Ice and the Inians! Today was a day to remember on National Geographic Sea Bird. I’ve often commented that every day aboard National Geographic Sea Bird in Southeast Alaska is like three days at home, and today was no exception.
The early risers were up at sunrise. Now that it’s getting towards the end of summer, this was a reasonable 0615. We were rewarded with a gorgeous view of misty mountains and cloud layers, and we eventually found some breaching humpback whales. We watched these magnificent creatures until it was time for breakfast. As guests ate, we moved the ship along. By the time breakfast was over, we found some killer whales! Everything else gets put on the back burner when we encounter killer whales, and we ended up watching the T86A matriline for over two hours, during which time we witnessed them make two kills, including a harbour porpoise and another unknown mammal. We also documented a new calf, T86A1A.
It was a full day’s worth of excitement all before lunch!
During lunch, we made our way to the Inian Islands, and our afternoon was spent taking Zodiac tours through one of the most dynamic environments in the entire region. We were treated to sea lions, sea otters, sea birds, kelp, upwellings, dramatic light…it was a blast.
Guests returned with huge grins on their faces, and the dinner tables and the lounge were buzzing with stories of the day.
