Western Canadian Rockies (WCR) – Day 14 – Day at Sea

It is Sunday June 23 and we will sail at sea all day.  I went up to the top deck early this morning to see what the sights were available.  Almost immediately, I see something that created a splash towards the bow of the boat (I’m standing at the back, aft, deck area).  I watch the spot to see if something comes back up and finally after the ship has gone by, I see an Orca.  You can see the white on the cheeks and the tall dorsal fin that indicates the Orca as a male. 

 

It came up again and I get one more picture before we quickly pass it by and no longer able to get a good picture.

 

The mountains along the coast remind me of the mountains that we have seen throughout this trip; snow covered and lots of them.  Only these mountains are much further than the ones we were driving past. 

 

As we sail down some of the straights on our way to Juneau, we continue to pass mountains still covered in snow.  As you can see from my picture from the lounge chair, sorry my feet are in the way.  Ha, ha, ha, Donald this is for you. 

 

Later on, we passed the Mouse's ship going in the opposite direction on the port side and on the starboard side, these mountains.  The weather just simply perfect for a day at sea and the mountain views, what can I say – fantastic.

 

Along one of the straights we passed, we saw two humpback whales.  As I watched them, a boat passed by in the background, never slowing down to watch the spectacle.  Guess they are used to the sight.

The humpback whales were some distance behind the ship but I saw them as they breached and I was able to get a picture.  Here the humpback is raising its tail for a deep dive.

We have also seen a large number of logs in the water as we pass by.  Some of them are quite large and like this, one still has part of the root ball attached.

 

Looking back along our course you can see the views we have had.  Mountains on both sides of the channel, some still snow covered in late June.

 

We have seen several of the people that were on the bus tour with us at different times.  Here Carmen is talking to Mabel (on the left) and Rita. 

 

A crab boat passed us by with all of its crab pots still on board the ship.  I hope that the crabbing was good.  Speaking of crabs, they have crab cakes as an appetizer on the menu tonight.

I took more pictures of the mountains and coastline not much different from the ones I’ve already shown you.  Different mountains, one just as fantastic and snow covered as the next, so I will not bore you with more mountains pictures.  But, I did take a picture of a waterfall that we could see from the ship.  It was a series of waterfalls and cascades ending in this falls and cascade into the sea.

 

Near sundown as I was out on deck to view the sunset and take some pictures, I took this picture.  I’m not sure what the phenomenon is, but the island is not that tall as the optical illusion caused by the cloud or temperature inversion.  I think it is similar to seeing water on a hot road, neat wouldn’t you say.

 

Here is a closer view of one of the islands.

 

Sunset is almost here and there are not many clouds so the sunset should not be so dramatic, but we will see.

 

The sun is setting and by the time it has fallen below the clouds, it was after 10:30 pm.  Yes, I said 10:30.  Pretty late and even at 11:00 pm it is still fairly light out.  Oh well, we have an inside cabin so we should not have much trouble getting the cabin dark.

Tomorrow is our stop at the city of Juneau where we will travel to the Mendenhall Glacier so until then, Bob and Carmen.