Bears Everywhere: Cruising Southeast Alaska

I was in India when I accepted this position on a ship in Alaska. Being in a country where spotty wifi and bureaucratic red tape makes just about everything nearly impossible, I was having difficulty filling out the companies contracts, policy manuals, and other required paperwork. But after missing a flight to Japan, I had an unexpected month in California to pull myself together before flying north on Alaska Airlines.

 

 

As my second voyage now winds to a close, I’ve found a moment to sit down and write in the ship spa, using a massage table for a desk and gazing out the window as the Alaskan wilderness passes by.

 

 

 

With last winter spent in the Himalayas and summer in Alaska, this seems to be a year of eternal winter (except one month I spent melting in the heat of Kerala off-season).

 

 

Passing glaciers and icebergs may seem like an odd choice for a gal who loves the tropics.

 

 

…But I also love wild nature and few places are so wild as Alaska.

 

 

Orca!

Earlier this week, we were touring the Inian islands in inflatable zodiacs, surrounded by humpback whales, harbor seals, steller sea lions, bald eagles and otters – truly as far away from civilization as a person can get – when we got a call on the radio from one of our other zodiacs:  “Black and Whites!”

In pursuit of a pod of Orca we turned and sped off in their direction. Our allotted time to be away from the ship was coming to a close and the pod was drawing us farther away, so we tried to contact the ship and request they cruise our direction to meet up. We weren’t able to reach them, but we didn’t want to miss the opportunity, so we continued on.

The pod surfaced right between our fleet of four zodiacs. The male’s dorsal fin alone was taller than any of us. Their sleek bodies carved through the water in unison on a mission toward the open Pacific Ocean, out of the inside passage. Orcas are gorgeous and invigorating to be near. I’m in love and I’m hooked.

 

 

 

 

 

Bears!

My first voyage was training, so I wasn’t expected to work in the spa. Instead, I joined the passengers in activities such as kayaking, zodiac tours and hiking the rainforest.

 

 

The Wellness Staff often leads a group of “aerobic hikers,” and because we move faster and travel further, we often run into wildlife before they run off. At a hike in Pavlof Harbor, the aerobic hikers ran into a mama bear and her two cubs who were feeding on sedges along the shore of a small lake. The grasses were tall, so we didn’t notice her until she rose upon hind legs to see who was making all the noise.

Oh, that’d be us.

We were closer than we would’ve liked, so we stopped in our tracks and watched. She appeared to be slowly moving our direction, so we backed up to a safer distance upon a hill.

 

 

 

A week later, we encountered another couple of bears in the same vicinity. I was able to observe quite closely from a kayak.

 

 

 

Living on a ship

I’ve worked on ships quite a bit, but my previous experiences were never longer than three weeks. This was twice that. Ship culture can take some adjusting to. On large ships you have anonymity, but this ship was 60 passengers, so everyone gets to know each other.

 

 

The ship crew is responsible for ship operations and upkeep. In general, they’re about half my age. Many of the officers started as deckhands, even stewards and worked their way up.

The expedition leader sets the tone of each voyage by planning the daily schedule, directing staff, and syncing guest activities with ship staff and crew. The expedition team includes the naturalists, photographers, videographer, underwater specialist and wellness specialist.

Naturalists lead interpretive tours on land and sea, offer educational presentations and spot wildlife. The underwater specialists do a few dives a week and present video footage and education to the passengers. The videographer documents each voyage, and the photographers document and educate.

 

 

 

 

The “Wellness Specialist”  leads a morning yoga class, helps with shore activities and guiding aerobic based tours, as well as running the ship spa.

 

 

 

 

The position is challenging, but it’s holding my interest overall. In ports such as Ketchikan and Juno, we dock next to huge cruise liners and I’m grateful to be on this smaller ship. In general, our passengers are relatively active and have some environmental awareness.

 

 

In three more voyages, I’ll fly south to rest a couple of weeks in California, then come back up here for another couple rounds.

 

 

 

I’ve always been curious about this part of the world and feel lucky to explore it at depth. I don’t take this for granted.

 

 

Here’s a compilation of video I took during these first six weeks. It’s a bit shaky.