It is always a pleasure and a good time having Captain Phil Sammet, his lovely wife, beautiful daughter and all his friends onboard the Nautilus Explorer. Through his many scuba diving charters on the Nautilus, Phil has steadfastly stuck to 2 traditions (a) he will paint the toenails of any anybody that he is able to sneak up on if they are having a nap on a couch in the main salon (b) every trip must conclude with a game of Nautilus Jeopardy with questions based on the many (interesting?) facts presented during my various dive and natural history briefings throughout the trip.
Read MoreI am always up for trying 2 or 3 exploratory new dives on a trip if our guests are “up” for it. The folks on this trip are terrific sports and up for exploratory diving. We lucked out today with the discovery of a beautiful, albeit current-sensitive, pinnacle loaded with invertebrate life including corals, sponges and anemones as well as a giant pacific octopus and wolf eels.
Read MoreThe idea is that the floor will be completely clear and see-through (hence the see-through great white shark cage) and the divers will feel like there is nothing between their feet and the ocean bottom 250 feet below. Nothing that is, except for 17 foot long great white sharks swimming around below the cages.
Read MoreWe tested my theory yesterday on a scuba diving site I named Vancouver Rock (in honour of the legendary explorer of this coast – Captain George Vancouver – I’m a fan of his) and sure enough, found 3 mated pairs of wolf eels sitting in the back-eddy on the ebb tide. Whoooeeee. We went back to Vancouver Rock today for more exploration and one of our guests – James Negris from Seattle – spotted a total of 10 WOLF EELS on one dive!
Read MoreJust imagine calm glassy water with the vivid green of tall spruce, hemlock and fir trees towering along the shoreline and then steep granite cliffs that transition into snow covered mountains rising over 3000 feet right above us. Top it off with a roaring waterfall and the odd grizzly bear wandering around the estuary and it becomes hard to imagine anything more beautiful.
Read MoreI made a fast 180° turn in the Nautilus to keep them in sight and was taken aback when I realized that they were swarming a large adult humpback whale. It was hard to see exactly what was going on because of all the splashing. I assumed that the orcas were actually attacking a humpback whale calf and that the mom was defending her offspring from the orcas. Despite all the excited splashing and fin slapping and all the other stuff going on, we weren’t able to see a calf and can only assume that the orcas took a run at the adult humpback. I’ve never heard of such a thing before!
Read MoreThe good news is that the icebergs don’t seem to pile up in the 200 feet wide opening in the bar. The bad news is that today – for the first time ever – the grounded bergs obstructed the opening! I did some careful maneuvering with sharp 90° turns with 3 knots of current running and managed to squeek my way in. It was very tight and I had to use a lot of power but we made it in. The sheer volume of ice inside the fjord was awesome and we got some magnificent images of a huge ‘berg towering above the Nautilus Explorer with solid ice packed appearing to be packed all around us.
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