Month: July 2012

Whales, dolphins, bears, puffins, eagles, porpoise, seals, sharks. You name it, we saw it. We also saw some other, slightly more unexpected creatures. For example, one night we saw a penguin:

Then we saw a mouse:

Which scared the elephant:

Followed by Tracy’s favorite, a monkey:

And finally a giraffe (with a bit of an imagination):

It’s amazing what you can see on an Alaskan cruise!

Our final day. Hasn’t time flown/floated? Another late-ish start to the day, waking about 9am. The forecast was for sunshine once we arrived in Victoria at 2pm. This would make a change from the last 2 days we spent there in February when we had some very wet weather.

After breakfast, we went back to the cabin and packed a couple of our bags as we had an early start the next day to prepare for. We took a brief walk up to the bridge viewing deck to watch them “drive” the boat and much to Tracy’s surprise it wasn’t much like the deck of the Titantic. It actually looked a very nice relaxed place to work – I think when I come back in the after life I might be a captain of a ship.

We watched the boat come into dock at Victoria and then went down to disembark at 2pm. We took a cab to the inner harbor by the Empress hotel and it all looked very different in the sun compared to the grey of our previous visit. Being creatures of habit we walked back up the shopping street, went in the same shops, was surprised again at the price of a carved wooden box (it was still very nice though) and then headed down to the same pub for lunch. And then just to make sure I definitely was a creature of habit I had the same lunch – blackened halibut in a wrap – it was just as yummy as I remember it.

After lunch we walked back down the other side of the shopping street, went in the posh chocolate shop, bought some Victoria/Canada t-shirts and hoodies and then stopped for some mango ice-cream. Much to the boys disgust though they had sold out of mango so had to settle for strawberry. We then caught a taxi back through the very British streets and onto the ship.

We went back to the cabin and the boys got changed into the swimming shorts and then we went back up to the pool area. Another couple of quiet hours were spent watching the world go by and more cruise ships arrive until it started to get a little chilly at about 7:30pm and we went back down to the cabin.

From our balcony we then got a brilliant view of a thunder storm passing over Victoria, out across the Strait of Juan de Fuca and across to the Olympic peninsula. It was a truly spectacular storm and I must have taken about 150 photos trying to capture an image of some lightening. I finally got a few but they definitely didn’t do the storm justice. It took a long time deleting all the lightening-less pictures though!

With the boys showered and in their pj’s we ordered a pizza and spent our last evening in the room relaxing ahead of disembarking for the final time at 7am Saturday morning and crashing back into reality (Harry has a soccer tournament starting at 9:30am!).

The end of a fabulous vacation! Excellent choice Tracy!

A few more Victoria pictures here!

Clearly this cruising lark is starting to take its toll on us as we slept through until 9:30am – apart from Tracy who was awake much earlier and was getting annoyed with the rest of us for not waking up! But eventually we did and we had to rush off for breakfast before it closed! Not that the food ever really stops but the notion of breakfast would be over soon.

With four filling four bellies we did a quick spot of onboard shopping as it was our last chance. We stocked up on gin, bacardi, aftershave and cadburys fruit and nut and went back to the cabin. Exhausted by this tough morning we relaxed until just after midday when we went up to deck 11 to the bridge viewing area however something shady was obviously going on because the blinds were pulled and there were no viewings to be had! So we left here and went to the theatre to learn how to do magic tricks. The comedian/magician from the night before was teaching children (and anyone else who turned up) how to do some tricks. Having both wanted to go to it the night before neither of them wanted to now but the magic of the magician soon worked its magic and before Tracy and I knew it both hands their hands up volunteering to go on stage and help with the tricks! Unfortunately for them neither got picked but they did go up on stage at the end to buy a magic book (which he signed for them) and some magic red balls. Be prepared next time you see them to be amazing you with all sorts of magical tricks!

The excitement of the magician made Harry hungry so off we went, back to deck 12 to eat some more. As we sat eating we saw a couple of humpbacks and lots of dolphin going past. That’s $5 for me from Toby – shame I will have to give him the $5 to pay me my winnings with.

