A fishin, we a go...

 

Obviously, I took quite a few pictures while we were out fishing for three days. So bare with me. I'm going to break them up into two or three posts.

On Sunday, the 1st we got up and left Tok around 10:30 AM. It is a four and a half hour drive from Tok to Valdez on the Tok Cutoff. It was an overcast and drizzly day as been the norm around here for the past while. It's starting to feel like the coast instead of the interior... on the coast it's drizzly and rainy pretty much every single day when it's not snowing. 

Thankfully this wasn't my first trip to Valdez, it's a gorgeous drive, but it was foggy, cloudy, and raining the whole time. You could barely see the mountains or the Worthington glacier. On a nice day, the scenery is amazing. But when it's cloudy, you almost don't even realize what you are driving through. Going over the Thompson pass, we couldn't see anything, the fog was so thick, we couldn't even see the lines on the road. The temperature at the top of the pass dropped about 9-10 degrees. Lots of snow up there still - there is usually snow, but there was a considerable amount for this time of year there. In the town of Valdez, there is still un melted snow - in July. 

rain and clouds

the Worthington glacier

going over Thompson Pass, those markers along the side of the road are to guide the snow blowers - because yes, the snow gets that high

just barely able to see the lines in the road

coming out of the pass, and the fog

coming into Valdez

We were excited to see our friend Buddy's new boat. He upgraded this year from his 36 foot cruiser to a 52 foot, yacht. It's gorgeous. Lots more sleeping and living room and even a good sized kitchen. The fishing deck is twice as big which is really nice.

there she is, Captain Bud's new boat

Valdez harbor

the harbor

heading to the truck to unload our stuff

in Jack Bay, where we spent our first night, lots of clouds but it was super calm

Eagles flying in Jack Bay

Looking off the deck of the boat

heading out of Jack Bay towards a good fishing spot on Monday

Douglas says, lets catch some fish!

Douglas enjoying the view

cruising along

Pam, navigating

We pulled up the shrimp pots, here is the haul out of one

map of Jack Bay

Iceberg, it's amazing how blue they are

full of gulls

Sea otter carrying her baby on her belly! They are so adorable

shark?

Nope, it's a whale!

looks like a Minkie whale feeding, the mouth is wide open filling up

Douglas and Norman riding up front

Captain Buddy cleaning the shrimp

 
 Dinner time!

We saw three whales, which is always amazing. We didn't see any Humpback whales this trip, but hopefully next time if we are able to go out again. They are just breath taking to see. It's exciting to get to see any whales though, it always makes my heart skip a beat or two. Especially when you see and hear them blow - such an awesome sound.

There were lots of Sea Otters out with their babies - we've never seen so many. I'm convinced they are one of the most adorable critters ever, carrying their babies on their bellies, playing, and when they sleep they even sometimes hold hands, yes hold hands, so they don't drift apart from each other.  Just amazing critters.

Most of the time the water was completely calm. We went out to deeper water on day two, and it was calm, on day three we had quite a bit of rocking at our fishing spot, but only for a few hours while we caught some halibut.

I've got a bunch more pictures to come. I still have to check out what pictures Kevin took, I know he got a lot better pictures of the Sea Otters with his Canon EOS-50D than I was able to get with my G12.