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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Basket Stars Stomping All Over Poor Old Gorgonian Coral

By on June 25th, 2008 in Archive

Just to make things more interesting, vast numbers of basket stars are all over the place, waving their tentacles around and clambering all over the poor old Gorgonian coral trying to get “first dib’s” on inbound nutrients. I kind of feel sorry for the coral!

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Exploratory Alaska Diving and 5 Grizzly Bears!

By on June 20th, 2008 in Archive

Today’s exploratory secret dive site is a spot that I have wanted to dive for some time and it does indeed have excellent potential. Divemaster/engineer A.J. trumped the scuba diving by taking a group of guests out in the inflatable for a shoreline exploration and discovering 5 grizzly bear in the process! We steamed back in the Nautilus Explorer later in the day and had a grand time watching a grizzly (coastal brown) bear rummaging around in the sedge grass on the beach. It was almost equally entertaining when a young fellow in a Boston Whaler zipped past us, beached his skiff beside a small glacier, and started shovelling ice from the glacier into the front of the Whaler. That’s truly ice cubes Alaskan style!!

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