly over and dive into
northern seas), black-legged kittiwakes, and (my personal
favorite) murres. These incredible alcids can dive while fishing
to a depth of 300 feet below the water's surface or more. Wow!
That's equal to the height of a 30-story building. Because of
their black and white coloring some folk call them "penguins of
the north;" I prefer to think of penguins as "murres of the
south."
And what would an Alaska cruise be without glacier viewing? The
ice river we saw and photographed and ogled over that day was
Holgate Glacier. Not the biggest on the Pacific coast by any
means, but a beautiful, classic tidewater glacier with deep blue
colors and an impressive face that calved a few small "growler"
bergs into the sea to the delight of all on board.
Our excursion ended about 5:30 p.m., just in time to board our
rail cars for the return trip to Anchorage.
It was, all agreed, a marvelous tour, one that Alaska visitors
can put in their memory caches as among the best trips in the
north country.
Come this spring, summer, or fall you could do a lot worse than
book one of these tours. More information is available on the
internet at http://www.kenaifjords.com.
# # # Copyright (c) Mike Miller 2006 - All rights reserved