Waterfall, Pavlof Harbour
Corinne, Pavlof Harbour
Lunch on Sea Bird, Pavlof Harbour
Killer whale, Chichagof Island
Killer whale, Chichagof Island
Humpback whale, Chichagof Island
The bridge, Sea Bird, Chichagof Island
How lucky are we? Another glorious day greeted us as we headed up into Freshwater Bay on Chichagof Island in early morning sunshine. At breakfast time we dropped anchor in Pavlof Harbour.
With the zodiacs for transport we all moved across to a rocky beach where we entered kayaks and explored the bay until a bear came out from within the forest and moved around to the river and waterfall. We followed in the kayaks and the brown bear seemed unsettled by our presence even though we were fairly close.
We watched him catch, or attempt to catch fish for an hour or so until another larger brown bear appeared on the scene. Being intimidated by this more powerful preditor, the smaller bear retreated and then the other bear did too, leaving us with just memories of an encounter of serene power and magnificence.
In the afternoon we had the great joy of being surrounded by killer whales (orcas) who moved continually around the boat as if on a mission to capture fish that were invisible to us.
The pod of about six orcas followed the boat for an hour, moving in unpredictable paths backwards and forwards, usually on the surface for three breaths before descending and then resurfacing. We had much fun predicting where they would appear next and on some occasions they were right under the boat. The high dorsal fins with their notches and height were quite different for each animal and enabled us to recognise the orcas that were following closest to our boat.
Humpback whales were frequently sighted during the afternoon and on one occasion a few started performing tricks with corkscrews from the water, breaching twists and tail slapping.
After an entertaining day of photographing wildlife we were entertained to a final night’s cocktail party and dinner hosted by Captain Cook.
A magnificent end to an unbelievably wonderful trip!!