Fantasy Caravan Day 45, part 2 - Wildlife tour

Continuing our boat tour... after leaving Meares Glacier, we still had more cruising to do...

Captain at the wheel (I noticed that his chair did not have a foot rest (or it wasn't down) -- but he rested one foot on the bottom of the wheel and cocked the other foot behind it) -- I guess he helped keep the boat steady with his foot.

Looking out toward the channel between islands through which ships pass into Prince William Sound from Gulf of Alaska

We were traveling along the outside of Glacier Island looking for wildlife.

We saw Pelagic Comorants fly by and land on a cliff (marked by red arrows)

Pelagic Comorants

There were Tufted Puffins,

and Horned Puffins around.

By the way, I have no idea which ones were tufted and which ones were horned... but someone on the boat said, "Oh, those are tufted!" and "Oh, those are horned!".

Puffin in the water

Puffin flying by - they look like a child's wind-up toy:

Shoreline with "flower pot"

Then we came to the Stellar Sea Lions...

... they were hauled out on shore.

The noise they made!:

More on shore

We sighted something swimming by...

A sea lion swimming by:

Moving on land:

One of the crew said that this is not a breeding area, but rather "the couch to lay on"!

A discussion about who gets the softer couch:

Leaving the sea lions behind

Beautiful views!

View off the stern

There was some movement in the water a bit in front of the boat:

The captain said that they were Dall's Porpoise and we'd see if they were interested in company...

And they were!:

 

A single Dall's Porpoise

Note that Dall's porpoise is named for the same naturalist (William Healey Dall) after whom Dall sheep are named.

We saw beautiful waterfalls.

As we were heading back to Valdez, we got some more sprinkles and saw another rainbow.

Even though it wasn't a bright blue day, it was a great day for a boat ride!

Coming back in to the port -- we could see the terminal of the Alyeska pipeline a little more clearly...

The ship we had seen arriving in the morning was now riding lower in the water with her load of crude oil.

Coming into the harbor

Our boat back in its slip

For dinner, we decided to try "The Potato" ...

...where we shared a burger and a "Spudnik" (curly fries with sausage gravy) - yum!

Across the street was a weigh station for the Valdez Fish Derby...

Carl posing with an example to represent the prize winner from a few years ago.. 374 pound halibut caught in 2017.

Leaderboard for this season

Down at the dock, a group who had been out fishing were preparing to have their pictures taken -- they had caught halibut and lingcod.

The day reminded me not to judge a day by how grey and rainy it is in the morning -- it might turn out a lot better than it looks at first!