Toby then wanted to spend the afternoon in Kids Club (little Mr Sociable!) but Harry didn’t want too and Toby wouldn’t go without him. As a compromise they got changed into their swimming gear and we went up to the sun and pool area. They both then disappeared into the kids jacuzzi and slide area for the next 2.5 hours and Tracy and I finally got a little peace and quiet! Again a few signs of being sociable seemed to appear as whenever we checked on them they were playing with other kids (mainly girls it has to be said!).

After a quick change out the of their wet clothes it was back down to the cabin for a couple of hours before dinner out tonight at Teppenyaki which is meant to be one of the top 3 restaurants/dining experiences on the Alaska cruise ship circuit. It has to be said that it was a pretty good meal too! We selected the food we wanted and then the chefs came out and cooked it in front of us. We started with a nice seaweed salad and then had a mixture of garlic egg fried rice, steak, chicken and jumbo prawns. As the chef prepared this in front of us he played egg basketball with us. As he flicked a bit of fried egg from his utensil through the air and Harry caught it in his mouth. I tried twice and failed miserably, so did Tracy. Toby was the most sensible out of us all and said he didn’t want to play!

Full of lovely food and Japanese cocktails we retired to the lounge next door and Harry, Toby and Tracy hit the dance floor. Harry was a complete disco diva, singing and dancing away – Toby was a little less so – although we did get the occasional glimpse of his bottom wiggle. At just after 10:40pm Toby and I were too tired to stay out any longer much to Tracy and Harry’s disappointment and back to the cabin we went for a nice sleep and to prepare for our final day of the Alaskan cruise tomorrow.

Day five began with a lie-in. Well that is if you call 7am a lie-in but it was definitely welcome after two successive early starts. As we woke from our slumbers we were already docked in Skagway along with 3 other cruise ships which meant the the population of Skagway was about to increase considerably – it’s normally 900 people!

Skagway is at the northern end of the Lynn canal and in the late 19th century it was the starting place for a steady stream of prospectors beginning the long trek into Canada’s Yukon territory, seeking the vast quantity of Klondike gold at Rabbit Creek.

It has to be said that Skagway doesn’t appear to have changed that much in the time that has passed. There are two main streets (Broadway and Alaska St) with 8 Avenues along them and that was it. If you looked one block to the side of Broadway there was just grass, trees and few gravel tracks and a train track. That was it. The buildings and sidewalks were all made of wood and it looked just like the old American town that it is.

We were docked at Skagway all day and with no shore excursions planned, an easy day was in store. After all my camera and my camera taking finger needed a rest!

After a lazy start and a breakfast of the usual omelettes, pancakes, bacon and eggs benedict we took the 10 minute stroll into Skagway. It may only consist of 1 main street of shops but they sure have crammed a lot of them in and mostly jewellery shops selling Alaskan gold, diamonds, totem poles and all sorts of tourist tat (but not cheap tat!).

We slowly worked our way up one-side of the street of stores including one which Tracy went into to look at a gold Cartier watch and came out with a new ring! The sales guy pulled the perfect sales trick by promising Harry and Toby a present each if we bought the ring! At that point the sale was effectively closed! Tracy had a new ring and then spent the rest of the day making it twinkle under shop lights and waving it in our faces!

With only five hours left until the ship left dock Harry started worrying about whether we should start making our way back (it was a good 15 minutes walk away!). Eventually after a few more purchases we made our way back and boarded the ship – Harry could relax again.

The afternoon was spent relaxing in our cabin and on the balcony. Skagway was a lovely old town and the weather was exactly as we had been told it would be – sunny and windy. In the town it was nicely sheltered so it felt warm but on boat it was windy as it blew up the channel straight onto us. Sheltering away we waited for the ship to leave dock by watching the webcam on the front of the ship and looking at all the passengers running up the dock and onto the boat. Repeated messages went out for one couple to contact reception. We’re not sure if they made it on but the ship didn’t wait much longer!

The views down Lynn canal were pretty impressive. It looked like there were more glaciers, huge amounts of snow fall and just a lot of very wild land.

