We arrived to the Inian islands early in the morning surrounded by fog and the National Geographic Sea Bird slowly made way to its anchorage at the Hobbit Hole while using the fog horn every few minutes. Some blue could be seen in the sky above though, and soon the fog lifted just in time for our morning explorations using our expedition landing craft. Located between the northern portion of the large Chichagof Island and the Fairweather range of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in the mainland, the Inian islands form a small archipelago that acts as a bottleneck where the strong tidal currents speed-up several times every day. Such dynamic waters bring a lot of schools of fish and nutrients—and the local Steller sea lions, bald eagles, and pigeon guillemots know about it. The big waves are no obstacle to the growth of the giant, dragon, and bull kelps, forming true underwater forests where sea otters and harbor seals look for their fish or invertebrate prey. Even mink like to forage on the intertidal area to capture small crabs and fish. All that and more we admired during our great morning outing.
Just a short distance away from the Inians is the small fishing community of Elfin Cove, and we headed its way to get to know a little bit about life in rural Alaska. We walked its plank boards, sent postcards from its tiny postal office, and visited its local store. After going back to our floating home, we traveled a few minutes to nearby George Island, where we kayaked its shoreline or hiked to the site of a former WWII emplacement to see an abandoned canon.
After leaving George Island, the National Geographic Sea Bird headed toward the entrance of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve to get ready for a wonderful day tomorrow; the late afternoon light was just great when we encountered a trio of transient killer whales. We watched them as they chased and presumably captured a harbor porpoise: the little guy was sent flying into the air once and never seen again. Such display of strength and drama made for the perfect ending of an already amazing day.
