John and Sharon Join Whale Watcher’s Anonymous in Juneau

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Our second morning at sea found us rising to see better weather than we’d experienced on our leisurely sea day. We could see blue skies out our window and we’d gained an extra hour overnight. I managed to finish the blog without losing any sleep and am well rested for today’s whale watching excursion. Over the loudspeaker the captain announced that the temperature was a balmy 58 degrees Fahrenheit and today’s forecast now had improved from his announcement yesterday of rain. It looks to be a fine day for whale watching.

I finished yesterday’s blog entry and joined Sharon at mass. It was a small turnout and Father Peter asked those in the back to come forward. Today’s mass was very fast, even faster than the “Father Chuck” masses tells me of for her former priest who gave very terse and poignant sermons (a man of a few well-chosen words). The reading was of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and it took us both back to our recent visit to the Holy Land and the Mount of the Beatitudes. Father Peter lamented how many of these simple teachings have been transformed by today’s secular society to a new set that seems to prevail in our more modern world; such as, “Blessed are the greedy, for they shall inherit the earth” or “Blessed are the ambitious, for they shall seek power.” It does make you think… I’m just saying. At the end of the mass, looking out at our meager numbers, Father Peter noted how he had held service the day before after the Catholic mass for other denominations, and that the numbers in attendance were overwhelming. He also noted, “My, those Protestants can sing!” He also said that it is amazing how little, even today, Catholics and Protestants sometimes know about each other. One lady came up to him after the service and said, “Father, I never knew that Catholics gave sermons! I thought all that they ever did was chant and count beads.”

We dined in the Lido and again I had the Swiss muesli; but, after Sharon got her scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and potatoes, I went and got an eggs benedict, sausage and potatoes myself. It was quite good. On the way to the Crow’s Nest for trivia we found vendors selling warm clothing and art nick knacks on the pool deck. We found a couple of glass sculptures for $15 of a couple of puffins and one of a whale.

We sat where we had the previous day, hoping to find our teammates; although, after yesterday’s dismal showing I shouldn’t be surprised if nobody show’s up. Several people inquired after the three chairs we’d pulled aside for them, should they brave another challenge. We had arrived early so we pretty much had our pick of where to sit; although, it did take a bit to get the spot where we’d sat the day before. We were wondering if we’d recognize our teammates; or, if they’d recognize us without our Google shirts. We’d stopped by the Explorer’s Lounge on the way to our room from breakfast and picked up today’s Sudoku challenge, and took these few pre-trivia minutes to complete these word puzzles. Sharon was distracted during the first one and wanted to call off the whole challenge; but, she relented and tried the second puzzle also. The Hard puzzle required more than simple direct elimination and needed to be annotated to continue in a couple of places through triplet coupling. I’m afraid Sharon was distracted too many times by people coveting our extra teammate chairs, for those elusive teammates we hoped would show up. One of the British men did arrived and apologized that his wife would be unable to join us today. Then a single woman showed up and Jeremy asked if any team needed a player and we were the most enthusiastic asking her to join us; so, she did. Then she noticed two people nearby who she knew, who were by themselves seeking teammates. I asked if they’d like to join us as well, and so the Bozo’s continued with a slightly modified lineup today. Sharon will never hear the end of it from her siblings if we don’t get more than half the answers right today. We started well, or thought we did, not quite knowing which decade was the discovery of penicillin. We had a couple of popular repeat questions with trivia hosts former questions (they do exchange their favorites among the different DAM ships). So we knew what fast food chain has more outlets than any other (gee didn’t I mention that one in yesterday’s blog entry) and we likewise knew the oldest dice game (it’s not craps). One of the questions was who invented the internet, and I wonder why Al Gore popped into my mind (in the terms of I hope he’s not asking “Who claims to have invented the internet?”. Our teammates knew it was a British citizen who’d recently been knighted; but alas, they couldn’t come up with his name. They did know that London was the first city to have a subway. For me it was a toss-up with Paris. And the last couple to join us came up with the name of the first credit card (Diner’s Club). That was better than Bank Americard which I would have proposed. I did beat our British teammates in coming up with the century that Shakespeare was born in only because one lady was trying to decide between two exact years. It was of course the 16^th century. Sharon helped steer the answer in the right direction as to what film won 7 Academy Awards in 1977; but, none for best actor or actress. Thinking along the lines of special effects and science fiction it’s not hard to articulate “Star Wars”. We were worried that it might come down to the bonus question as to which person named more countries than any other person. We were going back and forth between Magellan, Cook and Vasco de Gama. In the end, because Cook was already the answer to the straight between the two major islands that make up New Zealand, we went with the last one. As it turned out none of us had argued very hard for Columbus (which I secretly think Sharon wanted to blurt out but our British teammates were pretty well behind de Gama). One interesting question was what country has the fourth largest population that speaks Spanish as their first language. Our teammates were trying to decide between Argentina, Mexico leaning towards the USA. I simply wrote down my answer to this trick question and they agreed with me: “Spain”. My guess was that we’d gotten thirteen right of the first fifteen questions and the bonus was a tossup. In the end, we did get thirteen points and that was two points better than anybody else! So Sharon and I have redeemed ourselves with trivia in the eyes of her family, with special thanks to her brother Sean and her sister Erin for the Trivia Crack challenges to get us ready for this week. And our prize: An Alaska Cruise pin in white and black and blues showing a humpback fluke as it dives… how appropriate.