I don’t think I would have fancied trekking over the mountains in search of gold. Although it has to be said that our time in Alaska has made me relate a lot more to the wilderness and the untamed conditions that these early prospectors must have endured – I’ve been without the internet for 4 days now. Unbelievable.

The evening was spent in true cruising style – taking in a show (a comedic magician who was very good) followed by dinner in the restaurant. After that it was time for the cabin and bed. Another lovely day was complete. Tomorrow is another day at sea heading back down to Victoria, Vancouver Island. To add a little spice to the trip Toby has bet me $5 that we won’t see another whale. I don’t know where they get their money to make all their bets but either way I intend to spot at least one more whale before this cruise is over!

Here are the pictures…

After a truly amazing morning there was just enough time to get back on board the boat, have some lunch, throw some additional layers on and then head off back on another excursion. This time we were off to see the glaciers in the Tracy Arm wilderness. The cruise ship went quite close to the glaciers as well but the excursion allowed you to see both glaciers (the Sawyer and South Sawyer) and up close (although not so close that the underwater ice shooters can get you).

We boarded out catamaran just before 1pm, half an hour before the cruise ship left Juneau. We then sped off down to Tracy Arm – Fords Terror Wilderness Area to explore before boarding back on the cruise ship which would catch us up 5.5 hours later. The first 2 or so hours were spent bumping our way down Stephens Passage. The wind was blowing and the sea was pretty choppy for a while. They had to hand out chewy ginger sweets which are a natural smoother to motion sickness. I wonder how they find these things out?

As we reached Harbor Island we took a left into the wilderness area and almost immediately we encountered Toby’s worst nightmare! From the moment we had told the boys (not pronounced boo-eee’s) Toby had been worrying about ice-bergs (mainly because Harry had told him that there were lots of ice-bergs in Alaska and we’d probably sink). Fortunately these were only small versions and probably not capable of sinking our catamaran but they were however quite incredible to see. Although I had seen pictures of them before it had never really struck me what an incredible shade of blue they were. They were completely out of place with the rest of the environment but here they were, giant blue blocks of ice floating their way out to sea. Amazing and slightly odd!

As we continued on up the fjord (a French word according to one lady that Tracy overheard) we started seeing more and more of them. Just bright blue blocks bobbing away to sea. One interesting thing we noticed about ice-bergs is how the all get shaped differently by the water as they sail along and mainly they get carved into the shapes of animals (apart from one giant berg that looked like an 18oz New York strip steak! I think between us we saw whale, swan, horse and crocodile shaped ice-bergs along with one that looked like an angel!

At one point we sailed across to a gorgeous waterfall that was exploding out into the fjord. We were all stood up on the top deck and the captain took us closer and closer until the waterfall spray was covering us with its icey cold water. After giving us a soaking we then went further up, dodging the far more frequent bergs and taking loads of pictures of the incredible glacier carved cliff faces. Thank god for digital cameras – I don’t know how much these photos would have cost me in film and printing costs 10 years ago!

Eventually we reached out first destination – Sawyer glacier. I’m not really sure how to describe. It was half a mile wide and 250ft high from the surface of the water with another 300ft under the water. It looked amazing. And it sounded pretty awesome too with the booming thunder like cracks of the ice splitting and cracking. You can’t go any closer than a quarter of a mile because of the ice falls that happen off the glacier. The ones above the surface are not such a problem because they just fall down into the water and if they are really big cause a bit of a wave to come down towards the watching boat. But the same thing also happens under the water – the ice cracks and big chunks break free. This type are called shooters because the break off the glacier and shoot up towards the surface a bit like a torpedo from a submarine (at least that’s what I imagine). So if your boat is any closer than a quarter mile it runs the risk of getting tanked by a giant lump of glacier ice.

After taking countless photos we set off back down the fjord to South Sawyer glacier. This one looked even more impressive to me. You can see the glacier snaking backwards up the mountain and it also had hundreds of small ice-bergs in front of it. Lots of these bergs had harbor seals on them have a relaxing bob about. Here we stayed taking in the most incredibly sight until our cruise ship arrived. I’m sure they had a pretty good view of the glacier but it was definitely not as good as ours – ours was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. Wowsers!

