July 29: Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska
Bob: We arose bright and early, had a quick breakfast, and hustled back along the shore side path to the marina where the aptly-named "Spirit of Adventure" was moored. We installed ourselves right behind the front windows on some (thankfully!) very comfortable seats and spent the whole day wandering amongst the fjords of the Kenai peninsula on which Seward, Alaska, lies. |
Monika: It had rained half the night but in the morning it was clear and sunny and we had great hopes for our trip. I got a little concerned when they could not find our tickets. But they had us in their computer and printed us new ones. So we settled in to our table 22. We were joined by a young woman from China who had been at a conference in Anchorage. |
Bob: The fjords are magnificent; small rocky islets and the shoulders of mountains jut up out of the crystal clear blue water. Inside each of the major fjords are glaciers that are streaming down from the Harding Ice Field located on the high central plateau in the middle of the Kenai Peninsula. With a boat as small as the Spirit of Adventure, we could carefully thread our way past the small ice floes, which went "clunk, thump" as they slid around our hull, and right up to the edge of the glacier. There we would watch small icebergs calve off the face of the glacier with a sequence of sounds like "crack, crack, CRACK, SPLASH!" |
Monika: Our ship steamed up to two different glaciers and we watched and listened to the calving while watching the floes in the water. |
Bob: Did you know that besides the noisy crack and crash of icebergs calving off into the water, glaciers also have a gentle "hiss"? We heard that hiss when we surrounded by ice flies at the foot of the Hobart Glacier, and it turned out to be the sound of the ancient bubbles of compressed air (formed during the thousands of years of compression ) being released from the melting floes. I had never even heard of that phenomenon before, so it was completely unexpected. We also felt "glacier breath" the cold catabatic winds blowing down off the surface of the glacier. |
Monika: One of the crew members brought up one of the ice floes, and boy was it heavy and cold. They then used it to make a rather delicious tequila (I know from experience). |
Bob: While cruising in the fjord, we saw the nesting rocks of small, plump, orange-beaked puffins with their ridiculously tiny wings. They seemed to struggle to fly up from the water, and our Captain said that when they ate a maximum meal, which was 40% of their body weight, they actually could not fly until they had digested it. The puffins could, however, cling like limpets to the sheer rock walls of their rookeries, and looked perfectly secure while perched up there. Many other sea birds flew by, and a "pod" of killer whales (orcas) majestically and serenely cruised the fjord with us. Less majestically, a family of porpoises frolicked around and under our boat and seemed to have fun with us before continuing on their merry way. |
Monika: Steaming down Resurrection Bay we had our first wildlife sighting, a pod of 3 transient Orcas. I did not know there were three different types of Orcas, the ones staying at the same spot are usually in somewhat larger pods, led by a female, and feeding mainly on fish. The transient roam far and away, are in small pods, and eat exclusively mammals. And then there are the deep water Orcas about little is known. We also went past a colony of puffins. Yes they really are as colorful as depicted. |
Bob: We also saw humpback whales in the distance and some mother and baby sea lions sleeping on their breeding grounds on a rocky islet--some old males were sleeping nearby but the young males were out cavorting along the coast. Typical. The most unexpected sighting was a huge "swarm" of moon jellyfish and lion's mane jellyfish about as large as our boat. The slightly whitish jellyfish were so densely packed together that they turned the deep blue waters of the fjord a light aqua color. Why do they do that? Very odd but very interesting, although I took great care not to fall overboard while we were next to them! |
Monika: Our next sighting was a humpback whale, then there were porpoises playing around the boat, and a colony of sea lions. |
Bob: So after watching a "raft" of sea otters floating on their backs in the sun, who seemed as curious about us as we were about them, we reluctantly turned back toward Seward. It was truly a magical day of exploring a unique ecosystem set in breathtakingly beautiful scenery, the equal of anything we have seen anywhere in the world. We counted ourselves lucky to see it all on a bright, clear, sunny day as the weather is very fickle in the coastal area, with a high likelihood of cloudy and/or rainy weather. But if you get up to Alaska, try to carve out time to see the Kenai Fjords on a nice day. |
Monika: Once inside Alarlik Bay and close to the Hogart Glacier, we saw a raft of sea otters lazing around on their backs. My worry about the weather had been needless. We had an absolutely gorgeous, sunny day, saw beautiful scenery and a wide variety of wildlife. |
