Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Alaska 2016 | Day 14 | Rescue Bay to Windy Bay

After the drama of the last few days, today was a refreshing change: near perfect weather, magnificent scenery, and the first whale sightings of the trip.
Looking back towards Rescue Bay
Today's route took us through Fiordland Recreation Area. As you'd expect from the name, it's an area dominated by fjords. Waterfalls plunge off mountain peaks, shear rock walls rise dramatically all around. The last couple of years we've skipped Fiordland because the weather didn't cooperate. This year the weather was excellent—mostly sunny, with a few short rain showers.
Life is good!

Looking into Kynoch Inlet
The two principal fjords in Fiordland are Kynoch Inlet to the south, and Mussel Inlet to the north. Some of the boats explored all the way to the head of each inlet. I got a late start and skipped them, but even from the main channel, the views are excellent.

We've seen remarkably few whales this trip. Finally, we found a couple of humpbacks.
The first whale of the trip
The water was super calm all day. Hardly a breath of wind made it into the fjords.
Rough day!
We anchored for the night in Windy Bay, a picturesque (if a little deep) spot near Fiordland. And contrary to its name, it wasn't windy.
Windy Bay from the drone
25.92 nm today
507.17 nm total

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