Now for the slideshow. Probably best to get yourself a cup of tea before sitting down to go through all these!

Expectations were high. Very high. Today was the day. Today was the day to see a whale and get the perfect picture – a humpback leaping out of the water. Well, first things first we just wanted to see a whale. When I say we I mostly mean me. I think Tracy, Harry and Toby wanted to see a whale too but probably not quite as much as I wanted too.

The day started even earlier today than it did yesterday. The alarm went off at 5:30am and so the day began.

First we were out on the balcony to check where we were. Once again we were ahead of schedule and pretty much at dock in the state capital of Alaska – Juneau.

The capital was named after one of the early prospectors called Joe Juneau. They hadn’t decided what to call the town and the 70 miners were going to vote on the name. Joe Juneau offered to buy them all a drink and so they all voted to name it after him. Simple!

After quickly getting dressed we went up, or maybe down, to the restaurant deck and had a nice breakfast to set us up for the day ahead. Straight after breakfast it was back to grab our stuff from the cabin and then down to deck 4 to leave the ship. We walked off and over to the buses which would transfer us 25 minutes to Allen Harbor. While on the bus, the driver Ray kept us entertained with all sorts of stories, including the one about how Juneau got its name. It took a while to get to the catamaran as the boat didn’t seem to go faster than 25 miles an hour but it did give us an opportunity to take in some views and spot an eagle or two (or more like 25 when we went past the the Juneau rubbish tip!).

Once aboard the boat we were off and fingers were crossed as we hoped to see the elusive whales! It was a lovely day in Juneau or at least so we were told. Juneau has 300 days a year that are completely overcast – not even the slightest pocket of blue sky. The fact that today was quite chilly but had blue sky made it a lovely day. The guide on the boat was wearing a short sleeve t-shirt and sandals which seemed a bit extreme but they don’t have many days like this so they made the most of it!

We didn’t have to go far until the boat slowed in anticipation of our first whale. And there she blowed! It was a humpback. As I found out across the day, humpbacks are reasonably easy to photograph – you learn their routine fairly quickly. You start by seeing the spurt of air from the blow hole. I always thought this was water but it’s not. It’s just where the air of the whale is blasted out and when it hits the different temperature outside it makes the smoke like affect. Humpback whales have lungs the size of a small car – like a VW beetle – but their throat is only the size of a small soccer ball, so when they come up for air they blow a giant blast of air out and that causes the water squirt effect. Anyway, after you have seen that blast, then you see the back of the whale appear out the water. Then depending on how steep the curve of the last three quarters of the whale body dictates whether you are going to see the whale tail come out.

After the first humpback sighting, we continued north taking in some bald eagles and then some sea lions playing on a buoy (pronounced boo-eee in America).

Continuing in a northwards direction we soon encountered more humpbacks – two more to be precise. The followed the same pattern and everyone had the hang of how and when to take a whale tail photo. There were other boats out with ours and at one stage a humpy was heading straight for one of them. It was only a small boat so it backed off quite quickly and I don’t blame them!

Northwards again and the excursion took an exciting twist! Killer whales! Alaska doesn’t have any resident pods – not this part anyway. So it is quite rare to see them – they hadn’t seen any on their daily excursions for three and a half weeks. And if that wasn’t enough to get us all excited (and quite frankly it was more than enough) the guide on the boat started running to the top to see them the moment the captain said “killer whales” – and she should know better because at the start of the trip she had told everyone that running on the boat was not allowed!

They were quite distant to start with so we could only make out the fins sticking out the water but there was no need to worry we got closer. Killer whales are much harder to take a photo of – there’s none of this lazy sliding through the water like the humpbacks – they dive up and back in before you have a chance to say “orca”. Persistance and sports mode on the digital camera are the key! As the orcas came closer the number of fin shots increased – almost to Yosemite levels (the day I took 6 rolls of photos before about midday!).

