Wow! God is so awesome. Not only does drizzly Juneau have a
beautiful, hot day, but we went on a whale watching cruise and saw a display
that the guide had not seen before – right up within about 100m of the ship.
Our day started early because we had to get down to the dock
by 8.15. We had room service for breakfast, then concentrated hard work to get
us down there in time. We had a reasonably comfortable coach ride through
Juneau to the little cruiser which would take us to the whale watching area;
the bus driver was amazed at the glorious summer day – they get about five dry
days a year in Juneau and the locals were commenting that they haven’t seen
this type of hot, sunny day in many long years. On the way we stopped at a
lookout and took pictures of the famous Mendenhall Glacier – a picture postcard
view.
Once we were under way in the cruiser, we soon spotted a
small family of about ten sea lions all trying to climb on a large marker buoy
(such huge, comical blobs), as well as a little colony of harbour seals bobbing
around close by, perhaps 50 or 60. There were a few young bald eagles in the
low trees as well. When we got to the whale area, we spotted a water spout,
then another, then another. There were six whales in all, three of them
juveniles, coming up for air, leaping in the water and diving for food. We
watched this spectacular performance for about 45 minutes, with the whales
eventually being only about 100m from our boat. The guide said in five years of
whale watching this was the best sighting she had ever seen. Apparently they
often see a lone whale feeding but this was enthralling. We finally had to
leave and on the way back, we did encounter a lone whale, a large adult, who
was lazily surfacing and diving for food. Again he came very close and again we
finally had to leave.
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<p> Again the scenery was spectacular, picture
postcard stuff. The one of the single tail is zoomed a little but the other ones
aren’t – yes, they were that close!
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We had lunch back on the ship, then took the laptop down to
a coffee shop where we had terrible, slow wifi. We did make a couple of little
jewellery purchases for gifts, both of which were offered to us at generous
discounts. With four cruise ships all tied up at the dock, the shops were
having a bumper day.
Afternoon tea and then yet another inspiring concert, this time
Legacy Quartet, Booth Brothers and Ken Davis – not a dry eye in the house: he
is so clever at taking what’s happening around the ship and weaving a hilarious
tale.
Good food for dinner; as we’re sitting right at the back
window of the dining room, we watch the spectacular full-width scenery change
with the coming of sunset, snow caps glistening and the Norwegian Princess
following us, gleaming white. The steward on duty at the door as we leave the
dining room each evening is still on the ship since our NZ cruise in January;
tonight he gave me a bouquet of “white roses” made out of paper napkins. He’s
going home on Sunday after ten months away from his bride of six weeks: such a
difficult life for them!
Back to our room and Graham was quickly in bed and asleep.
Tomorrow morning we don’t have a wake-up call: we’ll be staying on board, as
Sitka requires tender access and Graham needs a quieter day.
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