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Published: August 14th 2015
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A lazy morning start on our Valdez rest day. At just before 11am we boarded our Cruise Boat Lu-Lu-Belle. We left the dock at 11 and headed across the grey water of Valdez harbour (colour is from the glacial melt) & within 30 minutes we were photographing a raft of sea otters. When resting they float on their back in a group (hence raft) looking for all the world like aqua teddy bears with flippers. They dive for food & if they bring up a large shellfish they will bring up a rock. Floating on their back they put the rock on their stomach & smash the shellfish open on it. Clever!
As we continued out into Prince William Sound we saw a few more rafts lazily napping and catching the sun. We motored past a glacier which has retreated from the beach but still occupies an entire valley as far as you can see. We then passed the marker on Bligh Reef (named after Cptn Bligh of Bounty fame) that the Exon Valdez hit in 1989. Bligh was in this area twice in the 1700s. Firstly with Cptn Cook searching for the North West Passage & secondly with Vancouver charting
the area.
Needless to say, the marker on Bligh's reef wasn't there when the Exon Valdez hit,although the reef was clearly marked on Cooks & Bligh's charts. There were also no oil containment booms or much other spill equipment in place. Now all the tankers and the shore teams have all of this equipment on hand & spill teams at the ready. According to our skipper this spill was nowhere near as bad as reported. 1,500,000 barrels on board. (At 4 US gallons per barrel according to our maths this is around 6,000,0000 gallons or 24,000,000 liters -sounds a lot to us )
13000 people were mobilized to help clean up,they did a great job but once again according to our skipper, nature did the best job.We are starting to wonder if maybe an oil company is sponsoring him as recently we were talking to an Eskimo who claimed the effects are still being felt on their traditional food supplies. However maybe he was protecting his Government Compensation. Who knows the truth - I guess you need to do your own research but the Sound is teeming with life & appears pristine.
Further out in the Sound near Glacier Island
we saw Puffins. (we photographed them but a better images are available on google images)These are an unusual looking sea bird that hang out in crevices & caves. To get a good view the skipper nosed the boat right into the caves - a bit of high-skilled piloting.They have a parrot like face and created a lot of interest. Lots of photos taken.
Further on, as the boat closely skimmed the cliffs we saw huge groups of Sea Lions, up to 700 according to our skipper (the fountain of all knowledge) swimming & basking on the rocks. The Bulls were massive - at least twice the size of the rest of the pride?/cluster - unsure of the collective noun for Sea Lions. Apparently as in NZ, since they became protected, they are decimating fish stocks in the Sound. In this case Salmon. They made a loud bellowing noise as we approached - not dissimilar to the snoring of members of our group (who shall remain nameless), some nights.
One of the crew had spotted 2 or 3 humpback whales spouting, so the skipper headed into that area in the hope one would surface. Eventually after a lot of circling, one
spouted & surfaced doing this a few more times before diving and showing his massive tail as he went.(photos taken but once again better shots on google images)
Further into the Sound and heading for the Columbia glacier we started seeing icebergs that had carved off the glacier face.
The boat negotiated a path through all the ice floes and eventually we stopped 1/4 mile from the face according to the skipper, seemed a lot closer. The glacier actually extended a further few miles into the bay when our Skipper started to bring tourists out in the early 70s. However before all you GW alarmists get excited,G Glaciologists have determined by examining the face over a few years that temperature was unlikely to have caused the retreat. They discovered a huge crack under the surface allowing sea-water in which started the retreat. They think this crack was caused by the 9.2 earthquake in 1974, the Tsunami from which, destroyed Valdez. They also note that each of the glaciers alongside Columbia are advancing strongly.
We stayed in the lee of the face for around an hour allowing photo opportunities & also a chance to see & hear lumps of ice carving
off the face. Glaciologists estimate that the pieces being carved off as we watched,started life as snowflakes some 2000 years ago. That's some slow freeze!
Tash the girl serving coffee on board is studying some sort of out-door degree at Washington University & told me that last year she was dropped off by the boat, kayaked ashore & camped the night on the beach beside the glacier face. She said it was eerie with the face carving all night long and huge crashes as tonnes of ice crashed into the water. Not my idea of outdoor fun!
We then turned for home leaving this amazing area which is surrounded by glaciers on each side of the bay. As we motored out we viewed 2 or 3 other large glaciers and a couple of dozen sea otters basking on an ice floe many of which slid off into the sea as the boat got close.
As we approached home we got a great view of the oil tanker port, 18 storage tanks etc where the pipeline completes it's 800 mile journey from Deadhorse. Valdez is the Northernmost deep water harbour that doesn't freeze in winter.The oil is then pumped into tankers
bound for oil refineries in the lower 48.
Returning to Valdez after around 8 hours, we culled our copious photos and marveled at what we had experienced. Another day in the life of an Adventure Motorcyclist.
Tomorrow Tok & The Eagle Claw Motorcycle Camp.
0kms on the bikes today.
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Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 23; dbt: 0.02s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
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