Today, as with every day so far on this journey, we were again greeted by humpback whales feeding in the fertile waters of Icy Strait, with one giving us a brief display of lunge feeding. Following breakfast we anchored National Geographic Sea Bird in a small protected cove at George Island in Cross Sound on the western edge of Icy Strait where it meets the open Pacific.
At George Island we did some kayaking and expedition landing craft cruises around the island while others went hiking. Off shore we saw numerous Steller sea lions, a few harbor seals, and several types of birds including eagles, pigeon guillimots, pelagic cormorants, and turnstones. On the hike across George Island we were reintroduced to the lush old-growth rain forest and made our way to an old WWII canon placed here at the north end of the Inside Passage to fend off the Japanese should they have chosen to invade Southeast Alaska.
Following George Island, the lovely Mary Jo Lord-Wild came aboard to give us some insight life in the tiny port of Elfin Cove where she has resided for the past 45 years. We then disembarked to explore Elfin Cove’s extensive boardwalks, photograph the fishing boats, shop a bit, and visit more with Mary Jo at her interesting little museum.
After lunch we took a beautiful expedition landing craft cruise around the Inian Islands. An amazing place and what our Alaskan naturalist Zach Brown refers to as one of the true “power points” of Southeast Alaska. The Inians are located at the top of the Inside Passage where Icy Strait meets the Gulf of Alaska. The islands constrict the tremendous amount of tidal flow that moves through here creating massive rip currents, eddies, and upwelling making it an extremely fertile area. Here we had close encounters with sea otters, humpback whales, many seabirds and cormorants, and hundreds of Steller sea lions.
Now if that wasn’t enough, we then had an incredible humpback show off of Point Adolphus just after dinner. Truly an action packed day!
