We boarded the Alaska Fjordland catamaran at 7:45 AM in the pouring rain with the whole valley socked in with fog (photo of the ship NOT taken the day we travelled). The ship was designed for Alaskan waters and built in San Francisco. The Captain Leslie kept her eyes opened for water life and would slow or stop the ship when she spotted them.
This is what it looked like pulling out of Skagway. The ship in the mist is a docked Princess Cruise Line. Made me wonder what we would see or more truthfully not see on this trip.
The first siting was some harbour seals resting on a rock in the canal.
She then pointed out the Eldred Rock Lighthouse. It was built in 1906 and other than paint sits in its original form.
Just past the lighthouse were the Steller Sea Lion pups warming themselves on the rock. This is the area that seal lions come to mate and in the early spring the rocks are swarming with these mammals. Now the pups are here. Leslie cut the engines so we could hear their barks which sounded more like burps. Also swimming around the ship were black and white Dall's porpoises, the fastest of all small cetaceans - they can swim at up to 55 km/h. We also spotted humpback whales and of course lots of eagles. Also pointed out to us were all the glaciers that were barely visible through the fog. The journey was very interesting and I could just imagine how spectacular it would have been had it been a sunny clear day.
We boarded the Alaska Fjordland catamaran at 7:45 AM in the pouring rain with the whole valley socked in with fog (photo of the ship NOT taken the day we travelled). The ship was designed for Alaskan waters and built in San Francisco. The Captain Leslie kept her eyes opened for water life and would slow or stop the ship when she spotted them. 
This is what it looked like pulling out of Skagway. The ship in the mist is a docked Princess Cruise Line. Made me wonder what we would see or more truthfully not see on this trip.
The first siting was some harbour seals resting on a rock in the canal. 
She then pointed out the Eldred Rock Lighthouse. It was built in 1906 and other than paint sits in its original form. 
Just past the lighthouse were the Steller Sea Lion pups warming themselves on the rock. This is the area that seal lions come to mate and in the early spring the rocks are swarming with these mammals. Now the pups are here. Leslie cut the engines so we could hear their barks which sounded more like burps. Also swimming around the ship were black and white Dall's porpoises, the fastest of all small cetaceans - they can swim at up to 55 km/h. We also spotted humpback whales and of course lots of eagles. Also pointed out to us were all the glaciers that were barely visible through the fog. The journey was very interesting and I could just imagine how spectacular it would have been had it been a sunny clear day.
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