More Pictures!

At the Northwestern Glacier, looking south into Harris Bay and Striation Island in the middle of the bay.  

Orcas! 

Decent humpback fluke shot.  I can use the markings to identify who the whale is!

Humpbacks! I forget where this was. 

I can't stand the cuteness!

This is the life. 

Spire Cove on a GORGEOUS day. 

Fog rolling in...

Horned puffin (a little blurry, I know)

Tufted puffin. 

June 12, 2013. 

So busy & so tired!

Sorry I haven't been posting, but I'm working 11-hour days and sometimes going out after work, and by the time I get home, I have NO desire to upload pics and write...

I worked Sunday-Thursday this week,and had some really great days and one not so great day. Tuesday was awesome- SO MANY ORCAS!! All day long, we just kept encountering different pods.  

Wednesday was the not-so-great day- the weather forecast was crazy- one site said warm and sunny and another site said cold and rainy. Turned out that cold and rainy was correct, along with 10-11 foot seas.  These were the worst sea conditions we've had so far this season, and we hit them early in the morning, a little more than an hour into the trip.  10 footers aren't that bad for me, but for the 11 or so people that got seasick, it was BAD. But on the bright side, almost everyone took care of themselves when they were sick- they all did it in bags and we didn't really have to clean much up. One lady did puke down her shirt, and she stunk for the rest of the day.  Bad.  Really bad.  Once we got out of the Gulf and into Harris Bay, the seas calmed, and people started feeling better.  The glacial activity was AWESOME- we had the first ice fall of the season, and all of the sick passengers said that totally made up for their seasickness.  We hit some rough seas later on in the day, and then saw a pod of orcas, which again helped to make up for all the sick.  All the passengers fill out comment cards at the end of the trip, and under the question "what can we do to make this a better trip?" someone wrote, "avoid rough seas." Yes, let me just ring up Poseidon or Triton and I'll pass the message on.  

Since Sunday was Father's Day, I had a brilliant idea to make a "Happy Father's Day" sign and have the passengers pose with it in front of the glacier and waterfall :) it went over well! 

So, that's what's been going on. I'm off today and tomorrow, and I'm just relaxing and walking around town...since there's not much else to do! 

Days off and a new tour...

I've been consistently working on the Northwestern Fjords Tour, but this past Saturday, I was put on a National Park Tour- it's much shorter than the NWFT and therefore there are more passengers. This tour left at 1130, so I didn't have to be at work until 930- I'm usually there at 7 for the NWFT, so sleeping in was GREAT. The boat (Orca Voyager) is the newest one in the fleet, and everything was so nice and shiny and new, compared to the Alaskan Explorer that I'm used to. It was weird working with an entirely new crew and captain, because they have been working together for at least a month now and I'm a newbie to both the crew and to working on boats in general! I made it work, though.  Like I mentioned earlier, this being a 6 hour cruise means that there are lots of passengers- lots of cruise ship people- we had a little over 100 on board, and I'm used to about 60 on the NWFT.  Big difference.  The passengers themselves were different too- lots of people taking pics with just their phones, as opposed to the more "photographer" like people we often have own the NWFT. Anyway. Despite all these things, it was still a great day on the water- sunny skies, warm temps, and lots of sea life! We had a pod of orcas with a couple of calves hang around the boat for a while, one of them breached, and the other highlight was a gray whale! The majority of them have already migrated through here on their way to the summer feeding grounds, but this one was a bit late...lucky for me! I didn't get any pictures of it, though :( 

Once we returned to the marina, I assumed my day was done, but I was wrong! We had to clean the boat- vacuuming, wiping down the tables, etc.  we don't have to clean on the other trip that I do, since it's such a long day for us, the boat cleaners do both the outside AND inside on the Alaskan Explorer.  After cleaning and divvying up the tips, I was done and ready to start my weekend- I had the next two days off! 

I decided Sunday morning that I was going to get a room at one of our sister properties, the Seward Windsong Lodge- we get a great discount, so why not go and sleep in a REAL bed for a night?! I arranged for the room, then went for my first run since arriving here in AK. I ran along Resurrection Bay, a much more scenic route than the exciting suburbs in South Florida! It felt good to get back running again, and I have to keep at it, because I'm doing the Tower of Terror 10 miler at Disney in October. I walk at least 2 miles every day just going to and from work, so I figure I'll be in great shape when I get back home!! I have to start hiking Mt Marathon- I just bought a bear bell to be safe, so now I'm ready to start climbing! 

I arrived at the lodge around 4 yesterday, got to my room, and jumped on the bed. It was wonderful :) I went to the lodge's bar to watch the Heat game, had some delicious Alaskan beers, and later on, gratefully collapsed into my bed that I didn't have to climb a ladder to get into or have springs poking into my back.  Today, I took a shuttle from the lodge to Exit Glacier and did an easy 2 mile hike to the edge of the glacier. I tried to take pictures of the same places/angles that I did when I was here last year, to compare and see if there is any difference from 2012 to 2013.  I don't have my 2012 pics with me, so I'll have to wait until I get home. 

