What a day for wildlife!  Today’s route took us from the small town of Craig out through a maze of islands and across the entrance of Sumner Strait to Coronation Island.  We could not have asked for better weather!  Sunny skies and glassy seas stayed with us for most of the day.  Once out in the open water, the boats started to rock in the ocean swell, but it was nothing our crews couldn’t handle.

On our way we saw lots of sea otters, sea lions, humpback whales and even two killer whales!  Two of the humpback whales were lunge feeding.  We were able to slow down and watch as they lunged to the surface with their enormous mouths wide open, scooping up as much fish as possible.

Coronation Island is a remote and wild place.  It lies in between Prince of Wales and Baranof Island and is exposed to the full force of the Pacific Ocean.  The island is completely uninhabited, and other than the occasional cruiser, fisherman or sightseeing tour, is largely unvisited.  The landscape is rugged, with rocky cliffs and beautiful hemlock and spruce forests thick with moss.  Being mostly limestone, the island even has white sand beaches and sea caves to explore.

The afternoon in Egg Harbor was breezy, but it didn’t stop everyone from exploring.  Deception, Thea, and Discovery all cruised out in their dinghies to check out the area.  Bonum Vitae went for a kayak around the bay, and Chris went for another dive.  Later, we were astonished to see humpback whales breaching across the mouth of the harbor!  With the back drop of the snow capped peaks of Baranof Island and a beautiful sunset in the sky, it was a sight to behold!

This evening the Discovery crew joined us for dinner aboard Deception.  Lee and Julie are lovely people from Traverse City, MI.  They are just transitioning into retired life and are thinking about buying a boat to liveaboard and cruise.  We had a delicious meal with them and shared a pleasant evening.  The rocking of the boats lulled us to bed early tonight as did the thought of a potentially early morning run tomorrow if the weather is good.