We stopped by the dining room to check out the lunch menu; but there wasn’t anything calling to us that we had to try (and nothing really that Sharon would like). I did have my eye on the curry pumpkin soup but hoped that would be available in the Lido too. I was right. The line was impossible getting the food, and it was very hard to find a seat. We finally found a table for four that we were able to share with two others; but, we had no place settings. Even the staff seemed clueless as to where to find utensils. I finally walked around the Lido and on the far side found a table for six that had a few extra settings on it that I could borrow from. I also tried the yellow fin sole, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese. Today the sole was prepared with the skin on and is one of the most common fish sold commercially in Alaska. The soup was great and I was surprised at just how spicy it was. I loved it. Sharon had the leg of lamb, which was very red after roasting. They were grilling pieces before serving and Sharon thought it was a bit tough. Sharon loved the chocolate torte cake she got for dessert, and I found some great coconut ice cream. After lunch we waited in the cabin, Sharon getting her camera ready and since we were in port and had cell phone service I took the time to get caught up on my Word Crack games in progress. I didn’t start any new ones so I don’t know what Sharon is going on about needing to do something about this new addiction. I also called my mother to see about how her first day doing water aerobics in her new water sneakers. Sharon set up her phone as a hot spot and used that to connect to the internet to keep from going over the 100 minutes that we purchased for this cruise through Holland America.

We are tendering in Juneau today; which, the captain seemed to think was a good thing because the tenders drop you off right downtown and there is no need for a sometimes lengthy walk from the pier. We were one of the later tours to depart; which, started about 1:00 PM. We assembled in the Vista Show lounge. We arrived quickly ashore and found our group of fifteen going on a “citizen scientist whale watching expedition”. We assembled on the pier, after a steep journey down the approach gangway. Tides in Juneau can vary 20 plus feet in a twelve hour period. Several tours were departing at the same time on different boats. Ours was one of the smaller groups, which was one of the reasons Sharon picked this tour. After we were all aboard, our guide seemed somewhat confused, wondering if she’d counted right on the bus; because, something didn’t seem right. She wasn’t sure if she’d counted the Holland America staff member who was joining us today in her earlier passenger count. Finally a woman in our group recollected that there was a gentleman missing wearing a brown vest and green pants and baseball hat from New York (she was very specific, having talked with him for some time). Our guide confirmed with her fiancé, the guide on the other boat that had left just before us that they indeed did have a stowaway onboard! So we would need to meet up with this wayward wanderer later. Primarily this tour does whale watching, but enroute and during the whale watching the guide and participants perform science experiments for local bioscience research studies to collect data. The plan for today was to collect plankton samples studying the extent of a plankton that is harmful to humans. The existence of this plankton in these waters is why humans can’t safely consume shellfish from these waters; which, I guess if you were to go out and get shellfish from these waters would be nice to know. Unfortunately, the plankton net used to sample the plankton is being repaired, so we skipped that endeavor. We stopped by an island and pulled in a crab trap that had been baited to collect sea life for the second experiment. Today’s haul included one fourteen legged star fish and three “double uglies”… and this spine endowed fish really lives up to its name. Our guide had to really shake the trap to get these fish to fall into the collection tank that had been filled with sea water to keep the samples alive. The samples are photographed and catalogued. The purpose is looking for the arrival of the green crab which first appeared near San Francisco when ballast water had been leaked into the ocean, and for years they have been making their way up the coast. They seem to have been stalled around British Columbia. The problem with this crab is that it poses a threat to the Dungeness crab should it arrive. The third experiment is cataloguing the flukes of humpback whales. Flukes are like fingerprints for these whales; and, each is given a number and sometimes a name. If you take a picture of a unique humpback fluke and send it into www.JunueauFlukes.org you have the opportunity to name your humpback. And it evidently doesn’t need to be a unique name either; since, I noticed that two of the humpbacks in their catalog were named Viking. You can view the catalog online. There were close to a dozen other boats out looking for whales and all of the captains share sightings, so many boats cluster in the area where the whales are spotted. We quickly spotted a mother and calf on the surface. The calf was about three months old and had recently arrived from Hawaii where it had been born. When the mother would dive deep to feed, the calf would begin rollicking on the surface and this one put on quite a show, at one point extending its tail out of the water and as if in slow motion holding it there for some time offering photo bugs an excellent shot. Sharon captured the perfect image; except that the tip of the tail wasn’t quite in the image. Our guide did capture the perfectly framed image for today’s science part of the whale watching, and thinks that picture will likely appear in the catalog. The guide said that the calf was “mis-behaving” while the mother was down deep, and when she returned to the surface the calf settled down again.

