This post is out of order. I should have shared it before the Juneau post as it is about our sea time getting to Juneau but better late than never. I hope you enjoy it.
Ketchikan to Juneau 272 Nautical Miles speed 17.2 Knots
Once we left Ketchikan we set sail to reach Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Overnight we’ll sail through Frederick Sound, then transit Stephen’s Passage finally sailing north through Gastineau Channel into Juneau.
In the afternoon we attended another presentation by the Naturalist, this time about the Gold Rush years in Alaska. It was ok, something to do, if you will. Most of what he presented was taken straight from the internet including his slide show of vintage photos. What he did say that got my attention was that as we leave Ketchikan we’ll approach Snow Passage. Estimated time of arrival is 6:45 pm. According to him we will see whales and he said he would be there to narrate.
At 6:30pm bundled up against the cold, rainy weather, Sandy and I arrived on the top deck with binoculars and camera in hand.
It wasn’t long before one of the other guests spotted a pod of “something”. They moved fast and were only visible for a moment each time they leapt through the waves. Clearly not whales , they were some kind of porpoise. They were much smaller than dolphins but they were not intimidated by the ship, coming right along the port side. No chance for photos, but exciting just the same.
Then it was back to our cold vigil watching for spouts. It took about 15 minutes but we spotted one. We followed the periodic “blows” from the bow to the stern as the whale moved south to our north. We never got a good look at the animal but we were pretty sure it was a humpback. We hung out for another 15 – 20 minutes but didn’t see anything more. The naturalist never arrived either. (I guess somebody didn’t get the memo.) I just knew if we left the whales would show up but it was cold and we didn’t want to miss dinner so we wrapped up our “whale watch” heading back inside to warm up.
Dinner lasted until about 9:30. We skipped the show and chose a quiet after dinner drink at the Crooner’s Lounge where Dan Hodge, Piano Entertainer, sang classic tunes filling in the history and obscure facts between songs. It was low-key, relaxing and fun. Situated right above the atrium we could people watch 3 decks along with the glass elevators.
It was still pretty light out.
Sunset was getting later and later the farther north we traveled but we had an early morning excursion in Juneau so reluctantly we decided to turn in.
