Singing Whales and Hungry Sea Lions ... A National Geographic Kind of Day!!!!

July 10 – Inian Cove to Pelican

Today was the kind of day you want to freeze-frame ... so you can live it forever!!!!

It began with our first cup of coffee on the upper back deck, where we listened to the sound of whales spouting in the distance. The sight of Mount Fairweather was the perfect backdrop for this amazing daybreak experience ... and you could see the mist from the whales spouting with that majestic snow covered pinnacle in the distance.

We woke Judy & Rick, and after a quick breakfast, dropped the tender and headed out with cameras in hand to photograph the whales up close and personal ... just like our friends at National Geographic!

It was a beautiful day, sunny and fairly warm. We came within 100-200 yards of the whales. At one point, Roland turned the motor off and we sat there listening to the sounds of the whales singing, a high-pitched moan unlike anything you’ve ever heard before.

It was like wild kingdom – we’d hear a spout as a whale would surface in the water near the tender, the sea lions were roaring, the eagles were screeching, and the waves were lapping against the tender.

After watching the whales, we headed through the inlet and watched the sea lions. It was perfect timing, as the sea lions were in a feeding frenzy – diving for fish up and down in the water all around our tender.

Sea birds were hovering over the sea lions, frantically scouring the waters for left over fish scraps.

Steller sea lions live a tough life ... cruising along the shore we viewed their rookeries, where the male sea lions dominate the female harems in their territory. Literally every sea lion is covered with battle scars, and they are constantly fighting with each other.

On land they look like hundreds of pounds of blubber, but once they glide in the water, they are graceful, fast swimmers and entertaining to watch.

And its easy to see where they got their name ... their head really does resemble a lion.

It was an amazing experience to be in the middle of so many of them actively swimming and fishing in the water, at times coming up literally right next to our tender.

We could have watched the sea lions for hours, but had to head back to Engelenbak to pull anchor and catch a slack tide getting out of Inian Pass to head to Pelican.

An amazing morning that mere photos will never adequately capture. But the memories will last a lifetime!