Posts Tagged ‘Browning Wall Pass’
Saturday, August 16th, 2008
Location: Steveston, Vancouver, British Columbia
Have to admit that I ended up a little behind with my Captain’s log entries. Especially once Charlie and Emily, my amazing 5 and 8 year old kids, joined me for a couple of weeks onboard. Seeing British Columbia and Alaska through their eyes is very refreshing and entertaining. They loved the orcas and humpbacks, loved climbing up on the bow of the Nautilus Explorer and touching an iceberg, loved hiking through the woods and sitting in 107 degree natural hotsprings. They came out in the dive skiff with me on every single dive. They were fascinated by the ever inquisitive stellar sealions and were disappointed that they couldn’t go scuba diving with them. In fact both kids were making lots of noise about wanting their own drysuits for next year. My favourite memory though is taking them kayaking through the Le Conte icefield and around the icebergs - I was exceptionally proud of Emily who “went solo” for the first time in a kayak (and what a place to do it!!) and while Charlie was in a double kayak with me, he was very clearly “the Captain” and in charge and darn near ready to go solo himself. They both drove a pretty mean inflatable at Inian Cove as well although their dockings need a bit of work. Amazing memories. And food for thought for me regarding possibly offering an extra “family” trip in Alaska each season. Well, that’s it for Alaska and British Columbia for this year. We are back in our seldom visited homeport of Steveston, British Columbia for a 22 hour turnaround before departing southbound for Mexico and the start of Guadalupe Island great white shark season. Sad to say goodbye to our northern nudibranchs, giant pacific octopus, wolfeels and all the other critters up north but time to say HELLO to big honking white sharks up to 18 feet long. More to follow. Captain Mike
Weather: Sunny, hot, calm and beautiful sunny day.
Water: Water temperatures and visiblity unknown.
Tags: Alaska, British Columbia, Browning Wall Pass, calving glaciers, cold water scuba, coral invertebrate life, Dillon Rock, diving, giant pacific octopus, humpback whales, icebergs, Inian, Juneau, Ketchikan, Le Conte, nudibranchs, orcas, point Adoluphus, Port Hardy, sealions, Shushartie Bay, Sitka, Tracey Arm, Transpac, Vancouver, wolfeel, Wooden Island
Posted in Alaska, Animals, British Columbia, Captains Log, Destinations, Guadalupe Island, Gulf of Alaska, Humpback Whale, Inian Islands, Nautilus Explorer, Nudibranch, Orca, shark, Steveston, Vancouver Island | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
Location: Wreck of the Transpac, Butedale, central coast of British Columbia
We missed a Kermode bear on the beach at Butedale by 5 minutes this morning. Darn!!!!! Lou, the caretaker of the abandoned ghost town and cannery at Butedale came up on the VHF radio as we were approaching to let me know that there had been a kermode bear on the beach all morning.. Yippee. The densest population of Kermode bears
- which are a black bear that is white, not albino but white fur with a black nose and paws – is found on Princess Royal Island which is where Butedale is located. All hands rushed to the foredeck in great excitement and……the bear disappeared into the bush just as we approached. Sighhh. It’s funny that we are quite rightly concerned about the danger of encountering bears in the bush and yet these animals are so easily spooked. On arriving at Butedale, we were surprised to see a fleet of BC Forest Service boats anchored out in the bay. Turns out that they are concerned that the pilings and structure of the cannery buildings that were abandoned 30 years ago might be on government land instead of privately owned land. I will reserve comment on this expenditure of government resources although I understand from Lou that they had a very nice hike up to the lake and so on. Our morning dive on the wreck of the Transpac was outstanding as usual with visibility estimated at 80 feet or more. The Transpac is without a doubt the most amazing wreck I have ever seen - standing upright as it does with the transom of the 180 foot fishboat plunked down on a ledge at 285 feet with the bow at 110 feet and the wreck aligned almost perfectly upright on the sheer wall. Did a dock dive in the afternoon and those divers who stayed under the pilings had a fabulous dive with giant pacific octopus sightings as well as 20 plus ratfish (aka chimera). We’re off to Shushartie Bay (Dillon Rock) and Browning Wall tonight and then in to Vancouver to finish off this very fine trip. Captain Mike
Weather: High scattered clouds, 10 knot winds from the south, smooth seas, air temperatures in the 70°’s.