We also saw a sea lion putting on a show for us very near the vessel. Continuing on to another cluster of whale watchers we spotted a harbor seal swimming alongside us. Our vessel is only permitted within 100 yards of the whales, any closer and maneuvering may become hazardous for the protected creatures. The sea lions are also a protected species. We came upon another mother and calf humpback. They were mostly staying near the surface and the guide supposed they were resting. We already knew that the whales sleep shutting down only half of their brain at a time; which, seemed to be news to our guide even though she’d heard of this sort of behavior. The boat captain confirmed this, having vast knowledge of the area’s wildlife, noting that whales are “conscious breathers” and unlike most mammals must understandably be aware of their surroundings and know when it is safe to draw a breath in only at the surface. The captain told of her commercial diving experience with over 250 dives and most of them in deep water doing treasure hunting, wreck salvage work and quite a bit of underwater photography. The six inch wide star fish that we’d brought up to catalog was puny compared to the six foot monsters that exist in these waters. Not that the one in our collection wasn’t a monster. During the cataloging our guide notice that one of the “double uglies” was missing a tail and speculated that the starfish had consumed it. The guide confirmed that that fish was indeed dead, and the other two fish became quite agitated every time the starfish appeared to move, thrashing wildly and splashing water from their confinement container. The living creatures were released. Only green crabs may be kept for further study should one be found.

We saw one set of three sea lions, probably juvenile males, joyfully playing and putting on quite a show, sometimes appearing to jump out of the water, and often cavorting together and often appearing to smile for the cameras. It was if they were trying to say, “Look what we can do. You don’t need to look at those clumsy whales. You want to see breaching: Watch this!” And they would jump out of the water, sometimes two, and sometimes three at a time. Once they appeared to do a triple chest bump that would have made the Bryan Brothers proud. Shortly the calf now sans mother began to put on his show and I said to Sharon, “It’s as if he’s saying to those seals, anything you can do I can do better.” A lady standing next to Sharon only heard the last part of my statement and looked at me and said “Okay, I’d like to see you try. Go ahead and jump in.” Our two and one-half hour tour was nearing its end and we returned to the dock.

As we approached the dock we spotted an eagle perched atop one of the masts of a sailboat in the marina, and many pictures captured this up close image. We actually saw many eagles on this tour, including dozens in a field on the initial bus ride to the marina. Unfortunately, we’d been sitting on the seaward side of the bus and couldn’t get a picture. During the expedition you could spot many white golf ball like dots in the trees where an eagle was surveying the area for prey. Often you would see one or even two perched together at the top of a tall tree in what appeared to be a nest. Our guide noted that the largest eagle’s nest ever found was more than twenty feet across and the inside would easily engulf a human.

And our wayward cruiser was reunited with us; and, indeed ‘she’ was wearing a brown coat. She still didn’t realize that she’d gotten on the wrong boat. Half-way back to the ship she turned to the person across from her asking “Did I get on the wrong boat?” The road we took from our ship to the marina was in fact called “The Road”. It runs briefly servicing access to Juneau and the guide noted that they don’t have a rush hour here, it’s more like a rush minute. Juneau really is one of those towns where if you’re driving and you ask a local how to drive from here to the next town, the correct answer really is “You can’t get there from here!” The guide asked if people knew the only three ways a person can arrive in Juneau. I’ll give you a hint. The first is by water. The second is by sea. Think about it.

For dinner I wanted the corn crab chowder and I thought I might like to try the andouille sausage and chicken noodle soup. Then I spotted the cold raspberry soup on the menu and asked Sharon if she was ordering that. She said that she would, so I decided I could survive without trying my second choice for soup. I wanted instead the arugula salad. Sharon ordered the standard steak and potatoes while I ordered the halibut with quinoa rice and asparagus. When I finished my soup Sharon looked at me with that are we going to exchange appetizer looks, because she thought I was asking her to order the cold fruity soup for myself. Like that’s ever going to happen. She was okay with trying the soup, and although it wasn’t blueberry, which she would have wolfed down, she did finish half. Her only real issue with it is the seeds. My halibut was good and so was Sharon’s steak. And unlike the previous night, when most people ordered steak done differently from rare to well done, everyone tonight got what they ordered and were happy. The previous night the man from Tokyo had ordered his steak rare and was not happy with his well done entrée. How did he put it: “I am not happy!” But the vegetables were superbly done and he noted, “So it’s okay.” Two of the other women at the table had traded their steaks because they appeared to be mixed up from their well-done and medium-rare orders. I had the cheese fruit plate for dessert, and Sharon had the Baked Alaska with chocolate ice cream and mint hot fudge sauce, which was excellent.

We went to the front desk to clarify or Disembark plan form, noting the Bus from Vancouver to SEATAC (Seattle airport) with no airline transfer.



Oh yes, the final way to arrive in Juneau is to be born here.

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