All play and no work

Notes: 1. As always, the videos won’t play if you read the email version. Follow the link to the blog site to see it all and view the videos. 2. I have to do the whole blog on my phone on this trip, so fingers crossed that it is readable. Xo, Laura

When I opened the curtains of our cabin at 6am, I noticed a little bubble on the calm surface of the water, then a good-sized fish jumped and re-entered the water about 8 feet away. A salmon, a naturalist told me later. Going to be another good day…

Inian Islands

On our way to the Inian Islands, crew members told us it’s their favorite stop on this tour. Now we know why.

The blue dot on the left map shows we’re near the mouth of the northernmost narrows where the Inland Passage meets the open Pacific.

The close-up on the right shows we’re at the Inian Islands. In a zodiac, a naturalist toured us west and then clockwise around the small island northwest of our ship.

Currents!

Like most narrows, this one presented “interesting” currents. A full-moon flooding tide added even more energy.

Our guide found what looked like calm water and put the engine in neutral. “Let’s see what happens,” he said. I stopped the video when I was about to fall overboard from dizziness.

Some micro-currents chopped like class 1 rapids.

A Deli for the Critters

Some currents cause rapid upwellings that bring fish to the surface. The fish can’t function because they have changed depth too quickly—so they make an easy breakfast for the Stellar sea lions.

Without hands, sea lions are messy eaters. They make an easy breakfast for the gulls.

We saw countless bald eagles. It’s awfully hard to video birds in flight from a moving boat. We saw an adult dive for a fish and a youngster (likely offspring) try to take it away, causing it to drop. Only caught a few seconds.

Sea otters hang out in the quiet coves, fishing, resting, taking care of their babies.

So much beauty, so much life.