Yesterday we embarked National Geographic Sea Bird in Seattle to start an exciting expedition towards Alaska. We had a very calm night of pleasant sailing and woke up in Canada, in the proximity of the town of Nanaimo. We stopped for some time without disembarking, for immigration and customs purposes in Nanaimo. While we waited, we observed the activity around the dock. Nanaimo’s economy includes in a big part of it the logging industry. It was fascinating to learn more about the market for raw logs, where they were shipped to, and most interesting was to see how they were stacked in a freight ship. The final port destination for the Canadian logs was somewhere in Japan or China.
Once we cleared customs, we continued our travels heading north through Georgia Strait. Our first wildlife sightings started at Ballenas Island. Harbor seals dotted the rocky shorelines and a few bald eagles flew above a small haul-out of California sea lions. As we continued to travel, we cruised by a few more rocks that were resting places for both California and Steller’s sea lions. As we travel north, diversity generally decreases and productivity increases, and here we seem to get the best of both worlds as wildlife converges in the same area.
An important highlight of the day, which will continue to be a highlight for the rest of the journey, is to have Wade Davis, our National Geographic Explorer, and Bristol Foster, our Cultural Interpreter and true expert in the natural world of the Canadian Inside Passage.
