Airport Meter Parking for Our Inflatable

I got a big kick out of speeding across to the airport in the inflatable to drop my girlfriend Lalitha off and tying up at the “short term parking” dock, reading the sign at the dock and dutifully putting $5 in an envelope with the name of our skiff on it and then stuffing the envelope into a rusty old piece of pipe per the posted instructions. Bit different than dropping someone off at Vancouver International Airport!! 

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Rubber Ducks and July 4th Alaskan Style!

Sure enough, we had a lovely display that night that was quite visible through the downpour!! While we waited for the fireworks, we amused ourselves by recovering yellow rubber ducks by the dozens using one of our inflatables. The local chamber of commerce had staged a rubber duck race down the stream that runs through town early in the day and a lot of the “ducks” swept over, under and around the barrier that was supposed to collect them all.

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Lunge Feeding Humpback Whales and Revisiting Wooden Island

The difficulty is that island is at the entrance to Chatham Sound and the dive conditions can be quite challenging. I’m only able to offer a dive there maybe 1/2 the time due to surge, current, sea fog or high winds. Challenging?? YES. Worth it?? ABSOLUTELY according to everyone that has splashed there.

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Bored with Grizzly Bears…

Imagine being anchoring between a gorgeous 150 foot high waterfall off the bow and a pile of snow 250 feet high off the stern while hemmed into a narrow fjord with steeply rising sides that start with hemlock and fir trees 150 feet high in beautiful, different hues of green and then rises up to snowfields and jagged granite mountain peaks 3000 feet above. Incredible stuff. To top it off, picture a good looking grizzly bear grazing in the sedge grass 400 feet from the Nautilus Explorer.

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Hoping to Find Grizzly (Coastal Brown) Bears

Started today off with a hike along Sweetheart Creek, hoping to find grizzly (coastal brown) bears. When the salmon start returning and fighting their way upriver, this is a fabulous spot to watch grizzly bears. We have seen up to 5 grizzly bears at one time here.

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Ghost Diving on the Wreck of the Princess Sophia

Some of the best wreck diving in southeast Alaska is on the old CPR steamships Princess Sophia and Princess Kathleen. The Kathleen is an exceptionally beautiful liner that is amazingly intact, lying on her side in 40 to 120 feet of water. The Princess Sophia is a much spookier wreck to scuba dive on – everything is either black or white or a monochromatic tone on the wreck. There is dense marine life but no colour whatsoever.

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You Anchored Your Boat in the Middle of Our Runway!!

While scuba diving around Inian Island is always fantastic, it makes for a fun break  to go ashore at Elfin Cove during a trip and go for a walkabout – although the walkabout is strictly limited to strolling up and down and around the boardwalk that circumnavigates the small community! It’s very quaint. Very picturesque. Very quintessential Alaska.

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