At 6:30 a.m. we emerged from our cabins bleary eyed and bed headed. We were wearing a fashionable array of pajama pants and mismatched socks and dad’s sneakers. But what is an even better eye-opener than a large cup of coffee? How about waking up in the middle of a pod of humpback whales? How about watching more whales gather from every direction? How about repeat bouts of bubblenet foraging? Throw in some fin and fluke slapping and a few full breaches and our eyes are wide open. Our biggest challenge this morning was deciding which direction to point our cameras!
When a morning starts out like that you might think the rest of the day is bound to be disappointing. However, disappointment was not in our plans today. We continued on into Pavlov Harbor and split into groups to explore on foot or by kayak or by expedition landing craft. We were rewarded with a lovely morning in the temperate rain forest, a rushing waterfall with a fish ladder, a beaver lodge, salmon jumping and a beautiful, honey-colored brown bear! A few of us saw him from afar as he made his way downstream. Many of us watched him fish for salmon at the base of the falls. Some of us met him in the forest where he went to eat his catch. All of us were thrilled to see him on our last day together.
Lunchtime brought us back to the ship, but before we could scoop our ice cream sundaes we were dashing back to the bow for more bubblenet feeding. This large group of whales kept us captivated until we finally had to pull away from Pavlov Harbor.
It was a full day of excitement. It may have been a bad day to be a herring or a salmon, but it was a very good day to be a guest aboard the National Geographic Sea Bird!
