Juneau

Wednesday night, as the ship sailed from Skagway to Juneau, we donned our orange clothing and had dinner in the main dining room. It was a Dutch themed menu that had its ups & downs. We then went to see a comedian who was quite funny without being too crude. The orange party seemed too crowded & crazy so we passed. After a nightcap on Mary & Julie's balcony, we turned on fairly early as we have a 9 am date with the whales. 

No tenders were involved this morning so we were able to walk right down the gangplank to meet our tour. There were several choices for a Juneau whale-watching excursion, and we had opted for a small group tour that was supposed to have a research scientist on board and was allegedly connected to the University of Alaska. Although we were not disappointed with the wildlife we saw, the educational aspect seemed to be missing.  

A young man named Jose was our guide. It was his first summer in Alaska. A total of 20 of us boarded the bus bound for the harbor. Jose pointed out some of the 200 original buildings in Juneau. He said this is unusual for a frontier town but it’s because the climate is not conducive to fires. This is different information than Anna gave us yesterday about Juneau burning to the ground 3 times.  Jose pointed out a tavern that’s been here since the gold rush - the Red Dog saloon. Jose said that the Tlingit people were here from 12,000 years ago (SeaAlaska Center said 10,000). There is one major road in all of southeast Alaska, and locals call it “the road”. They also call the Mendenhall glacier “the glacier”.  The Road ends after several warnings. Jose said rather than road rage, they have road ending rage. 

We drove along the Gastoneau channel - not deep enough for cruise ships. The tide has crazy changes, up to 17 - 25 feet. At low tide lots of food is revealed for the animals including the large population of bald eagles. Jose said that Eagles are like people- they are picky eaters, have favorite places, don’t get along when decorating, and mate for life. 

Jose told the story of Richard Harris and Joe Juneau finding gold nuggets the size of peas and beans. Now mining and fishing are the 3rd leading industry in Juneau; tourism is 2nd and government is first. Juneau is only accessible by boat and air. There are no roads from other cities that lead to it. The citizens have voted twice to relocate the capital away from Juneau, but they were not willing to allocate the $60 million necessary to move the government, so the capital will remain in Juneau. 

We got a glimpse of the Mendenhall glacier with mountains that tower behind it. Jose said this was a rare sighting as it’s sunny today. (All of us were overdressed for our outing - it was in the 70s and sunny, even out on the water.)
We arrived at Statter Bay and climbed down a long gangplank to the harbor where we met Captain Mitch. There were several elderly people who needed a lot of assistance getting on the boat. After we sailed for a few minutes, the first order of business was to pull up a crab pot to check for invasive European green crabs. Jose and 2 volunteers pulled it up, and there were 2 sunflower sea stars in the pot. They were large  and squishy- Julie held one and reported “slimy.”
Jose showed a model of a Humpback whale, and pointed out the back muscle called a peduncle - the strongest muscle in the animal world as it is used to propel the 30 ton whale through the water. The tail is called a fluke and they are unique to the whale. The Humpback can have 10,000 gallons of water in its mouth at a time. The whale doesn’t drink it but pushes the water out through a filter called Baleen. They eat what’s caught on the Baleen, including Phytoplankton-plant plankton and zooplankton- animal plankton. Jose passed around a piece of Baleen for us to examine.   

In summer, the Whales spend up to 22 hours a day feeding. They then go to Hawaii for winter which helps keep the calves safe. They give birth in Hawaii and then return to Alaska. They don’t mate for life. 

At 10:30 we sighted a Cow and calf. We looked for the 12 - 15 foot spouts of water and mucus. Then the whale’s back would appear and then dip below the surface.  Jose said they can hold their breath for up to an hour, but they normally don’t do so. He said they may stay under water 10 - 15 minutes at a time. 
After watching them for a while we went to North Pass which is shallower and the food is more concentrated for the whales. We were treated with sightings of at least a dozen whales- there were solo animals as well as groups of 2 or 3. Showing their flukes is rare and Jose explained that it is not known why they sometimes show them. We did see flukes 4 or 5 times. Mary described the experience of seeing the whales as soul-expanding.
We also saw a number of Stellar Sea lions swimming (adults can grow 2300 lbs), and salmon jumping out of the water. We saw Bald eagles trying to catch fish. We went past Herbert Glacier and Eagle Glacier.  After about an hour out on the water, we returned to the dock and climbed the now steeper (because tide was lower) gangplank back to our bus. 
We got dropped off in town and ate lunch outside at Alaska Fish & Chips. Seaplanes took off and landed while we noshed on Halibut and Cod. We walked to SeaAlaska Cultural Center where an Alaska Native named John explained the various exhibits and artworks. We decided to return to the ship and it was a long hot walk back. The lines to get back on board were snaking around and the crew stopped the lines periodically to take supplies on or off. When Sue designs a cruise ship, it will have 2 doors to accommodate this sort of thing. We have to go through TSA type security every time we board the ship. Julie was particularly cranky waiting on the sun because she had over layered for our boat trip. We all had a nice siesta in our staterooms, and tonight we look forward to dining in the Tamarind Grill. We sail this evening for arrival in Ketchikan tomorrow morning.