ADVENTURE CRUISING
Michael DeFreitas explores the off-the-beaten track philosophy and style of American Safari Cruises in South-East Alaska
ALASKA’S
Un-Cruise Experience
Monument. Hugging the bow rail, we marvelled at the white ribbons of cascading water that gently hissed down the 3,000ft-high granite walls on either side of our luxury yacht, Safari Quest. As we scanned the inlet’s glassy surface
V
for whales, a shrill call pierced the silence on our port side. I jerked around to see a bald
ast glacial-carved cliffs towered above us as we glided through narrow Walker Cove, deep inside Misty Fjords National
eagle pluck a fish from the dark green water. Then, as the eagle flew off with its
catch, one of my bow mates pointed to a large red blob in the clear water. Captain Tim saw it, too, and cut the engines in time for us to see a 20ft-long lion’s mane jellyfish drifting a few inches below the surface, its 3ft-wide dark red mantle and long tentacles pulsating as it slowly streamed by.
No sooner had the jellyfish floated out of sight than an excited “Whale!”
shout rang out from the stern. We dashed back in time to see the massive tail fluke of a humpback whale disappear into the deep. We cut the engines and drifted for a while hoping for an encore but, when the whale failed to reappear, Captain Tim got underway and headed towards one of the beautiful waterfalls. We moved back to the bow as he gently nudged the boat’s nose under the falls. I guess he figured that some of us needed cooling off after all the excitement, so we all took turns getting our picture snapped under the natural shower. That afternoon, the crew launched the
kayaks so we could explore the backwaters of Rudyerd Bay and Punchbowl Cove in search of black and grizzly bears foraging along the shore. It seems the bears had other ideas, but we did see a wolf and a number of birds, including a rare Bonaparte’s Gull.
As exciting as our Misty Fjords
adventure was, it was only one of seven fascinating days we spent exploring the pristine waters within South-East Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Tongass, the largest national forest in the United States, covers most of this
80 WORLD OF CRUISING I Autumn 2010
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