Prince William Sound...

This will be quick. We're at the airport waiting to board an Air Alaska flight to Kodiak! Wednesday morning we met our guide Gerry Sanger in Whittier for our overnight trip on Prince William Sound. The weather was cool and rainy with lots of fog. It looked bad. Jerry showed up right on time and we loaded the boat ("The Sound Access"). The Access is a 29 foot Aluminum boat with a nice sized enclosure and covered back deck. We stowed our gear and headed across the harbor to photograph some sort of birds on a cliff by a water fall. Very scenic! Then we headed south. When you go on a trip like out of Whittier there are a few islands close (45 minutes) that have stellar sea lions, puffins, and the occassional whale/purpoise, etc. We headed WAY south. On overnight trips you get to trav el to the south end of the sound. Technically we touched the north end of the gulf of alaska. We were half a day into the trip when the ceiling lifted and we could see any distance at all. We had lunch and enjoyed the scenery (pics to come). The Sound looks like they flooded the rocky mountains. Mountains shoot straight up out of the water with beautiful timberline country up top. Amazing country.
After lunch we saw our first humpback spout. We followed it for a while then we found 3 more. For whale watching you watch allot and see them for about 10 seconds over 7 blows and then they're down for about 10 minutes. Its still extremely exciting. Before the afternoon ended we saw about 7 or 8 (its hard to count). We headed to an anchorage for the evening and found a rock with puffins, sea lions and seals. Very cool. We found a secluded inlet to anchor in for the night. There were 6 black bears in the salmon stream feeding on fish. Amazing evening. Gerry made pasta, salad and brough wine. Great guide/host!
Day two we were up early, ate breakfast (granola mix) and headed out. We found a mom and calf humpback right of the bat. Then we drove north towards Whittier and Gerry used his radio to find some researchers that knew where the Orcas hung out. They nailed it! In half an our we had orcas at the boat (dozens of them). Pam got some amazing breach shots with 1 really cool back flip.
We headed north for lunch, then to shoot some puffins and then back to whittier. The boat ride back was VERY rough (3 foot seas) but Gerry and the boat did great. We made it back to Whittier about 6:30. Made it to Anchorage by 9pm. In bed by 11:00. Up at 3:30... Man, I'm tired!
Sound Eco Adventures was an AMAZING trip. Gerry is a great guide and a real decent human. SO glad we did that!
I could type 10 pages on this but need to shut down and get ready for the next one. I suspect it will be next weekend before I have access to a pc again but I if I get it I will update.
Today we start the halibut fishing/bear viewing part...
Adios (or as the Alaskan's say, "bye!")!