Alaska Continued

Yesterday we disembarked the wonderful MS Statendam. Although our group was sad to leave the comfort, amenities, wonderful service and outstanding cuisine of the ship, we were excited about the second half of our Alaskan Adventure.

The land portion of our trip began with the Kenai Fjords National Park Tour; a boat trip which departed from the Seward's Small Boar Harbor. It was rainy and bit a chilly, but our enthusiam was not dampened as the trip promised to be an in-depth experience showcasing the Kenai Fjords National Park's abundant wildlife and alpine and tidewater glaciers. It was a promise that was kept!

Our group had the good fortune to be assigned to the newest vessel to join the fleet, the m/v Orca Voyager. She was commissioned into service in October of 2008 and provided excellent views from every angle (inside and out). Kenai Fjords Tours has combined the expertise of their captains—certified through the National Association of Interpretation—with the National Park Service to bring a multi-dimensional experience to their National Park Tour.

We cruised from Resurrection Bay and then through Harding Gateway and headed toward Aialik Glacier. Here I was thrilled to hear and see the loudest and most spetacular calving I had yet to experience. On our way we saw cormorants, horned and tufted puffins, bald eagles and common murres as well as sea lions, sea otters, and habor seals. We continued on past Holgate Head, Harbor Island, and Chisell Islands, with more wonderful wildlife viewing but as the six hour trip seemed to be coming to an end, we were all rather sad that we had not seen the "big one". But then with about an hour left of our journey, the captain reported that another ship had seen some whales, so we changed course slightly in quest of orcas.

As I stood on deck I heard from inside a shout of "port side - ten o'clock". My hands shook with excitement as I grabbed my camera and binoculars simultaneously. Off in the distance I saw the "blow". The captain announced that we were in the midst of a pod of orca whales and that it was possibly a "super pod" which is a combining of several pods; and that is exactly what it turned out to be. We then spent twenty minutes in what could be called "orca heaven". We experienced blows (the exhaling and replenishing of oxygen through the blowhole which produces a spray that can be seen up to a mile away) and flukes (the lifting of the tail as the whale begins its dive). And then I saw one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life - a complete breach of an adult whale. During a breach, a whale thrusts at least 75% of its body out of the water but this whale must have been an over-achiever because his entire massive body was completely out of the water. What a thrill!

If your travels ever find you in Seward, Alaska, this tour is not to be missed. And who knows; maybe you'll have the same luck that I did and experience the grand champion "breacher".