Valdez Boat Trip, Friday, June 26th.

On the recommendation of some fellow RV'ers we met in Ft Nelson, BC, we bought tickets to go on the LuLu Belle Motor Yacht for a wildlife viewing tour from 2pm until 10pm. We brought a packed "dinner" of sandwiches and drinks with us. This trip was well worth the money spent!

Here is the LuLu Belle at it's harbor slip. It is an impeccably kept yacht that even has oriental rugs on the interior floor.

This is a fish processing plant where they pump or "vacuum" the fish from boats. See the big vacuum hoses?

This was a harbor seal who poked his head out as we passed out of the harbor.

This boat goes out into the Prince William Sound and gets fish off many fishing boats by the "Vacuum system" also. They then come into port and empty at the fish processing plant. This enables fishing boats to unload out in the fishing area and save time.

According to the Captain, this is the Valdez Glacier.

This is a mountain across the Prince William Sound from Valdez. We camped right underneath this mountain.

This is a closer view of that mountain where you can see the terminus for the Alaska Pipeline. It is here that the ships take on the crude oil. Our captain was here when the oil spill occurred, and said "Though it was a bad spill, it wasn't the way you saw it on TV".

This is a tanker loading up with the crude oil from that Alaska Pipeline. We camped less than a mile from this place. We were not allowed to go to it - security reasons!

Sea Otters are the funniest creatures! They are curious and like to see what is going on! They float on their back and put their front flippers together like they're praying. They often use a rock as a tool to open clams on their tummies. They may be the only sea creature who uses a tool.

I don't have a photo of it, but many of them hang onto each other to form a "raft". They broke up the raft when we got closer.

See the Sea Otter's curiousity! Doesn't he look somewhat like a teddy bear? We sure loved seeing them. They are one of our favorites creatures to watch. When they dive, they just roll over in place & dive down to get food.

Here are several who are "hooked" together in what they call a "raft". Usually the rafts are larger. They are still looking at us!

This is a very tall waterfall that we saw from the sea, coming down the mountain into the Prince William sound.

This boat was fishing for the Fish & Wildlife people to ascertain when they would allow commercial fishing to happen. They had a long net which they let out in a circle and then bring back in and count the fish. While bringing it back in they have to have another small boat tethered out to the side to keep the fishing boat from drifting into the net and getting tangled.

This is the guy in the boat which is tethering the fishing boat to prevent tangling with the net as they draw it in. Notice the line coming from the back of the boat.

This shows the fishing boat as they are drawing in the net.

From this angle you can see that the guy who is tethering is pulling the boat in the opposite direction from the net.

This shows many of the fish they caught! They dump them into that container behind the red raincoated fishermen.

These are harbor seals who were swimming near an iceburg.

This is a huge iceburg in the sound, where the harbor seals were playing.

Here are some more Steller Seals. These are still listed as endangered, but some locals are beginning to doubt it. There are lots of them.

Here are Steller Seals in the water. I think they are the younger ones. They, too, are curious!

This is an Eagle as he scoops up a fish from the sea. It is a little far for you to see, sorry.

This is that same Eagle as he watches the sea from a tree branch. Note the white head & white tail. An Eagle must be 4-5 yrs old, I was told, before the head & tail become white.

This, I believe, is a Horned Puffin as he takes off from the Ocean. These birds were very fast! They were hard to photograph. They have a high "stall speed", so they have to do a take-off run, hence the splashes behind him.

Here is a Puffin Flying across the water. They are an artic bird.

What a beautiful Humpback Whale! I will probably bore you with many of these photos of Humpbacks! They swim on the surface awhile, blowing out waterspouts and getting their breath. Then they show their tail as they begin their dive. They go deep to feed and stay down usually about 8 minutes or so and then return to the surface for a short rest and more breathing.

This Humpback is getting ready to dive deep and get more to eat.

Don't you love this fluke where the water is dripping off him! I love it!

This is a beautiful view of the mountains around the Prince William Sound. There are two layers of mountains here.

This is two Humpbacks blowing at the same time. These two were swimming together for quite awhile. After a few "breaths" like this, they'll dive again.

This is a rare occurance, a double fluke! And I was there! It was so exciting to see these two together!

Another shot of the double fluke!

And another....

..couldn't resist another!

Another single whale fluke. From photos like these, they are able to indentify individual whales, as the underside of each wales tale has a unique design. Note the white on the left.

Here is another single whale fluke. They are all different.

This is a view of the Columbia Glacier, showing the front of the ship. This is a marine glacier as the foot of it empties into the sea.

Lynda on deck among all the iceburgs of the Columbia Glacier.

Jim on deck by the Columbia Glacier. This glacier moves forward 100 feet daily and calves iceburgs into the sea.

Another view of Lynda on the deck showing the Columbia Glacier.

This is a view of the Columbia Glacier and the iceburgs which are now in the sea.

When we got ready to leave the icefield of the glacier, I was afraid we would not get out. The currents made these iceburgs move around a lot and seemed to "pen us in", but the Captain patiently moved them out of the way with the boat and we escaped! (Phew!)