Alaska 2023 - Day 4

5/17/2023 Wednesday - Our morning excursion was to the Inian Islands. These islands are quite exposed to the Gulf of Alaska, with no barrier islands protecting them. This makes for a lot of tricky currents and waves, and kayaking in this area was out of the question. 

Inian Islands circled in red

We went out in an inflatable skiff, leaving the Wilderness Discoverer at 8:30. The currents around the islands were pretty amazing, with whirlpools, rips, water running in different directions, etc. It became clear why they didn't want us kayaking out there!  Rica was our skiff captain and Peter was the guide for this trip, and both did a great job.

We were enjoying our fourth day of amazing weather. We saw several Humpback Whales, Steller's Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, Sea Otters (many with babies), Bald Eagles, and Teri spotted a Tufted Puffin. 

Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale with kelp on its tail flukes

Steller's Sea Lion

Sea Otter with baby on board

Another Sea Otter with a baby

As we headed back to our ship a different group of Humpback Whales was spotted, so we headed their direction. Rica positioned our skiff ahead of the direction that the whales were travelling, and then we just sat. Often they would pass quite close. 

Humpback Whale with another Wilderness Discoverer

skiff in the background. 

At 2:30 we went on a self-paced hike on George Island to see an old WWII cannon. After about a 2-minute skiff ride from the ship to a wet landing on the beach, we followed a decent trail up into a beautiful mossy forest. 

Skiff from ship to shore

Once ashore we walked at our own pace up to the WWII gun site. There were some amazing views from the trail. 

There was a side trail to a nice black-sand beach on a little cove. 

Teri on the black-sand beach

Skunk Cabbage was growing well along the trail.  We detected a bit of the aroma for which it is named!

Skunk Cabbage

Skunk Cabbage bloom

We arrived at the site of the WWII gun emplacement. We've run across of few of these before. Guns that were installed in strategic locations, just in case the shore needed to be defended from enemy ships. 

During the test firing of this gun, the gun base broke on the fourth round. The gun was covered with a tarp and never fired again! It was an interesting site to visit. 

Old Quonset Hut

We made our way back down to the beach, where we found that there was a delay getting back to the Wilderness Discoverer. The wind had really picked up and the ship's anchor was dragging, so we had to wait while they tried to re-anchor.

They couldn't get the anchor to hold, so finally gave up on that and held the ship in position with the engine while they recovered all of the skiffs. It was a rough transfer but was handled well and everyone got back on board without incident. Once all of the skiffs were back onto the ship we were underway once again. These seemed to be the roughest seas that we'd encountered. Things calmed down once we sailed into more sheltered waters.

Next - Happy Birthday to Mark, waterfalls, and more kayaking