Day Nineteen - Seward, AK

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I was laying in bed contemplating getting up when I heard a loud BANG! I asked Mike what it was. He said the people behind us dropped their 5th Wheel on the bed of their truck. They hadn't secured the pin in the hitch before driving away. Oops! There didn't appear to be any visible damage from where we sat watching as they finally exited with their trailer following. Dave did that once. Unfortunately it did do some damage to the bed of their truck and now their tonneau cover doesn't fit quite right and has to be finagled into place.

Mike and I brainstormed possible solutions to our slide problem: Could it be the batteries? Could it be a relay somewhere? Could it be the motors themselves? We looked online for nearby RV repair shops. "Nearby" was Anchorage. Dave came over and the three of us looked for mobile RV repair options. Soldotna and Chugiak were our only choices. Both were over an hour away and would cost at least a hundred dollars just for them to drive here. It was decided that Mike would take the batteries to NAPA in Seward and have them checked. If we needed new ones we wouldn't be getting them there. The sticker price was $500 ... each! Nope. Palmer has an O'Reilly Auto Parts and their deep-cycle batteries are much more reasonably priced. Yep. Dave suggested swapping our batteries for theirs to see if it really is a battery issue. Good idea, Dave! They got their workout hefting and lugging the much-heavier-than-a-normal-battery batteries. New batteries connected, I pressed each of the two slide buttons. Everything stayed put. The issue isn't the batteries. Bummer, that would have been and easy, relatively inexpensive fix. Heft ... lug ... the batteries go back to their respective homes. Teri and I were visiting in our trailer when Mike came in and tried the buttons again. My eyes grew wide and an open-mouthed smile lit my face when I suddenly jerked toward the kitchen as I sat at the dining table. He reversed the direction and the table and I settled back into camping position. He then repeated the process with the bed slide. Success! When he was putting the batteries back in place and reattaching the cables he noticed two tiny buttons nearby. One was in, the other was out. He used a screwdriver to press the out button in. It clicked and stayed depressed. It must have been the reset button for when he had the trailer connected to shore and truck power simultaneously. Whew! Huge sigh of relief. So thankful it was an easy fix, didn't cost anything but time, and was figured out before we were forced to hand crank them back in.

Today's fun was a dinner glacier cruise. We arrived in Seward an hour prior to departure as instructed, picked up our tickets and waited to board the catamaran. Once aboard we found a table with six chairs on the main level. It was toward the rear of the boat next to a window. As we were leaving the harbor our captain spotted a sea otter off to our right. it was floating on its back having a snack. Once out of the no wake zone, cruising speed was about 25 knots per hour.

We cruised past magnificent cliffs, snow and glacier capped mountains, and giant rock islands. The captain steered us to one particular island. Its "shores" were littered with Stellar Sea Lions. There were scores of adults and pups enjoying the beautiful, sunny weather. I also spotted a Puffin floating nearby.

Farther out and farther away from the boat we saw a small pod of Dall's porpoises feeding. They were pretty far from the boat so it was a little difficult to see them well.

Once the sightings began, I moved to the front of the boat to get a better view. With the boat moving at a slower speed it didn't crash through the swells, but rode them instead. It was like riding a roller coaster standing up.

Out near more open water we found a pod of resident Orcas feeding. It was exciting to see them surface and arch back down into the sea in search of more salmon.

It was fun ... until it wasn't. Looking through the eyepiece of my camera trying to get pictures of the whales as they broke the surface exacerbated the up and down movement of the boat. You know where this is going. I made my way back into the cabin, sat down at our table and stayed there, my head in my hands, the rest of the cruise. My five and a half hour cruise lasted less than two hours. A deckhand recognized the signs of impending discomfort and asked if I'd like some crackers and ginger ale. I replied, "Yes, please, thank you" and dropped my head again into my hands. Another deckhand dropped off a "just in case" bag. The first deckhand brought my crackers, ginger ale and another "just in case" bag. I ended up using both. I guess non-drowsy Dramamine isn't meant to prevent sea sickness. It works fine for school field trips on buses and short ferry rides, five and a half hours on a catamaran not so much.

The rest of this blog will all be based on what I heard and the very brief glimpses I felt safe enough to take out one eye or the other, never both.