After a relaxing two days off, I'm back to work tomorrow, and no days off until next Friday :( But I do have a "maintenance day" on Saturday, so I won't be on a boat, but I could be cleaning, painting, pretty much anything...

Exit Glacier and the out wash plain. 

Exit Glacier from about 4miles away. 

A female orca. 

Some glacier calving at Northwestern Glacier. 

I believe this is Emerald Cove... It's beautiful, wherever it is. 

Pics from the first Northwestern Fjord Tour of the season!

This is creatively named the "Northwestern Glacier."  

The sounds the glacier made as it calved sounded like either gunshots or thunder. 

The little pieces in the water are called "bergy bits" and the much larger pieces are called "growlers."

This place is called Cataract Cove. Not sure why, but it's BEAUTIFUL.

A mountain goat looking down at us.  

A whole bunch of Steller sea lions. 

A mated pair of bald eagles. 

One last shot of Northwestern Glacier. 

And on a side note: I'm not officially on the schedule for this week, and I've been working since last Tuesday, so I just took it upon myself and took today off :) I figured that since no one is expecting me to be on a particular boat, no one would miss me...I couldn't sleep in though, since one of my roommates' alarms was going off ALL MORNING and I could not get her to wake up.  Ugh.  Otherwise, I had a nice, relaxing day off- laundry, grocery shopping (and my God groceries are expensive here!), got a Seward library card...woohoo! All of us roommates went out for Thai food, it was the first time we ALL went out- it was nice. I am finally on the official schedule for next week, and I have two days in a row off- that might get a little boring! I'm thinking about taking the bus to anchorage and staying in a hotel there, JUST for the sake of a comfy bed and cleanliness! I'm willing to spend money for a good nights sleep- it's only been a week, and I'm already sick of climbing up into my bunk bed, jumping down when I inevitably have to pee during the night, and having mattress springs poke into my body.  Not fun.  OH and speaking of things that are not fun, I had to clean my first vomit from a seasick passenger yesterday! 

Pics from my first trip! National Park Tour 5/31/13.

Aialik Glacier (my first glacier!), a tidewater glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. 

A harbor seal (in the family Phocidae) swimming. 

Some Steller sea lions (family Otariidae) hauled out on some rocks. 

Hey former students- is this a seal or a sea lion? How do you know?

Common murres- a type of alcid. 

My First Days

After 3 days of training, I finally got out on a boat on Friday (yesterday and today, too).  The tour I did on Friday was the National Park Tour (which Teres and I did last year, but our day got cut short because of rough seas), and yesterday/today I did the Northwestern Fjord Tour.  

Red line is the Bay Tour (which I haven't done yet), blue line is the NPT, and the NFT goes all the way towards the NW Fjord (obviously).

So, what does my job as a deckhand entail? Here's a typical day (so far): arrive 2 hours before the ship departs to prep everything for the passengers. Some trips offer complimentary breakfast pastries on board, so we have to bake those, and other trips just sell food in the galley. We have to make sure all the food is stocked, get the coffee made, and finish any other last-minute jobs.  Once the passengers begin boarding, we may be taking their boarding passes, greeting them, or even be a "catcher"- standing inside the door, waiting for a passenger to miss the step up into the boat, and grabbing them before they fall.  Once all the passengers are on (and the number varies, but most ships can hold 100-150), we have to go release the dock lines.  Line handling is a very daunting task, and I didn't get a proper training class on it, so I've been avoiding it. Until today.  The senior deckhand made me do the bow line today (at the front of the ship) and thankfully it wasn't too bad, but seas were calm and we had someone on the dock to help hand us the line.  I'll do a separate post on line handling later (try to contain your excitement!)

As soon as we're underway, we do a life jacket demo, and then it's on to other tasks as they pop up.  Many tours serve lunch on board, so we have to assemble that- chicken Caesar wraps. Let me tell you about the pure joy of making/assembling 60-100 wraps...After this summer, I will definitely need a break from Caesar anything! At some point, we distribute lunch, clean up, etc etc.  Whenever there's a wildlife sighting, we go out on deck to make sure everyone can see what's there and most importantly, make sure everyone is being SAFE while out on deck.  Safety is key- many captains do drills multiple days per week, and they can be anything from a medical emergency, to fire, to man overboard.  Deckhands need to know where all the safety equipment is (fire extinguishers, fire hoses, AED, life rafts etc), know where all the electric breakers are, etc etc.  

That's all I have for this post- I'm super tired today, because working the NFT is a long (about 12 hour) day, plus my bunk bed SUCKS.