Slammed by Icebergs

By on July 8th, 2008 in Archive

The 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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Swimming Scallops by the Thousands

By on July 7th, 2008 in Archive

We staged 2 mystery dives today while hiding from the weather and really lucked out with the second one when I anchored on top of a pinnacle that was absolutely loaded with swimming scallops (aka pink and spiny scallops). Stupendous sheer drop-off and I managed to place the anchor right on the edge of the precipice. These scallops are hilarious to watch.

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Airport Meter Parking for Our Inflatable

By on July 6th, 2008 in Archive

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!

By on July 4th, 2008 in Archive

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

By on July 3rd, 2008 in Archive

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…

By on July 2nd, 2008 in Archive

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

By on June 30th, 2008 in Archive

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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