Water: Visibility 80 feet plus on the Transpac. Water temperature 48°
Tags: Alaska, British Columbia, Browning Wall Pass, calving glaciers, cold water scuba, coral invertebrate life, Dillon Rock, diving, giant pacific octopus, humpback whales, icebergs, Inian, Juneau, Ketchikan, Le Conte, nudibranchs, orcas, point Adoluphus, Port Hardy, sealions, Shushartie Bay, Sitka, Tracey Arm, Transpac, Vancouver, wolfeel, Wooden Island
Posted in Animals, British Columbia, Captains Log, Destinations, Kermode Bear, Nautilus Explorer | No Comments »
Monday, July 21st, 2008
Location: Le Conte glacier, southeast Alaska
This has been our most interesting year ever for icebergs at Le Conte inlet in Alaska. The sheer size and number of icebergs that we encountered at the beginning of the season was unlike anything I have ever seen before. Some of the bergs were easily 4 – 5 times as long as the Nautilus Explorer and towered above us. The icepack was so thick on the first couple of trips that I wasn’t able get past the “last bend” and get anywhere as near the glacier face as I would have liked (and anybody who has been on an Alaska trip with me knows how tenacious and patient I am in working my way through the icefields!). Well, today there were a lot fewer icebergs than we had previously seen and I was finally able to position the Nautilus right up close to massive Le Conte Glacier. This icefield is just enormous and easily towers 500 feet above the water. The rule of thumb that charter boat Captains use is that it is safe to approach within 2 cables (400 yards) of the glacier. I can tell you that it is really something to be parked 400 yards from the glacier, listening to it snapping, crackling and groaning and wondering what is going to happen next. So what happened next???? Not much. It was pretty quiet which is likely why there was so little ice in the water. We watched and waited and after an hour or so everyone went inside for lunch. I wandered over to the other side of the wheelhouse when I heard this enormous BANG CRACK BOOM and holy s%#t all I could see was an enormous splash of water and a series of very steep 10 foot high waves coming straight at us as we were beam to. I jammed the engines in gear, goosed the throttles and got the Nautilus partially turned around when we got smacked really hard by the first wall of water. What a sight. I would be less than honest if I didn’t say that my hands were more than a shade wobbly and shakey!!!! Most amazing of all, Karen Straus – one of our guests and a professional photographer - had a funny feeling that was something was going to happen. She left lunch, set up her hi definition video camera on a tripod on the hot tub deck, focussed on the glacier face which then let go 15 seconds after she hit “record”. Karen captured the whole thing on hi def video and it is truly an incredible sequence. My thought is that I might hold off by 3 cables (600 yards) next time!! Captain Mike
click here to see our Alaska 2008 video
Water: Water visibility and temperature unknown.
Weather: High overcast, rain showers, calm winds, temperatures high 50′s.
