Bubble net feeding

This picture blows. But, this was incredible. Right as we were leaving Tenakee Inlet, this group of humpbacks was working its way around a piece of Chatham Strait making bubble nets one after another after another. A few whales will get together and swim in a circle, making bubbles that create a kind of net. They get closer and closer together, enclosing whatever fish are in between them, and then they swim up through the center with their mouths open. You can’t see anything until they hit the surface. Where they’re coming up is a surprise unless you can find the gulls, who can see the bubbles from above, circling. And after, they repeat the process, getting into the right configuration in a way that you can make out just enough of to tell that its precisely coordinated.

More bad pictures after the jump.

My favorite place in Southeast Alaska

I took these photos the first day I was in Tenakee. Don’t judge the place by the cell phone quality of the pictures.

This is Tenakee Ave. It’s the only street. It has an east side and a west side. It runs for probably two miles and then turns into a trail on either end. Speed limit signs keep the ATVs in check. Not that there’s anyone to write a ticket.

A few photos, 07.31

Yesterday was sunny and beautiful, just like the day I got here! I went for a walk up to Indian River again, and while I don’t have any pictures of “downtown,” I snapped some from the harbor and further out.

A little bathhouse story 07.28

I tried to take a picture of the bathhouse but the second I took out my camera the lens fogged right up! I'll try again another day. Story after the jump...

Settling in 07.28

After two pretty chilly nights (jeez, Alaska), I’ve learned how to use the diesel stove, and I have shore power hooked up, so things here are snug, with heat and music. I’m not too sure what the blog will look like from here on out. For today, I’ll spare you guys my adventures in bilge cleaning and instead tell you what I learned about sea otters.

This is what a crabber here in town told me: Back when this was a Russian colony, sea otters were trapped for their fur, shrinking their population to something like 1000 individuals. So now, they’re a protected species, which means no more trapping. And, we've reintroduced otters into lots of areas where they used to live, including this one. Apparently, further north, orcas eat the sea otters, keeping their populations under control, but for some reason, the ones here don’t. Maybe they’ve forgotten how? Anyway, as a result the sea otter population here is totally unchecked, and apparently the otters decimate mollusk populations (maybe crabs, too?) especially on the west coast of the island. So people think of them as pests. But, after poking around on the internet a little bit, it seems some folks think that the mollusk populations are actually decimated by humans fishing too intensively. And balancing otter population's needs with our economic needs is a pretty complex question. So, more later...

the Flyer

It's still overcast, but this is a rainforest, so I guess that's to be expected. Anyway, I'm realizing if I wait for a sunny day I'll never get to post anything. Here she is.

I've jumped ship!

Tenakee Springs! We pulled into this tiny little town, population 100 max, three days ago, and I just fell in love. It's got a hot springs bathhouse. And there's one street, that's a 6 ft wide dirt road. And there's a store, a library, a bakery, and a post office. And there's no solid waste services so people burn their trash. And potable water comes from wells, the creek, or cold springs about a mile up the road. And it overlooks Tenakee Inlet, which is gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. Sometimes the whales come, and there's seals, and bears, and deer, and about a million crows and ravens. And, within about 15 minutes of stepping off the boat I met a local who offered his fishing boat, currently unused in the harbor, as a place to crash. So, I've decided to stick around for a little bit.

I saw Dan and Kathy off yesterday afternoon and spent the rest of the day cleaning diesel out of the bilge of my new home, the Midnight Flyer.

I went hiking yesterday evening up through the rainforest to Indian River. There's a suspension bridge on it and supposedly sometimes you can watch the bears catching salmon in the stream. But no such luck yet! Still, the forest here is wonderful.

Now, I'm sitting at the bakery using the power and the wifi (I don't have electricity hooked up on the boat yet), and soon I'm off to the bathhouse. Then, back to the bilge! (Cleaning diesel up is actually kind of cool. You use these absorbent pads that only soak up diesel, so if you put them in clean water they come out dry. Crazy!)

I'll post pictures as soon as the sun comes back--Tenakee is much more photogenic on a clear day! And the Flyer will be too, I think.