Monday, Sept. 4, 2023 (Labor Day)

Icy Strait Point

Monday – Labor Day, for perspective – was scheduled for a whale watching tour.  We’ve done these before, and sometimes they are hit or miss.  It all depends on whether the whales decide to be cooperative.  This tour “guaranteed” that we would see whales, though, and have to say they did not disappoint.  

It was also only 3 ½ hours, which was much more doable.  After that long, the whales had things to do and were tired of performing for us.

This outing started with us gathering in the ship’s main theater, where we were assigned to groups / boats. 

We actually liked this excursion better than the one the day before.  It really didn’t go far from the cruise ship – which was in the “cruise port” – which seems to consist of one berth and a metal gangway down to the smaller boat docs.  To say this location is primitive is a significant understatement!  There was hardly a point on the entire excursion where we could not see our cruise ship.

The advertisements were accurate – we started with humpback whale sightings almost immediately.  You could tell when they happened because one (or more) people would shout, “Oh, look!  There’s one!!” where then everyone else on the boat immediately ran to that side to look out.  The captain would maneuver us as close as was allowed, slow the boat down and then everyone could go outside and up to the top or front decks.

EB had the foresight to snag the back row of seats for us, which meant that we got to be the first ones out the door whenever there was a sighting.

The added bonus, which the crew on the boat explained, is that orcas are rarely seen in the bay.  They must have been having a convention, because we saw several pods of 4 or 5 at different points, with one going under the boat!  Later in the excursion there were some breaching, even.

In the whale discussion by Celia, we had learned about orcas that were coming up to ships (in other areas of the world – not here), grabbing the rudder and causing concern.  She explained that they weren’t attacking with the intent of sinking them, but rather they had learned that if they did this the people on the ship all screamed in terror effectively turning the boat into a giant squeak toy.

How much fun is that?

Fortunately for us, our orcas were content just to show off a bit.

This was probably the only place that a nice set of binoculars would have been worth the trouble of toting them across the country.  We opted out of that (there are some little ones in the cabin, but we hadn’t thought to bring them), but those with high-end optics were able to pick out at least a couple of brown bears and some bald eagles.  Those of us with eyes over 60 had to just take their word for it.

This tour concluded with a “Seafood Feast”, which was in the open air under a tent (it was raining just a bit, a first for this trip) and was exactly as messy as it is when you do a seafood boil down south.  Essentially everything is boiled in a big container (stainless steel, presumably in a nod to the health code requirements, as opposed to boiling it in half of a barrel that used to contain something toxic) and dumped onto a big tray.  

Corn, potatoes, shrimp, andouille sausage and Dungeness Crab Legs.  These are the big ones that you don’t get at Red Lobster.  It was very good, but confirmed something we’d learned before – crab legs are simply not worth the effort.  Yeah, they taste good, but you’ve got to fight them things and wrestle out the good parts if you want to eat.  By the time you get enough to eat, you’re exhausted and it’s time for your next meal.

Talking to one of the young men that led the various groups around, we learned that there is a somewhat unique business model going on there.  Housing and necessities (furnishings, toilet paper, paper towels, etc.) are a flat rate and automatically deducted from your paycheck.  All you have to pay for is your food and incidentals, and unlike the “company store” model that those of us in the south learned about, this apparently pays a decent wage to entice young employees to come back year after year.  These lines only run during the summer months, so many go off to other jobs during the winter (he was going to Nantucket) and then come back the next season.

It looks like it would be easy to save money, too, as far as we could tell there’s nothing there other than (a) whale tours; (b) a very small gift shop; (c) a couple of places to eat (associated with the whale tours); and (d) a gondola ride.  The first half was free, but if you wanted to go further up you had to pay. Having ridden in gondolas before, we opted just for the free part.  I suspect there is more to the village that we couldn’t see from our vantage point, but it can’t be much!