Another typical day in Alaska, beautiful clouds and weather. In the morning we sailed away from Petersburg, into the Wrangel Narrows, where we had the opportunity to see Steller sea lions, bunched in two buoys at the entrance to this very useful waterway, the short way to Seattle. Big ships cannot navigate it, as it is too narrow. It is also called Christmas Tree Alley, due to the big number of blinking red and green light navigational aids.
Reaching its beginning, we turned left into Frederick Sound, where we sailed a good part of the morning west, towards Chatham Strait, that huge north-south water avenue leading to the northern parts of Southeast Alaska. We had a special watch for marine mammals, but only saw Dall’s and harbor porpoise.
After lunch we reached Chatham Strait, where we set off into the west, towards huge Baranof Island, one of the three islands (A, B, C: Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof), which only harbors brown bears, also known as grizzlies.
Our crossing went well, and soon we were in sight of Red Bluff Bay, where some big hills at the seaside are brownish-red in color, and almost devoid of trees. This is due to the poverty of that rock in essential minerals for the trees and other plants, plus the presence of certain heavy metals as chromium and also of magnesium. Some plants live in small furrows in the rock, where soil has accumulated along the years, and short weeds and bushes are represented there.
Very slowly we entered the bay, along a very narrow path, turning quite often, and found ourselves in a secluded little jewel, where we slowly sailed deeper, towards a meadow at the very end. But en route, we encountered dozen of small waterfalls, and then as if by magic a very large waterfall that roared into the water around our ship. Very high and steep mountains surrounded us on all sides, all covered in a late winter/early spring weeklong snowfall. And to our surprise, very high up on the steep slopes of one of them we saw a lonely mountain goat!
Different birds were seen in the water, as well as in the air; among them, bald eagles, crows, ravens, different gulls, and other diving ducks. At the end of the meadow were to be seen lines of pink shooting star flowers!
Eventually we had to leave this marvelous almost-fairy land, head out to the open ocean again, and proceed to our destination for tomorrow!
