“Good morning everyone, it is 6:45a.m., it’s a sunny morning, and we have killer whales in front of the ship! Please come join us on deck to view these magnificent animals.” This was our start to the day – sunshine, and the top predator in the sea swimming along with National Geographic Sea Lion as we entered Kelp Bay. Kelp Bay is the largest inlet on the east side of Baranof Island, with access from Chatham Strait, and a special place for our morning’s activities!
Breakfast was delayed a few minutes so we could continue to enjoy our traveling companions, but eventually we headed to our anchorage, and breakfast, thinking we had left the orca behind. Little did we know that the animals had the same destination in mind. So as we dropped anchor, we looked behind the ship to see several of our killer whale friends slowly approaching the mouth of our anchorage bay. Soon they did a turn-around and headed back toward the main bay, and we started the morning’s activities – walks through the rainforest and kayaking on placid waters!
It was back-on-board for lunch, and cruising for wildlife through the afternoon. Bald eagles, harbor seals, scoters, and a northern sea lion were just a few of our wildlife encounters along the way. But as a finale, we had a good look at another humpback whale as it lazily cruised out of Kelp Bay with National Geographic Sea Lion. Another great day in this wild and magnificent place, Southeast Alaska
