JOURNAL #21
2 AUGUST 2007 SEWARD TO WHITTIER & FERRY
The alarm is set. We have to get up early to have breakfast, prep our cars and check
out before walking across the street to the wildlife cruise office at 7:15 for our
six-hour water cruise of the Seward Archipelago and its wildlife. The clouds are
all but on the water and only the bases of the mountains show above the coast line.
We wonder just how much we will see on a day like this?
We are warmly wrapped as we board the two-decked boat which will take us to see the
Seward Archipelago. There must be over 100 people on board and we find seats on the
lower deck, port side with the Olsons. We share the six-person table with an interesting
young couple from the Texas Gulf Shore. He is French and teaches French in a high
school. His English is very good — with a Texas/French accent! We wonder how good
this cruise will be considering the bad weather. Our first sighting is an otter and
90 percent of those aboard rush outside to the rails. We remain seated and all we
can see through the windows are Levis and Wranglers! Thus it was with each successive
announcement! If we wanted to see, we had to go outside, for the most part. We see
many Orcas whales. Possibly up to 50 sightings where the whale dorsal fins break
water and their backs arch out of the water like dolphins at play. Once in a while
we may see the flukes. We visited several rookeries to watch thousands of birds on
the rocks and on the wing. Not as impressive as at Homer, however. Seals and eagles
were sighted and I got some video of Dahl sheep high on a craggy slope. About noon
we were served a meal of fried fish or chicken with chips, a drink, followed by a
cookie. The formations of the islands were also interesting, having been carved by
the wind and water for thousands of years. We were a bit late returning to the port.
We rushed to our cars and some of us had to refuel before leaving Seward. The rush
was on to get to Whittier in time to catch our ferry to Juneau. One problem was a
one-way tunnel just before Whittier. In years past, only a car-train went through
this tunnel requiring that cars be loaded aboard. Subsequently, they paved the tunnel
and allow one way car traffic each way for 15 minutes every hour. We must get to
the tunnel on the half hour to go to Whittier, or wait until the next flow in that
direction. Whittier is about 100 miles away. The road was generally good most of
the way and traffic was not as heavy as it had been the previous Sunday, so we made
good time. Even though we started out in about the middle of the pack, we managed
to arrive first at the tunnel. The others ahead of us must have stopped en route,
for one reason or another. We did pass two cars near the end of the trip when they
pulled over to let modern cars by. When we entered the ferry parking lot, all the
T’s were lined up ahead of us. They had spent the night several miles closer to the
terminal than we. Light rain pelted us on the last part of the drive and continued
as we waited several hours to load aboard the ferry.
The stateroom in the Kennecott, though smaller than the one we had aboard the Columbia,
was better in its design. The bed on the right made into a couch
When we got on board, we found this boat, although newer than the Columbia, one which
we had sailed up on, was not in as good shape as the other one. The Columbia had
gone through rehabilitation more recently than our boat, the Kennecott. The stateroom,
though a bit smaller was better from the standpoint that a long bench seat, which
made into a lower bunk was incorporated, while our other ship had a double bed, but
no place to sit and read or relax. Our new ship had a much smaller bathroom, but
overall appeared to have a better design.
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