The Wild World of Captain Dan

Hi! A new entry at last! We were without WiFi for several days. Same as before. Scroll to the bottom for the oldest entries and work your way to the top for the newest. Captions are below the pictures.

Returning to the Small Boat Harbour in Seward. We were sad to see our cruise come to an end. What a day - whales, porpoises, sea lions, sea otters, harbour seals, puffins, eagles and a sailboat rescue to top it all off. Definitely a day to remember! Thanks, Captain Dan!

Bear Glacier in Resurrection Bay.

Our boat was swarmed by Dall's Porpoises. They look like miniature Orca whales. It was incredibly difficult to get pictures of them because they would zigzag quickly from one side of the boat to the other. By the time I took the picture, they were gone. They can swim up to 55 kph and create a spray called a "rooster tail". I ended up with a lot of rooster tail pictures! Thank heaven for digital cameras - delete, delete!!

A bald eagle keeping watch from high on a cliff.

Another cliff dweller - the cormorant.

From a distance they look like penguins ready to jump off the edge, but they are actually common murres who nest on sheer cliff ledges.

Another look at the Steller sea lions on our way back. The western population of Steller sea lions has been classified as endangered. Rookeries are less crowded than they were 40 years ago but fortunately their numbers are on the rise again.

Here you can see all types of seabirds including puffins and kittiwakes swimming or flying always on the lookout for fish.

Another whale fluke. I was so proud whenever I managed to get a good fluke picture!

We met a group of kayakers as we started to head back. There are several kayaking companies in Seward that offer anything from 3 hour introductory tours to 12 day expeditions. Captain Dan threw them a box of chocolate bars to give them some extra energy to keep on rowing.

The crew untied the rope and threw it into the water. The man concentrated on pulling the rope back into the boat while his poor wife did her best to catch up to him in her dinghy. I guess we know his priorities!!!! Their misadventure certainly added some excitement to our day.

. . . until it almost capsized. Then the man on the boat kept reversing his boat until it became free.

Captain Dan pulled the sail boat over onto its side . . .

Our boat's crew retrieved the rope from the lady and tied it off on our boat. Then the fun began . . .

Our boat actually got to participate in a rescue during our cruise. A couple's sail boat got caught on some rocks during low tide so Captain Dan agreed to come to their rescue. The lady rowed over in her dinghy bringing a rope attached to the top of the mast of the sailboat.

I believe this is Red Stone Glacier on the eastern side of the fjord.

A view of the mountains as we were leaving the Northwestern Fjord heading into the Gulf of Alaska.

On our way back out of the fjord we saw more harbour seals. This one was peaking out of the water to see what he could see.

Here you can get an idea of just how thick the ice is on some of these glaciers.

Another glacier in the Northwestern Fjord; I believe it was called Western Glacier. Captain Dan mentioned that they weren't too imaginative when it came to naming the glaciers in this fjord. This one was calving a lot; if you look closely you can see a spray of snow falling down the mountain side.

Cruising the fjords . . . what a great day!

Northwestern Glacier at the base of Northwestern Fjord was an incredible sight. Chunks of ice calving would send a spray of water high into the air. It sounded like a loud crack of thunder. Cruising into this fjord, we were surrounded by several glaciers but only a few of them were tidewater glaciers, glaciers that reach the sea. Others were hanging glaciers or valley glaciers. All were spectacular.

Harbour seals were riding on the ice floes or swimming in the water.

Glacial ice started appearing in the water as we headed around Aligo Point through the Granite Passage towards the Northwestern Fjord.

Steller sea lions soaking up the sun on No Name Island (part of Chiswell Islands). Two of them were upset with each other and you could hear them bellowing and growing at each other.

I did manage to catch the fluke of one of the dozen or so humpbacks we saw that day. Many were too far away to get a good picture.

This is the picture I got - the big SPLASH!

It was an incredible sight and I was so busy watching that I forgot to take a picture. Fortunately Ted befriended a couple from Florida who managed to get these two awesome pictures and were kind enough to let us borrow them from their blog. Thanks, Tom & Nan.

