Cross Sound, Idaho Inlet and Icy Strait

We started our morning at a bachelor party. This was no gentile cotillion, but a raucous, high-energy display of speed, agility and apparent bravado. After downing a hearty breakfast, we had lowered the Zodiac fleet into the unexpectedly calm waters and cruised a short distance to where a group of (mostly) male Stellar sea lions were getting ready to have a feast as well. Many of these inquisitive animals swarmed around us, craning their necks out of the water in an attempt to get a good look at us or perhaps to see if we might have some fish for them. Their behavior was a fair indication that they occasionally get either handouts or castoffs from the fishing boats that pass through this area on their way to nearby commercial fishing zones. In addition to the roving packs of herring buccaneers, many noisy individuals jockeyed for the best spots on the main haulout rock, strategically located where the fast currents transport large numbers of prey species into and out of Inian Pass at regular intervals. On the rocks below the sunbathing sea lions were patches of coralline algae in bright shades of grenadine, rivaling the sun for brilliance on this remarkably crisp morning. A mother sea otter and her pup and some other individual otters rolled and preened in the kelp nearby, carefully grooming their dense fur into petticoat-like layered perfection as if their lives depended on it, which, in fact, it does.

Our afternoon included hikes through the forest on Chichagof Island and paddling around a much smaller islet across from the mouth of Fox Creek. Paddlers were treated to ideal conditions for a warm afternoon in a kayak while hikers got to enjoy an especially scenic spot, with pink salmon in the stream and bear tracks galore along the trail. We concluded our day on the bow, watching humpback whales and learning about the many interesting features and surprising uses for bull kelp. As the sun lowered in the sky, we turned east toward our next adventure.