Inian Islands

Thursday, June, 15, 2023

Apparently this is the spot where the Pacific Ocean is trying to get into the inner passage of Alaska. Between these little islands, the water is bubbling and churning as millions of gallons of water rush in during high tide. We were out in our zodiacs, bobbling along the rapids – looking at otters, and sea lions, and bald eagles. There was a cool thing happening with the water. There were the churning bits, but then there would be big circles of water that were rising and falling (they looked like they were breathing). Our guide said it had to do with big rocks on the bottom of the sea. I don’t understand it, but it was cool (and gave relief from the bouncing around).

There were a couple times I thought we were being a little too daring, but Keith said he was never nervous a bit. I took a few blurry pictures, then just put the camera away. The definition of impossible might be trying to get a clear picture from a moving rubber boat of a sea lion popping up out of the waves.

After lunch, we set off in the zodiac again, this time to an island for a hike. We were in the third boat, which was too bad because boats one and two saw a bear on the beach we were going to. He left the beach and we missed seeing him. We had to find a different place to land. Lindblad is quite careful not to have us be eaten (or even chewed on) by a bear.

It was raining and that kept most people onboard the ship. We had to upgrade to moderate hikers because we were the only casual strollers who showed up. It wasn’t much of a change. It wasn’t much different from yesterday, but was great to get out and move around and feel hiker-y.

We were drenched on the outside of our waterproof clothes after our adventures. I’m not sure how I had damp socks inside my knee high rubber boots. My sweatshirt wicked up lots of wet from my gloves and from the bottom of my jacket. My gloves were SOAKED on the outside, but still dry on the inside. It’s been 8 hours since we hung everything up and they are just as wet as they were when we came in. I am glad we didn’t plan on doing any room laundry – it would have not worked out very well.

We hung out in the lounge most of the afternoon. It was pretty great. Jeff from Connecticut brought his guitar and was playing and singing. People were playing board games and cards, reading, chatting, just being cozy after coming in from the rain. We had a talk about photography and Keith and I played with the camera for awhile.

The people who work on the boat are pretty interesting. The naturalists who guide us on outings all have college degrees in some kind of related field, so they speak knowledgeably from experience but also have scientific knowledge to back that up. Jamie was living in Hawaii…doing something with rocks (geology major), then switching to be in Alaska for five months doing summer cruises in Alaska. Alternating Hawaii and Alaska for a couple years sounds like a dream life to me. Our captain is from New England and was a commercial fisherman for over 20 years before getting into the cruise business. On big cruises, all of our captains have been not from the US. It is nice to have a captain you can understand. The people working in the dining room may never have worked in food service before – they may never have even been in a restaurant before. The menu is 2-4 items and it is challenging for them to take orders. Food seems to fall off plates way too often. They really like to clear plates – even if you are not finished eating. They are all endlessly pleasant and smiley. I wonder what they will be like at the end of the season.

We had pot de creme for lunch dessert and Pavlova for dinner dessert. Yay!