There were a couple of groups of the killer whales, one on either side of the boat. It was difficult to know where to look. As I stood waiting patiently on one side of the boat I heard a loud oooo’s, shrieks and claps from the other side of the boat (including Tracy)! As I reached the other side I found out that an orca had leapt right out the water. In amongst the excited chatter there were various mumblings along the lines of “I hope my husband got a picture of that”. Tracy’s didn’t.

Patience was the key though and a little while later the baby orca jumped out. I got a picture but it wasn’t as close up as I’d have liked – still I can’t complain, at least I got one. As it turned out, on reviewing the pictures later, I also got a second one.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, one of the groups of orcas decided to give us a close fly past. The boats aren’t allowed to go closer than 150ft of where they see any of the whales. If the whales decide they want to come closer though – they can. And they did. They must have swam past no further than about 4 foot from the side of the boat. It was amazing and I got pictures!

I don’t think it could have been any better really – other than if an eagle and swooped down and caught a fish right behind them. The boys loved it and Toby is desperate to go whale watching again! So am I – it was absolutely awesome. Super awesome!

And finally, check this awesome photo! Look carefully and you will see killer whales, the air spout of a humpback and an eagle!

For the other photos check this gallery out.

Ketchikan is the 4th wettest city in the world. It averages over 13ft of rain a year and only has about 31 nice days a year. Today was one of those 31.

Tracy woke at 5:30am and the rest of us soon after. We watched from the balcony as we were slowly escorted into Pier 1 ahead of schedule.

With our first shore excursion due to start at 7:45am we threw on our clothes and set off to find our breakfast. With eggs, bacon, pancakes, whipped cream, sausages, cranberry juice and coffee duly dispatched, we went back to the cabin, collected out waterproofs, cameras and binoculars and set foot on dry land again.

Because we had docked slightly ahead of time if gave us to enough time to check a couple of shops out – one of which was the Alaskan Christmas shop. Fortunately Harry and Toby were just about behaving (despite the late night/early morning combination) because sat in the corner of the shop was Father Christmas. After exchanging a few brief words with him, they both got a candy and then off we went to our next boat.

This excursion was the Misty Fjords and Wilderness Explorer and was planned to last about five hours. When we first left the harbour we went across the passage to see the nest of a bald eagle. The eagles weren’t in it but they were nearby trying to distract us. The largest bald eagle nest that had been found was 14ft wide, 9ft deep and weighed 2.3 tonnes. Unsurprisingly the eagles use their nests for several years until they fall to pieces. What was surprising was that they can build these size things in about a week!

After leaving the eagle nest we went a little further before we saw a deer having a morning mooch. Then, once out of the slow speed section, the boat cranked up to 35mph and we sped down past Bold Island through the Revillagigedo Channel. At the bottom of Point Alava we took a left and went up the Behm Canal. Although called a canal it was made by a glacier rather than man. Man isn’t really welcomed in this part of Alaska – it was declared an area of wilderness by Jimmy Carter in 1978 and that means that no building or roads (permanent or temporary) can be built.

We slowed down near New Eddystone rock and Harry and I without knowing had a “who can take the most photos of the rock” competition. It was a close battle but in the end I just won it by 18 photos to 15!

As we continued on up the canal, Harry and Toby spent most of their time inside the boat, downstairs. They were enjoying the hot chocolates and they both got a cuddly toy each. Harry got Sam the Seal and Toby got Fishy the Bald Eagle. Fishy was originally called Baldy but he got renamed to Fishy for reasons that will become apparent later.

Shortly after New Eddystone Rock we took a right into Rudyerd Bay which was a truly beautiful part of the journey. The huge sides of the fjords looked all freshly carved by the glacier and lovely waterfalls came down from the melting snow to give them a lovely sheen. We saw Harbor Seals enjoying the sun on the side and there were some nice looking black and white birds nesting on almost sheer rock faces. I’m not sure what they were but Harry thinks they were definitely called black and white pigeons. He may be right.

After cruising about for a short while looking at the work of the glaciers we set off back towards Ketchikan. The trip as a whole was 140 miles which was pretty impressive really for such a short period of time. There were no real stops on the way back other than to see a 300-500 year old painting on a cliff face.

