Fog and a half sea day greeted July this morning. Rarely could we see land poking through the fog.

The presentation was about the importance of plankton in the world’s ecosystem. Astonishing how many systems it affects!

Later, the ship celebrated Canada Day, when Canada was assembled into a country, with red and white cake and champagne.

We kept looking out the windows and wandering around the observation decks, but the fog and/or rain never let up. We were also disappointed when we arrived at our planned spot for the excursions when the captain announced that we would go to another spot in the hopes of getting out of the fog. No such luck.

We did hear stories from other guests on this voyage about what they saw the previous day. One claimed to have viewed 9 bears, though he admitted it might have been only seven, since two individuals might have been seen twice each. The tally was one mom with two cubs, another with one cub and two individuals that might have been seen twice. Another person saw a red fox with two kits.

By the time it was our turn to don the waterproof gear and go to the deck to launch on a Zodiac, the fog had thickened to rain again, and we wondered if the trip would be worthwhile. It was, but photographs were difficult to impossible.

As we started out, our naturalist warned that we might not see much. She commented that this weather is more common this time of year at this latitude. She also grinned at how lucky this cruise had been with weather so far, then warned that we were all going to get wet, not just from rain but from splashing of seawater into the Zodiac.

We zoomed out to a tiny steep island to see two bald eagles soaring above the cliffs, probably protecting their nest.

Then the Zodiac driver, Lauren, paused to pull up some bull kelp from the water. We worried that she might fall in! She passed the strand around to all on the Zodiac, taking a bite of the fresh delicacy while explaining its life cycle to us.

When we looked back towards the cruise ship, it was enveloped in fog, a phantom ship, like in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. No photographs from this adventure came out.

Then we went towards another small island, but before we got there, we were surrounded by birds! Lauren, our guide, was SO excited! She killed the motor so we could watch and listen.

Kittywakes dove in droves for tiny fish. Puffins, swimming on the surface, had to use a lot of energy and wing flaps to get aloft, skimming the water for many yards before becoming air born. The puffins were going for the same little fish that the kittywakes were eating.

We learned that the puffins have little spike-like things on their tongues to allow them to hold many small fish in their mouths at the same time.

Puffins fly like footballs without the spin. They are thick in their bodies, which is why they have difficulty starting to fly. But to see so many at the same time! And the kittywakes, of course.

Then someone noticed a brown bird with a thin neck that, surprisingly, Lauren could not identify. But she was determined to, and later told us it was an Ancient Murrelet, a bird she had not seen before.

We ended the excursion with grins, energized by the enthusiasm of everyone on our boat. Soaking wet, yes, and the distinction was clear between water-proof and water-resistant clothing.

We signed up for a special dinner this night, cuisine from South America. Our time slot was late, but the food was delicious.

We woke to an alarm … that we set so we had time to get ready for an early Zodiac adventure.

Our Zodiac slot was in the first group out, at seven AM. And we were lucky. Our guide took us to a small bay, Hidden Harbor, and we spotted a brown bear almost immediately.

We watched it walk and swim a bit along the shore for a while, until it disappeared into the shrubs. It disappeared completely. A giant bear became invisible. This made us wonder how many bears were hidden in the vast amount of vegetation that surrounded us.

We moved on and saw another bear! Our gleeful guide called the other Zodiacs so they could see it, too. This one was bigger but farther away than the first. Both bears were fast walkers and almost never stopped or stood still.

So, we scooted along the shoreline, enjoying the astounding glacially carved landscape when we saw a beautiful red fox. This guy was skinny, looking for food. Our boat kept pace with the red fox for a while, but then we had to get back to the cruise ship.

The fox was harassed by a murder of crows, probably protecting their nests. The fox ignored them, but the humans got a good chuckle.

What a ride! And all of that happened before breakfast.

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Coming into Geographic Harbor on the cruise ship, we saw lots of little, heavily vegetated islands, some with birds on them. Big snow covered mountains in the background.

Our Zodiac saw some unexpected excitement as we started back. The motor started gasping and stalling, indicating we were out of gas. We had already lost our partner Zodiac, making us isolated, alone on the water. Our driver, Brandon, tried calling other Zodiacs and the cruise ship, but no one answered. He opened up a metal box at the front of the boat and took out a lot of stuff to get to the fuel tanks. After moving the fuel line to a new tank and resetting the valves, he could not restart the motor. Finally, with help from another Zodiac driver, we were on our way back to the ship. Apparently it takes a lot of pumping the bulb in the fuel line to refill it at the motor.

We woke to partly cloudy skies and no fog. Crossing the Gulf of Alaska was unusually smooth, the crew members said.

We started the morning with a presentation about bears. Again, we learned a lot. You never know how ignorant you are if you stop learning.

We were closer to land, and the seas were calm. We were surrounded by green islands with snow-capped mountains.

We were out on deck when the first sea otter was spotted. As the morning continued, we saw a whole raft of them!

Going up the fiord, we were near enough to the islands to see many shades of green. Unlike the Tongass National Forest, these greens were from bushes, shrubs and grasses, not pristine or clear-cut forests. I speculated that this was due to the glaciers being in this area more recently, being farther north, and the naturalist agreed.

Soon, we needed to get ready for the next adventure. Brian signed up to go kayaking! It took a good 15 minutes for him to get into all the gear. Kayaking in Alaska can be cold.

In the kayak launching area adjacent to the pit, 16 passengers donned their gear. After zipping up the dry suit (inner and outer zippers) with help from crew, the final step was to burp the suit. Putting one hand to vent the latex around your neck, you do a deep squat to expel the air trapped in the suit. A lot of air escapes!

The two-person kayaks are laid out inside the ship and each pair of passengers get fitted to the seats, with crew members adjusting the position of foot pegs or rudder pedals. The “captain” sits in the rear and operates the rudder and the “general manager” sits in front. Brian partnered with a young woman from China; it was agreed that Brian is captain. Brian had operated the rudder on a sea kayak before in New Zealand.

Later that afternoon, both of us went on a Zodiac tour of the same bay. Not only are the Zodiacs faster, but the tide had risen. We were able to go deep into the bay. And, sun shone the entire trip. Our drivers/naturalists were thrilled with the unusual conditions.

We saw a lot of sea otters and harbor seals. No bears. Interesting birds dove for food or soared adjacent to the shoreline. We thought maybe three types of white birds? A few salmon jumped above the water; we didn’t know why. Much later, Brian saw a salmon jump about seven times in a row. We guess that the fish jump for bugs to eat.

This morning we woke to blue skies, the first we’d seen since boarding the cruise ship. Of course it’s a sea day.

I felt ignorant about Alaska before we arrived. Even though I saw the multitude of islands on the map, I didn’t understand. The islands control the culture, in a weird way similar to our visit to Sweden. But here, unlike Sweden, the islands are steep-sided, not easy to land in many places.

Geologically, Alaska consists of tectonic terrains, smashed together over millions of years to form the mountains and other landscapes. When we visited Wrangell, we remembered that one of these terrains is called Wrangellia! Fun fact!

The undefined Inside Passage had been an easy oceanic experience, smooth as can be. Crossing the Gulf of Alaska has more waves, but is also fairly smooth.

The excursions are well organized. The guests, as we are called, are collected into named groups, the mighty whale, majestic eagle, sleek seal. We are in the group of cute, mischievous sea otters. I feel right at home!

On deck six, one below our cabin, are the active rooms including art and science. In the art lab on our first day, Clare painted our water bottles to distinguish them. This helped when she left it somewhere but got the right one back.

In the afternoon, our group (sea otters) got invited to the bridge for a brief tour.