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.