It was a picture of a sun and I nearly missed it because I couldn’t for the life of me see it. I took photos of most of the cliff area so that I could see it later but in the end I spotted it just before we left. Good job I did because it was the one part of the cliff I don’t think I had got an image of! For the rest of the journey back we stayed in and Toby stuffed himself silly with Alaskan Sockeye salmon. He ate so many of the sampler pots that had been handed out that the women next to us was laughing at him. He didn’t care!

We arrived back in Ketchikan at about 12:30pm and there was still no rain, in fact it was quite a pleasant temperature. We went for a walk over to Creek Lane which apparently is one of the most photographed streets in Alaska. I’m not sure if that is true or not but I nearly managed to walk away from it without remembering to take a picture! This is because I was completely distracted by a bald eagle sitting down by the side of the creek eating a fish (which is why Baldy got renamed to Fishy). I took lots of pictures but in the end I had to stop because I think Tracy, Harry and Toby were all bored of looking at the eagle! It was good though – it should definitely be on my post of best eagle photos!

After finally remembering to take a photo of the most photographed street we went a did a spot of shopping. We were almost tempted with a totem pole that was about 3 foot high. The shop owner lowered the price from $900 to $700 but it was still a bit too much – despite Harry walking round the shop saying we should just buy it! He is very free and easy with other peoples money!

In the next shop he continued offering to spend other peoples money as Tracy was collared by a salesman trying to sell her a nugget of Alaskan gold on a necklace. It was very nice and again they lowered the price from $316 to $199 but in the end she just wasn’t convinced and much to the salesman’s disgust we left the shop empty handed.

All the time we walked around Ketchikan Harry was worried that we were going to miss the boat! So in the end we gave in and went back on board with a half hour to spare. Oh the stress a nine year old can go through!

With a quick bit of lunch tucked away we took a bottle of wine down to the balcony and sat watching as we set sail from Ketchikan. It’s very tiring this cruising business! Against all the odds we made it through the afternoon without taking a nap. Having spent the afternoon relaxing we showered and then went on the hunt for food! The highlight of the food hunt was walking along the 7th deck when we spotted a whale. It gave us a couple of blow hole snorts (technical term) and then it leapt out of the water, did its little twist thing and landed back in the water. The deck erupted as if there was a firework show with lots of “ooohs” and “aaahs”. At dinner Toby announced that that (the whale) was the best thing of his day (the 6th best thing of his day was me wearing the new shirt I had bought which Toby chose!). Not surprisingly I didn’t have my camera with me but that was ok. Clearly these humpbacks are just warming up and getting me in the mood for our whale watching excursion tomorrow morning.

With that early morning adventure in mind – the alarm is set for 5:30am (some vacation this is!) – we decided upon an early night. The camera battery is on charge. Tomorrow is the day!

Wildlife sightings..

Eagles: loads and with photographic evidence

Harbor Seals

Photos: 154 (check them here)

After a reasonably good nights sleep – the ship was a bit creaky which I suppose is to be expected – we all woke up just after 7am. After tuning into the ships TV channel to get our bearings, we had a cup of coffee and some showers and set off in search of breakfast.

We went down to the 6th floor and munched our way through omelettes, eggs benedict, pancakes and bacon. And what better way to round off a hearty breakfast than to hit the shops! So back up to the 7th deck we went and into the duty free. There was a lot of tat – in fact Alaska looks like it could possibly be the home of tat – but also some bargains on gin, so we will stock up on the way home. Cadburys fruit and nut was not a bargain but we bought a giant bar anyway. Then, as we sniffed our way round Hugo Boss and Marc Jacobs smellies Harry spotted the next wildlife of the the cruise. Out the porthole we saw a small school of porpoise leaping their way down the side of our ship. Typically I didn’t have the camera to take a picture so we’ll just have to accept this as another sighting!