The captain left the Orcas to their dinner and went in search of bigger fish. Yes, I know Orcas aren't fish. Neither were the Humpback whales almost everybody but me saw next. I heard the captain give everyone a clue as to where to look for the whales to surface. He said to watch the seagulls. They land where the whales will feed. He explained that the whales work together and use a technique called bubble-net feeding to fill their large bellies. One whale dives deep and blows bubbles from their blowhole. The bubbles stun the prey and the other whales swim in a spiral to keep the fish trapped on their way to the surface ... into the waiting mouths of the seagulls. The spiraling whales swim upward, taking in big mouthfuls of the clustered fish and whatever else happened to get caught in the "net." I think I happened to catch one of them out my right eye, between two spectators, on the opposite side of the boat, just as it surfaced, mouth agape. It was impressive even from my position.

The next thing I heard was Mike, Dave and Teri getting settled at the table. We must have left the big guys to let them eat in peace, or as peaceful as it can be with a hundred seagulls squawking for fish. I heard a deckhand come by and ask who had the chicken and who had the vegetarian. I also heard Teri say, "Just leave it." I assume she was talking about the dinner I had chosen and wasn't about to eat. I heard Mike say his chicken was good, Dave said his crab cakes were just okay and there wasn't a whole lot of crab in them. Teri wasn't feeling that well either. The swells had gotten to her and her Bonine hadn't fully kicked in yet. According to Mike, Dave ate Teri's veggie burger (which he would have done anyway because she doesn't even eat fake meat). The meal wasn't what we paid to see and do anyway, we were there to see sea life and glaciers. The deckhand came back to clear the table and must have brought a box for mine. A little bit later dessert was served - fresh baked chocolate chip cookies!

I felt the vessel slow and come to a stop. Good. My head and stomach didn't like even the little bit of up and down here toward the back of the boat. I asked Mike to take my camera and get pictures for me. I felt around the seat to my left where all my gear was piled, found my camera, made sure the correct lens was attached, showed him how to use it, and handed it to him. All without opening an eye or moving my head much. A little while later I heard a CRACK and I knew what that sound meant. I peeked out my left eye and saw part of the Holgate glacier and chunks of ice floating in the water. I doubt any of it had anything to do with the calving I heard, but at least I saw the glacier we had come all this way to see. Humpback whales, check. Glacier, check. Okay, I could keep my eyes closed until we got back to the dock. Our captain drew people's attention to one of the deckhands scooping a few chunks of glacial ice from the frigid water.

After what seemed an eternity I heard the gang come back to the table and felt the boat picking up speed. We must be heading back in ... finally. Later I heard the captain announce the bar was now open and the glacial ice would be used to cool the drinks. Dave got himself a whiskey on the rocks. Neither Mike nor Teri got anything. At some point a deckhand asked me if I wanted more crackers and ginger ale. I said I did, so she came back with more. I remember Teri opening one of the packages of crackers. I took one and put it in my mouth and tried chewing. I had no saliva. The cracker tasted like a Teddy Graham which would have been great any other day. Right now it just turned to a big ball of blah that I had to now swallow. No more crackers. Somebody thought to get some of the glacier ice for my ginger ale so I could at least say I'd had that. That was a nice touch and one I truly appreciated. Teri took a picture so I could see it later when I was feeling better.

Back at the dock I waited for everyone else to make their way to the exit before I started getting out of my seat. I was forced to open my eyes now. I had a pounding headache. I gathered my gear, Mike grabbed my dinner, and we walked to the door, across the gangplank, down the dock and to the truck.

We stopped on our way out of town because apparently there was a moose mom and two babies grazing in the tall grass between two roads. The ride back to camp wasn't smooth. My eyes closed, I felt every turn and bump making our way to camp. Just off the highway was a train crossing. Train crossings are not smooth, especially when they're at the top of a short incline. Up, bumpbumpbump, down, then an immediate right turn. I put my fingers to my lips to hopefully keep myself from losing my Teddy Graham saltine cracker and glacier-cooled ginger ale. I felt a "just in case" bag on top of my to-go dinner box. I thought, "Why would Mike bring my used bag with us?! That's so gross!!" I toyed with the top where it had been folded down and the tabs folded over to keep it closed. I was getting it ready to add more to the contents. I made it back to camp without having to use it again which was a good thing; inside was my chocolate chip cookie.

Safely back to my home away from home I took a couple of Tylenol and went to bed. There would be no blogging tonight.

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