We were fortunate to see this juvenile humpback breaching which is whale talk for jumping out of the water.

One of the many humpback whales that we saw. This one was blowing (exhaling water through its blowhole).

Captain Dan was always on the lookout for marine wildlife to show us and wow, did he come through!

Fox Island - Kenai Fjords Tours has a private day lodge on Fox Island. We stopped here to pick up people who had spent the night in one of the cabins. The tour company also offered a dinner cruise that ended with a salmon dinner and a park ranger presentation on the Island which was very tempting, but I chose glaciers and fjords over salmon and a slide show.

Can you tell I was enjoying myself? Except for eating our continental breakfast and our lunch (chicken wraps, carrots, apples and granola bars) inside, I spent the entire day on the deck. It was so much fun.

Our first marine wildlife of the day - a cute little sea otter doing the backstroke in Resurrection Bay.

Lots of RVers park alongside the beach. It's great until you need water, sewer, power and WiFi. Just call us spoiled. Roughing it is great once in a while, though, especially if it's right beside the ocean.

Seward is a major coal terminal. As we were leaving the harbour we could see where the coal from railway cars is unloaded onto ships which then delivers the coal to Japan.

Meet Captain Dan - our fearless leader!

July 1 - Happy Canada Day! The highlight of the trip for me - a Kenai Fjords Tour to Northwestern Glacier. We spent over 9 hours on our boat - the Chugach - travelling 150 miles round trip. It was awesome!

The Overlook path to the edge of Exit glacier.

You never know what you might see on a glacier hike!!

Seward is known as the "Gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park". Glaciers flowed down to the sea from the Harding Ice Field (300 square miles) and then retreated, leaving behind fjords, deeply carved glacial valleys filled with sea water. A National Park was created to protect the icefield, glaciers, coastline and wildlife. Exit Glacier is the most accessible of the park's glaciers.

A view of Seward from Nash Road.

A monument looking out towards Resurrection Bay. The train on the weathervane commemorates the fact that Seward is Mile 0 of the Alaska Railroad. Alaska's first railroad was a 50-mile track that started here in 1903. It eventually extended all the way to Fairbanks via Anchorage, a distance of 470 miles.

Seward claims the status of "Mile 0" of the famous 1150 mile Iditarod Trail. The Trail was first used by the Inuit and Athabascans as a route to Nome but it wasn't until 1908 that it was officially mapped. It was used extensively by coal and gold miners to carry freight and mail during the winter months. In 1915 1.5 tons of gold arrived by dog team in Seward, mushed by 46 dogs. It is best known for the "Great Race of Mercy" in 1925 when diptheria broke out in Nome and there was a shortage of serum. Serum was taken by train to Nenana from Seward and then picked up by a sled dog relay made up of 20 of Alaska's best dog mushers and teams who carried the serum 674 kms in less than 5 1/2 days. Today the Iditarod is best known as the sled dog race which has its ceremonial start in Anchorage and its real start in Willow on the first Saturday of March. It officially began in 1973 as a way to encourage the designation of the trail as a National Historic Trail and to revive the dying tradition of dogsledding in Alaska. The Iditarod record was set in 2002 - 8 days, 22 hours, 46 mins and 2 secs.

Downtown Seward with Mount Marathon in the background. In 1909, a couple of old sourdoughs made a wager as to how long it would take to run up and down Mount Marathon. This developed into a yearly event around 1915 and on July 4th, competitors from all over run up and jump/slide/skid/fall down the 3,022 foot rocky mountain. It is a grueling run; the world record is 43 minutes, 23 seconds set in 1981. Apparently it usually takes about 35 minutes to climb up and only about 15 to dash down.

June 30 - Seward, Alaska. The town of just over 3000 people was named for William Seward, a member of Lincoln's cabinet, who bought Alaska from the Russians. It wasn't until the 1890s that this area was settled, but its ice-free harbour made it an obvious port. The Small Boat Harbour is home to sailboats, fishing boats and cruisers with beautiful mountains as a backdrop.