After finishing with the shops we went back to the room and the boys got their swimming gear and we were up to the pool on the 12th deck. Despite it being an overcast day they were off into the pool straightaway. First stop was the kids jacuzzi and then once I’d been back to get their googles they were off into the main pool which was a lovely 30 degrees. Toby was desperate to show off his newly acquired swimming skills and, without his tummy band, he was off and swimming. I decided to join them in the pool as Toby was showing a little too much confidence for my liking and as soon as I was in he was off again, swimming underwater and showing us the range of strokes that he had learnt. It was mighty impressive. Toby learning to swim has also had the added effect of making Harry up his game in the swimming stakes. He doesn’t want to be out done and so he was swimming around like a fish as well – there’s definitely no more talk of tummy bands!

After a couple of goes down the water slide – how different from a couple of weeks back at the Great Wolf Lodge when Toby didn’t want to go near them – and then another hour or so in and out of the jacuzzi, it was time for lunch! Burgers, lamb kebabs, hot dogs and chilli did the trick and then it was time to cash a voucher for a bottle of wine and head back to the cabin but not before we had seen what looked like a couple of dolphin leaping about. No more photographic evidence though.

Back in the cabin the boys hit the DS’s and Tracy and I sat on the balcony. Tracy then took up the wildlife spotting role by seeing a whale – probably humpback or maybe grey – swimming not far from our ship. We saw a couple of blow hole squirts (that’s the technical term I believe) and I did just manage to get a photo of a small blob which is definitely a whale.

I was only lucky enough to get the second picture because Harry and Toby stood on the balcony and spoke in “whale” and made it jump out the water again. The count was starting to grow! Come on whales!!

I then sat for another hour or so waiting for the next sighting but it didn’t happen until I stood up to go inside. I looked down over the side and saw what appeared to be a shark shaped creature in the water. I snapped a couple of photo’s and you can just about make it out! Definitely a shark!

After relaxing for a while in the room Harry and Toby decided they wanted to go up to the sports deck and play soccer. Despite the fact that there was a game of basketball going on, they plucked up the courage to enter the court and started playing soccer at the side. Eventually them and a band of others took over the court and had a match while Tracy and I went down a deck to the bar at the back of the boat and drunk pina coladas. While we were drinking people started gathering and pointing so we went and had a look and although they were a little way off, there must have been a good 20+ dolphins flooping about to the side of the boat. Again I had no camera with me but the wildlife was doing it’s best to show off. Even a small group of puffins decided to give us a fly past. Hopefully the whales are saving their best (and nearest) performances for the next couple of days when I will have my camera with me (but probably the wrong lens!).

After relaxing in the cabin for a couple of hours we went to the theatre to participate in Deal or No Deal. We bought our ticket and kept our fingers crossed. We needn’t have bothered though because we had no luck. The very noisy American sat behind us did though. Todd, from Sarasota, Florida, got called up on stage for the second half of the show and he was as suitably annoying on stage as he had been sat behind me! Luckily for Todd he ended up a winner though, winning $322 – “that’s a lot of money” or so he kept telling everyone!

After the entertainment had finished – Deal or No Deal anyway, we didn’t stay for the 70’s music – we went to get a glass of water from the 12th deck. Despite only going for water we somehow found ourselves sat at a table with curry, salmon, pizza and beef on our plates! All this at 9:30pm – why the boys weren’t asleep I don’t know! It was still light though so I suppose it was ok – the sun didn’t set until 10:13pm this evening. As we sat eating we saw a seal leaping acrobatically out the water – Toby has promised to emulate this in the swimming pool tomorrow!

Food finished, we went for a stroll round the sports deck and then came back down to our cabin. The sea was as still as bath water this evening – and had been most of the afternoon. It was eerily calm but made the perfect whale viewing weather – unfortunately they didn’t show up – I think they are waiting for the next couple of days.

With the sunset, the boys got into bed ready for our early start tomorrow morning. The alarm is set for 6am, we get into Ketchikan at 7am and we start our first shore excursion at 8am. It sounds exhausting just thinking about it. Lucky the clocks go back tonight as we enter Alaska time and we get an extra hour in bed.

Whale sightings: 1 (with photographic evidence)

Shark: 1 (with photographic evidence)

Seals: Several

Porpoise: Several

Dolphins: Several