Day 41- Valdez

 July 22

I woke up thinking of Jen today.   We would have been married 19 years.  Normally I change up my Facebook profile but we had to get going for our whale watching cruise.

 

It was raining and low lying clouds this morning.  I called to see if we could change days but this time I was not so lucky.  

 

We got packed up and headed out to the harbor.  Today we were cruising with Lu Lu Belle Tours.  Captain Fred has been giving tours since 1979.  His boat was absolutely beautiful.  It was very well kept and trimmed out in teak and mahogany.  It was a V shaped hull so I was a little concerned about Davan not doing well.  However, it was surprisingly stable.

 

Captain Fred must be near 80.  He designed and built the boat himself.  Most of his safety speech was telling us what not to do because he didn’t want blood or what not on his boat.  It was hard to pay attention while laughing.  His narration was very unique as well.  It was very much like he was reading from a book.  Not in a boring way though.  Think of your favorite book and what it would sound like as an audio book.  That’s how Captain Fred sounded.  

 

Captain Fred must be well respected by the other boat operators in the area.  He is not the only tour operator, but we were the only ones that got close to the other fishing vessels, while the others went wide.  He brought us up to the processing boats.  Those are the boats that take the fish off the smaller boats and begin to process the fish.  

He then took us less than 100 yards of the nets that were laid out.  Finally, we came up to a boat that was hauling in its net and got to watch the fish spill out onto the deck.  We were less than 100 feet away.  After the net was in Captain Fred expertly pulled the nose of the boat up to the deck of the other while one of his crew extended a fishing net full of brownies in thanks for letting us watch.  

 

Speaking of brownies, the galley had an oven where the crew made fresh backed blueberry muffins in the morning and fresh brownies in the afternoon.  Even standing outside on the deck in the rain it was impossible to escape the smell.  

 

As we got farther out into the Prince William Sound, we started looking for wildlife.  Puffins are very popular in Alaska, so we went in search of them.  Not in the water, but in their nests. Puffin’s like to make nests in the rock faces, typically shielded by the wind and elements.  That made them near impossible to see because they would be in cracks and caves in the rock walls.  Impossible for other boats but not Captain Fred with his 45 years of experience.  

 

Even in the rough sea he was able to maneuver the front of the boat into crevices in the rock and hold the boat still without hitting it or getting pushed in by waves.  I wish I had recorded video of it but I was too busy looking for Puffin’s.  

The first spot was empty but we did see one at the next.

Next up were Stellar Sea Lions.  Lot’s of babies.  They were all sitting there being obnoxious like sea lions do.  

 

After watching them for a bit we cruised along to the Columbia Glacier.  This was a tide water glacier like the ones we saw on the cruise in Seward.  What was different about this glacier is that it did not start receding until 1977.  As the glacier flowed down it had pushed what amounted to a wall of dirt in front of it.  In 1977 a calving event happened that broke through the dirt wall.  This allowed seawater to come into contact with the ice.  This of course caused the ice to melt and in the time since, the glacier has receded roughly 14 miles.

 

In fact you could still see the presence of the dirt wall in the water.  The water level went from roughly 1000 ft to 60 feet in the span of 100 yards.  Same on the back side.  There was also a distinct change in the water where the wall is.

 

Continuing, we came across a large blue iceberg.  If you recall from a previous blog entry, the ice is blue because it is so dance that the blue wavelength cannot penetrate the ice and is reflected, making it look blue to our eyes.  WE stopped for as long as it took for everyone to get the pictures they wanted.  One of the crew members came out and took photo’s for anyone that wanted a picture in front it.

 

After, the number of ice chunks got higher.  For a lessor Captain I don’t think we would have gotten as close but Captain Fred idled down and expertly threaded through them.  He would even use the boat to create a domino effect by pushing a smaller chunk of ice and then reversing, sending the ice into a larger piece of ice to push it out of the way.  

 

We got within a quarter mile of the glacier’s face.  Here we hung out.  Again, a crew member came out to take photo’s.  They had some props to hold.  Everyone was having a good time taking photo’s even though it was really cold and raining. 

 

Eventually it was time to head back.  We unfortunately did not see any whales.  I think going on the Lu Lu Belle is more of an experience rather than seeing whales.  I only booked the cruise because everyone has said that if you’re in Valdez you have to go.  I can see why.  

 

There is no set time for getting back to dock.  If there are things to see, they stay out.  We were back at the dock about 7.  I had already planned to eat in town but most places close up about 8.  We didn ‘t have a lot of choices.  The only places that sounded good that the girls would eat at was an expensive place right at the harbor, or a pizza place in town.  

 

We decided on pizza and it was a great choice.  When we got there, it was a full house as it was bingo night.  We had a roughly 30 minute wait.  We were seated upstairs where the other tables were wrapping up.  This was a kind of game room.  They had an electronic flat table with many games loaded.  They also had darts and a few versions of corn hole and other games to play.  I was glad because it kept the girls occupied.  The pizza’s came out and we ate it all.  Despite bringing or lunches and the various treats on board we were all very hungry.  After we headed back to the camper and crashed for the day.