Tags: Alaska, British Columbia, Browning Wall Pass, calving glaciers, cold water scuba, coral invertebrate life, Dillon Rock, diving, giant pacific octopus, humpback whales, icebergs, Inian, Juneau, Ketchikan, Le Conte, nudibranchs, orcas, point Adoluphus, Port Hardy, sealions, Shushartie Bay, Sitka, Tracey Arm, Transpac, Vancouver, wolfeel, Wooden Island
Posted in Alaska, Captains Log, Destinations, Gulf of Alaska | No Comments »
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
Location: Secret Bay, Chicagoff Island, southeast Alaska
Why is he a darned grizzly bear?? Because he chose to amble across the beach 150 yards away from the Nautilus Explorer in the middle of my morning briefing. Cheeezzzz, how am I supposed to do a briefing when all the guests are running for their cameras and binoculars.. Anchored up in beautiful and scenic Secret Bay today. I hesitate to publish the topographic name of this bay because (a) it is so beautiful (b) we have had really good luck with grizzly bears here (c) there is an amazing grotto of marble accessible up the stream (d) when the salmon return to this stream, it is a great place to snorkel with them and (e) we have a permit with the good graces of the U.S. Forest Service that allows our guests stroll, walk and hike through the rainforest here. My only mistake in briefing our guests was in referring to this as “rain forest” because it was indeed raining. Really raining!! More like a deluge actually. We split into 2 groups - hikers and snorkellers – and things didn’t go quite according to plan. We had an extremely low tide this morning ( – 1.3 feet on a 23 foot exchange) which made it impossible to take guests up to the marble grotto by inflatable. Everybody had to go overland instead. The very heavy rain and extreme low tide made for a very fast flowing stream and less than ideal conditions for snorkelling. The really awesome thing about the guests on this trip is that everyone was a really good sport about the “challenges” and were laughing and smiling and making jokes afterwards about what a great time they had. We’re off to dive Baranoff Island this afternoon and then on to the natural hot-springs tonight. Cheers from Alaska. Captain Mike
Weather: Heavy rain, overcast, calm winds and seas, air temperatures in the low 50′s. Very unseasonable weather for July.
Water: Water temperature and visibility unknown.
Tags: Alaska, British Columbia, Browning Wall Pass, calving glaciers, cold water scuba, coral invertebrate life, Dillon Rock, diving, giant pacific octopus, humpback whales, icebergs, Inian, Juneau, Ketchikan, Le Conte, nudibranchs, orcas, point Adoluphus, Port Hardy, sealions, Shushartie Bay, Sitka, Tracey Arm, Transpac, Vancouver, wolfeel, Wooden Island
Posted in Alaska, Animals, Captains Log, Destinations, Grizzly bear, Nautilus Explorer | No Comments »
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Location: Inian Island, Elfin Cove, Icy Strait, southeast Alaska.
I always try to maintain the best of taste in my Captain Log entries. No cussing. No inappropriate remarks. Nothing that might cause offence. So why then am I talking about duck farts?? Well, it turns out that the drink called duck farts is a well known alcoholic beverage among local residents in southeast Alaska. You can get them in Juneau, you can get them in Sitka, you can get them in Ketchikan and you can get them in Elfin Cove. After a great day of scuba diving, inflatable tours, zodiac kayaking (kayaking with a comfort boat ie. zodiac, tagging along behind with beverages, refreshments and an easy way to get home if you get tired of paddling) and whale watching around Inian Island, we took everybody ashore after dinner for a “look-around” the tiny boardwalk community of Elfin Cove. Our guests somehow got waylaid at the Coho Bar and Grill and bartender introduced them to “duck farts”. The Nautilus Explorer was anchored outside the Cove and during the various inflatable shuttles back to the boat it seemed that all we heard from our guests was “we want more duck farts”, “I’d like a duck fart waiting for me please”, “do you know how to make duck farts” and so on. I suppose that reporting this isn’t really in the best of taste but it was pretty funny at the time. Incidentally, duck farts is a shot glass of layered Kahlua, Baileys and Crown Royal. The layering is accomplished by carefully pouring the alcohol into the shot glass over a spoon help upside-down. The end result really is quite pretty. I have absolutely no idea what the linkage is though to a “duck fart”!!!! Captain Mike
Weather: Heavy rain, overcast, windy until mid-afternoon and then calm, 6 foot seas outside but calm in our anchorage, air temperatures in the mid 50′s.
