Seeing Our First Whale Breach … Too Fast for Photos!

Monday, June 7

One thing I’ve discovered about cruising in Alaska … no matter how many whales you see, you never lose interest in watching the flip of that massive tail as they slowly make their dive down into the water.

After enjoying our crabs for dinner on Sunday evening, we left Ideal Cove early Monday and headed up Frederick Sound which is supposed to be prime waters for spotting humpback whales. We saw our first humpback 20 minutes after pulling anchor, but it wasn’t until Tuesday that we were rewarded with the big prize … watching our first whale breach!!!

We had just left Ruth Island Cove and were continuing up Frederick Sound past Petersburg when a pod of humpbacks caught our attention. We put the boat in neutral and snapped photos for about 30 minutes. Just as were ready move on a huge humpback charged up out of the water behind us and as he smacked back down through the water he emitted a loud noise that sounded like a huge fog horn, with a wall of water spraying up around him. We all were in such shock no one was able to catch the breach on camera. Roland and I caught the spray at the end …. And that was about it.