As I awoke from a good night’s sleep, and made my way to the coffee station, I was greeted by a humpback whale diving right outside the lounge window. Almost immediately there was a breaching whale; time to get out to the bow of National Geographic Sea Lion and enjoy this gorgeous morning, sailing along with the whales.

There were a number of animals around busily feeding in the morning light, but we had a destination in mind for our morning’s activities – Bay of Pillars – so we slowly continued on, leaving the humpbacks to go about their business. This protected inlet on the west side of Kuiu Island is an infrequently visited area, with lots of sea otters and beautiful scenery. Soon we were dropping anchor, having breakfast and getting ready for our triple set of activities: hikes, kayaking and small boat cruises. What a way to spend a sunny morning in Southeast Alaska!

After lunch Sea Lion got underway, heading back to Chatham Strait to look for wildlife and explore areas along Baranof Island. The wind started to drop and we had a very comfortable ride across Chatham Strait to a place called Gut Bay, another picturesque inlet, this time on Baranof Island. We did a slow cruise into the bay, enjoying the incredible scenery on this spectacular sunny day.

Slowly we left the bay and returned to our northerly route, having one more special event to fill the rest of the afternoon, a presentation by Andy Szabo, director of the Alaska Whale Foundation. He met Sea Lion in his small boat near Warm Springs Bay, and gave a wonderful and very informative talk about humpback whales and the research that he and his colleagues have been doing in this area of Southeast Alaska. We thanked him, sent him on his way home, and continued north toward our destinations for tomorrow. Another wonderful day in an Alaskan paradise!