Water: Visibility 20 feet, water temperature 45 – 46 degrees
Tags: Alaska, British Columbia, Browning Wall Pass, calving glaciers, cold water scuba, coral invertebrate life, Dillon Rock, diving, giant pacific octopus, humpback whales, icebergs, Inian, Juneau, Ketchikan, Le Conte, nudibranchs, orcas, point Adoluphus, Port Hardy, sealions, Shushartie Bay, Sitka, Tracey Arm, Transpac, Vancouver, wolfeel, Wooden Island
Posted in Alaska, Captains Log, Destinations, Inian Islands, Nautilus Explorer | No Comments »
Friday, July 18th, 2008
Location: Inian Island, Icy Strait, southeast Alaska
Had a fabulous day of diving around Inian Island today. Hit the slack current at “Wall of Life” which is an amazing dive. The current at “Inian Wall” turned a wee bit late (7 hours and 45 minutes after the previous slack which is very strange) but all of our scuba diving guests really enjoyed that dive as well. Finished the day off with a splash on “Susan’s Hooters” which is always a favourite despite being located off the outer exposed coast and subject to swell and chop. I should point out that Susan was very definite in naming this site and that the name is not in any way sexist or degrading!! We typically observe lots of “cute” sea otters in this area which is pretty darned good considering that it was once believed that they had been hunted to extinction by fur traders.. A pocket of survivors were later discovered on an island in the Aleutians and bred and transplanted to this part of Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California where there has been good recovery of the populations. There is something very appealing about the sea otters. Perhaps it’s the way they swim on their back much the way scuba divers do. Perhaps it’s because they appear to be so cute and cuddly and furry (they have the densest fur of any animal with over 1 million hairs per square inch which is what provides them with insulation in our less than tropical temperatures!). Maybe it’s because the Mum’s carry their babies around on their tummies as they float upside down and then wrap and stash their kids in the kelp before going for a dive. Or, as we saw last week, the Mum’s will throw a protective arm over their baby when startled and roll over and dive under the kelp with the babe. That is some pretty impressive breath hold diving for those babies!! The flip side of this is that a number of marine biologists I know are not very keen on sea otters and see them as mean, ornery and a pain in the you-know-where. We even heard a story about a male sea otter that was preying on female harbour seals by biting them on their head and then attempting to sexually assault them (note that I haven’t been able to verify that story). I can tell you that sea otters are either extremely brave or very self confident judging from what I saw today - just imagine a colony of big, ferocious stellar sealions with lots of them hauled out and maybe a hundred or more animals swimming around in the water. To my utter astonishment, I observed one wee little sea otter swimming around on his/her back in the middle of all these sealions – some of whom seemed to me posturing aggressively towards the sea otter. Amazing but the sea otter came out unscathed. It is just plain great being out here and being able to see all this stuff. Captain Mike.
Weather: Low overcast, pouring with rain, 15 – 20 knots of wind, northwest swell outside, choppy inside, air temperature low 50′s. Not a nice day unfortunately but at least the Nautilus Explorer is nice and cozy and warm.
Water:Water temperature 45 degrees, visibility 20 feet.
Tags: Alaska, British Columbia, Browning Wall Pass, calving glaciers, cold water scuba, coral invertebrate life, Dillon Rock, diving, giant pacific octopus, humpback whales, icebergs, Inian, Juneau, Ketchikan, Le Conte, nudibranchs, orcas, point Adoluphus, Port Hardy, sealions, Shushartie Bay, Sitka, Tracey Arm, Transpac, Vancouver, wolfeel, Wooden Island
Posted in Alaska, Animals, Captains Log, Destinations, Gulf of Alaska, Inian Islands, Nautilus Explorer, sea otters | No Comments »
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Location: Point Adolphus and Inian Island, Icy Strait, southeast Alaska.
