ALASKA 2014 Trip Report (Part 1 of 3)

The common area of our luxury yacht.

My wife and I arrived in Alaska a few days before our tour group so we could enjoy some time exploring Petersburg and Wrangell. We would be celebrating our fourth anniversary on this trip and this was where we were married… on the bow of the yacht in front of LeConte Glacier!

The last of our group arrived late afternoon so we were able to eat dinner together and go over the basic plan for our trip. Our Alaska trips never have a finite itinerary or schedule. Instead we allow the weather and wildlife to determine our direction and timing. Unlike other cruises who must remain on a schedule of port cities at which they must arrive on time, we anchor in secluded harbors after we have squeezed out all we can do in one day!

The next day we boarded our luxury yacht, threw off the lines and departed Petersburg Harbor into Wrangell Narrows. We headed south, choosing a very different plan that we had done on any previous trips. Something new, unfamiliar… our grand adventure was underway!

As we began our journey, Wrangell Narrows was full of water-loving birds including Pigeon Guillemots, Marbled Murrelets and White-winged Scoters. Bald Eagles stood guard from lookouts in the tall spruces, often crossing our bow in a low fly-by while searching for herring.

Orca (killer whales) are always a highlight!

As the Narrows opened into Sumner Straight we turned west where a pod of Orca, aka killer whales, paralleled our yacht and Sea Otters dotted our path. They moved quickly past as we continued along our way, toward the slowly setting sun to find our first anchorage. After a relaxing dinner, exhaustion from the day’s excitement took us fast asleep.
Some of our group enjoyed the early sunrise which began between 3am and 4am, while the rest continued to snooze a bit longer. After breakfast we went ashore to inspect rocks for ancient art that had been carved thousands of years ago. There were other distractions as well, tide pools, stones of many colors, fallen trees full of moss and lichens and we found some wonderful rock art as well. Before leaving Petersburg we had made contact with the rangers at El Capitan Cave to take us on a short tour of this hidden landmark. We had some ground… err… water to cover before we would go ashore, to we weighed anchor and motored on.

Snowcapped mountains disappeared behind tall spruce and hemlock. Sea otters drifted by in large rafts as the lush forest engulfed us in the narrow passageway leading us to El Capitan. Had our yacht been any larger, we would never have been able to navigate these pristine channels through the Tongass Rainforest. This is one of many reasons why the bigger ship cruises never get to see as much as we can from our yacht. We take no more than 8 participants on our adventures here!

We arrived at El Capitan early afternoon and met our Forest Service guides at the dock. We were led a short way to a shed where we were fitted for hard hats before we began the 357 step climb up to the cave entrance as I and our local guides pointed out various birds, flowers, trees and geological formations.

Once in the cave we clambered over boulders in our path before the cave opened into a large room with a much smoother dirt path down the middle. The cave is protected and a short way in there was a “bat gate” so wildlife could enter freely, but people with permission, could not. Fortunately we had permission as our guides had the key and we soon enjoyed seeing ancient formations and bottomless sinkholes. We even observed a River Otter’s pupping location deep within the cave.

All too soon it was time to continue on our way. We turned in our hard hats and boarded our yacht. The channel through the forest took us to Sea Otter Bay where we found a beautiful anchorage for the night, replete with Humpback Whales, Bald Eagles and Sea Otters!

As a new morning dawned, the weather was right to embark on a journey into the open Pacific. Our plan was to visit Coronation and Hazy Islands to witness the nesting seabird colonies and hopefully find a Black-footed Albatross along the way. This detour is not typical for our Alaska trips as the weather conditions have to be very good to have our desired calm seas.

Black-footed Albatross

Passing Coronation Island we found Common Murres and Rhinoceros Auklets in small numbers, so we continued on to the Hazies, another 30 minutes beyond into more open sea. Within 15 minutes, we were surrounded by huge rafts of Common Murres with Rhinoceros Auklets and Tufted Puffins mixed in. The sound was amazing! However, even though the seas were relatively calm, photography was difficult as light was low due to the cloudy skies, so we turned north, back toward the Inside Passage.
That’s when I saw it… “Black-footed Albatross!” The huge bird drifted past with barely a movement of its wings. We got what we had hoped for! Soon after, another came into view… and another. In all we saw more than a dozen albatrosses the afternoon.

We entered Chatham Straight, which lies on the eastern side of Baranof Island. Known as the ‘Waterfall Coast’, Baranof’s rugged coast rises thousands of feet to snowcapped peaks. Full of beautiful, secluded harbors, Captain Dennis handed me the map and asked, “where should we anchor?” I pointed to Port Walter and he pointed the yacht in that direction. We entered the high-walled inlet that narrowed, barely wide enough for the yacht, before it opened into a glorious harbor complete with waterfall and the ruins of days past, a saltery from the 1920’s.