Iceberg escapades

Petersburg is a busy fishing town on the Inside Passage of South East Alaska, we visited it for a sea kayaking trip and humpback whale watching in Frederick Sound.  It had been a bumper year for the fishermen catching salmon and the cannery was working flat out.

arriving in Petersberg

the big city

Our tour boat

We did a kayak trip at Le Conte glacier which is a tidewater glacier as it calves into the sea rather than a freshwater lake.  Icebergs that have calved off the glacier float miles out to sea, we kayaked around the entrance to Le Conte bay in among the icebergs which would sometimes start rumbling and roll slowly over as a piece above melted and unbalanced it.  They were amazing shapes and colours.  There was a really cool lady on the trip with us, Bettie who was from LA and was probably a contender for the funniest lady we have met. She had been on kayak trips with the same company for many years.

She told us about a trip to Europe she took in her twenties, she was in Scotland and was angling for a dinner invite with a Glaswegian man. She figured that the best way to charm him would be to look interested and laugh at his jokes, unfortunately she was unable to understand a word he said. After a while the man finished talking and looked quite offended, Betty was informed by a friend that the man had been explaining about his wife's death, needless to say she wasn't invited for dinner! Ralph nearly pee'd himself laughing after she told us this.

A beached iceberg, it looked different from every different angle

Fi was not as close to a titanic moment as she looked

Icebergs, we had to keep a bit of distance as many of these broke up and spun to reveal their undersides

Ralph has not been the same since the day at the gun shop

Fiona and Bettie

Le Conte glacier, the black dots on the ice are harbour seals who managed to make ice look very comfy.

The harbour seals can lie up on the ice safely away from the Orca which patrol the waters outside the bay.

More pretty icebergs, Ralph though that  they looked like Krypton from the superman films

Steller sea lions snooze on buoys in Petersburg.  Apparently this is quite a recent behaviour developed in the last few years, the main benefit being proximity to fishermen cleaning off their catches. It is amazing how they can look comfortable even lying on metal bolts........