We started our 4th scuba diving charter of our 2008 Alaska season off by whale watching off Point Adolphus across from the entrance to Glacier Bay. What gives with that as this trip is supposed to be a dive charter!! Well, the thing is that Point Adolphus is on of the most productive feeding grounds in southeast Alaska and the humpback whale sightings are usually quite awesome. Today was no exception, starting off with a pod of orcas cruising along on the surface 15 miles east of Adolphus and then loads of humpbacks right at the point. There’s actually not much involved in whale watching here from my perspective - all I have to do is idle around for half an hour to allow the whales to get used to us and then shut down the engines and wait for the humpbacks to swim past to see what’s going on!! We always seem to get our most spectacular whale sightings when they come to us rather than the other way around. Got a good warmup dive in at Inian Island and then did a “mystery” (exploration) dive. The exploration dive didn’t work out as well as I had hoped unfortunately and got a big “X” for future reference on my charts.. I’ve been batting .75 on mystery dives this year so hopefully our guests will allow me to try one more on this trip. The only thing I can say about the exploratory was that it had lots of really nice sand. Yikes. Captain Mike
Weather:Overcast and raining. Calm in the morning but windy by late afternoon. Rippled seas in our anchorage with bigger stuff outside. Air temperatures in the mid 50′s (this is supposed to be July with temps in the 70′s!!!!!!).
Water: Water temperature 45 degrees, visibility 20 feet.
Tags: Alaska, British Columbia, Browning Wall Pass, calving glaciers, cold water scuba, coral invertebrate life, Dillon Rock, diving, giant pacific octopus, humpback whales, icebergs, Inian, Juneau, Ketchikan, Le Conte, nudibranchs, orcas, point Adoluphus, Port Hardy, sealions, Shushartie Bay, Sitka, Tracey Arm, Transpac, Vancouver, wolfeel, Wooden Island
Posted in Alaska, Animals, Captains Log, Destinations, Humpback Whale, Inian Islands, Nautilus Explorer, Orca | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Juneau gets a LOT of cruise ship traffic in the summer and there is a lot of infrastructure in town to deal with all the tourists. Everything from a tram that goes up the side of a mountain (which is actually quite fun with lots of good hiking at the top) to a salmon hatchery (something else which is pretty neat as well) to loads of whale watching boats, tour buses, flightseeing and helicopter tours over the Mendenhall Glacier ( which looms over the town and is quite spectacular). Today was turnover day and as I sat in my office doing paperwork, I happened to look out the window and just about fell over in astonishment. I’ve never seen so many helicopters flying at one time - not even at the height of a forest fire in my previous life as a water bomber pilot. It seemed like there were helicopters everywhere with one group of 7 flying in a line towards Mendenhall and at least 6 more flying back the other way. They looked just like dragonflies to my eye and it was a sight that I won’t soon forget. Our fantastic staff are all busily working away at getting the ship turned around for our next group of guests boarding this evening. Captain Mike
Weather:Nice early summer weather with broken clouds, calm winds and seas, air temperatures in the high 60′s.
Water: Water visibility and temperature unknown.
Tags: Alaska, British Columbia, Browning Wall Pass, calving glaciers, cold water scuba, coral invertebrate life, Dillon Rock, diving, giant pacific octopus, humpback whales, icebergs, Inian, Juneau, Ketchikan, Le Conte, nudibranchs, orcas, point Adoluphus, Port Hardy, sealions, Shushartie Bay, Sitka, Tracey Arm, Transpac, Vancouver, wolfeel, Wooden Island
Posted in Alaska, Captains Log, Destinations, Gulf of Alaska, Nautilus Explorer | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
Location: Princess Sophia and Princess Kathleen, Lynn Canal, Juneau, southeast Alaska.
