Back safe and sound from our 5-day Columbia to Valdez trip! We had great weather every day and a remarkable whale sighting on the way out to our drop off point. A pod of orcas off of buoy 9 were playing at the surface of the water, lob-tailing, and doing pec-slaps. Even though they were only adolescents, they were displaying a lot of mating behaviors and put on a pretty good show. Witnessing this was a first for me (and everyone on board) and is definitely the highlight of my year so far!
Orcas tend to mate relatively late in their life, at around 15 years of age, when they reach much bigger sizes. So these younger whales were likely just “playing around”.
After our sightings in the arm, we reached Heather Bay and did as much exploring on water and land as we could. 22 hours of daylight sometimes doesn’t seem nearly enough. We found beautiful pools and lakes in the meadows behind the bay, paddled around the ice at Columbia, surfed our kayaks with the aid of Tuesday’s tailwinds, and spent some memorable evenings around the campfire playing “Rikiki”. A trip I will never forget and can’t wait to print the photos from.
Dank u wel for the adventures guys! Merci beaucoup!
