Internet access has been sketchy since we left Vancouver so this is really the first chance I’ve had to post anything since we hit open water.

The ship itself is smaller than I envisioned. There is no huge pool, no long walks from one end to the other. We seem to see the same people over and over again, although we couldn’t be happier that we haven’t crossed path again with a Iowa yokel we met on our tour of Vancouver. He is, for the sake of comparison, Hank Hill incarnate. When we boarded the ship, many of the elevators were not available because of the volume of luggage being delivered to the staterooms. Good ol’ Hank was far too easily frustrated by this to begin with (his large corn-fed ass apparently unable to handle the walk up two very short flights of stairs), interrupted the explanation from one of the stewards with “boy, I caint understand a damn word yer sayin”. I’m sure the steward felt the same way. Thankfully that’s the last I’ve seen of him.

At dinner on Wednesday we shared a table with a family who lives on Vancouver island. As we were sailing past they pointed out various geographic features and shared with us some of the history and trivia of the area. As one who generally does not enjoy the company of strangers, I have to admit I really enjoyed the meal and the conversation.

Apparently after my wife and I went to bed, our ship was forced to stop for nearly an hour as the crew assisted in the rescue of 20-somethings who went out for a boat ride without bothering to check how much gas was in the tank. My ship, the Canadian Coast Guard, and a tug were all involved…and I slept through all of it.

Yesterday was spent entirely at sea, and was largely uneventful. We sailed through some fairly narrow passages which offered excellent photo opportunities. The skies, however, have been mostly gray, but I made the most of it and still getting some good pictures. Even on a gloomy day such as today, there is a raw, magnetic beauty here like nothing I have ever experienced.

This morning I woke up to rain. The rain continues even now at a bit past 10PM local time. While several excursions (mostly the airborne ones) were canceled, our photo safari went ahead as scheduled. We drove the Mendenhal lake hiked around a portion of the Mendenhal glacier. As with just about everything I’ve seen so far, it’s truly stunning, and very much unlike anything I’ve seen in the northeast. On the way back to the bus we spotted a bald eagle perched in a tree above the river that runs from the lake. I didn’t have the right lens on my camera, and with the driving rain I wasn’t about to attempt a change. My wife did her best to get the shot, but without looking at the photos yet, my guess is they’re shaky at best. There should be plenty more opportunities ahead.

We left Mendenhal and headed out onto the water. We weren’t out 10 minutes before we were wildly snapping photos of sea lions resting on a buoy. I half-assed the shutter speed setting on the camera so I missed the best shots of one of the sea lions trying to leap back on to the buoy. No worries though…my wife seems to have gotten the shot.

We left the sea lions in search of humpbacks. We were fortunate enough to find the in quickly and in numbers. We took about 200 photos each include several fluke shots. We were also extremely luck to happen upon a pod of Dahl’s porpoise. They’re very fast moving animals and we found it exceptionally difficult to photograph them in the split second they spend above water. While most of our shots are of little more than sea water, we did get a handful of shots of the actual animals.

Tonight we had our last meal on the ship. Tomorrow morning we disembark and head out on flightseeing expedition to a mushers camp. From there it’s either Beaver Creek or Whitehorse…we’re really not sure which…and I can’t say that it matters.

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