It’s always a pleasure and a good time having Captain Phil Sammet, his lovely wife, beautiful daughter and all his friends onboard the Nautilus Explorer. Through his many scuba diving charters on the Nautilus, Phil has steadfastly stuck to 2 traditions (a) he will paint the toe nails of any anybody that he is able to sneak up on if they are having a nap on a couch in the main salon (b) every trip must conclude with a game of Nautilus Jeopardy with questions based on the many (interesting??) facts presented during my various dive and natural history briefings throughout the trip.. It’s always a lot of fun and a great tradition and the finalists are usually quite surprised by the rules for the final “quick answer” round if they haven’t been onboard before. I don’t want to give any secrets away and am only willing to say that one should always be careful in telling people what your favourite animal is. Especially if it is something like a nudibranch. Congratulations to James Negris for correctly naming the 3 “A B C” islands and winning a $500 gift certificate on the Nautilus Explorer!! The ABC islands are Admiralty, Baranoff and Chichikof by the way - and notable for large populations of grizzly bears (coastal brown bears) and a complete dearth of black bears. Today’s scuba dives on the Princess Sophia and Princess Kathleen were outstanding although the Sophia is spooky as always with the ghosts of all 366 passengers and crew who perished on the ship. Captain Mike
Weather:A nice sunny and calm summer day in Alaska.. Air temperatures mid 70′s.
Water: Water temperature 46 degrees, visibility 20 – 30 feet.
Tags: Alaska, British Columbia, Browning Wall Pass, calving glaciers, cold water scuba, coral invertebrate life, Dillon Rock, diving, giant pacific octopus, humpback whales, icebergs, Inian, Juneau, Ketchikan, Le Conte, nudibranchs, orcas, point Adoluphus, Port Hardy, sealions, Shushartie Bay, Sitka, Tracey Arm, Transpac, Vancouver, wolfeel, Wooden Island
Posted in Alaska, Animals, Captains Log, Destinations, Grizzly bear, Gulf of Alaska, Nautilus Explorer | No Comments »
Monday, July 14th, 2008
Location: Inian Island, Icy Strait, southeast Alaska.
I thrive on discovering new dive sites. There are no other liveaboard dive boats operating north of Santa Barbara, California, to speak of and as far as we know, there has never been a charter scuba diving diveboat operating in southeast Alaska. PERIOD! We have found some amazing dive sites up here but it is all been done by trial and error and my “gut feelings” (which have been honed by 16 years of diving in this area). It is a tremendous thrill to splash on a new site and realize that you have discovered a new “Browning Pass” – Browning Wall being the most famous of all of British Columbia’s dive sites and rated as the top dive site in North American 3 years in a row by Rodale’s Diving. So I am always up for trying 2 or 3 exploratory new dives on a trip if our guests are “up” for it. The folks on this trip are terrific sports and up for exploratory diving. We lucked out today with the discovery of a beautiful albeit current sensitive pinnacle loaded with invertebrate life including corals, sponges and anemones as well as a giant pacific octopus and wolf eel. I’ve got my shoreline transit marks (the tall green tree lines up with the crack in that rock) burned into my memory banks and I can’t wait to get out there and see the site for myself. I’m still not diving unfortunately as I promised faithfully that I wouldn’t splash until getting a clear chest x-ray showing the last of my pneumonia. Darn!!! Captain Mike
Weather: Nice summer day in Alaska with broken clouds, light winds and calm seas. Air temps in the high 60′s.
Water: Water temperature 46 degrees, visibility 20 – 25 feet.
Tags: Alaska, British Columbia, Browning Wall Pass, calving glaciers, cold water scuba, coral invertebrate life, Dillon Rock, diving, giant pacific octopus, humpback whales, icebergs, Inian, Juneau, Ketchikan, Le Conte, nudibranchs, orcas, point Adoluphus, Port Hardy, sealions, Shushartie Bay, Sitka, Tracey Arm, Transpac, Vancouver, wolfeel, Wooden Island
Posted in Alaska, Animals, British Columbia, Browning Pass, Captains Log, Destinations, giant pacific octopus, Inian Islands, wolfeels | No Comments »
