Another marvelous sunny day in Alaska! Nary a cloud in the sky. Early morning found us sailing along the eastern shore of Mitkof Island, where we could see the outskirts of Petersburg. This small city was founded in the late 1800s by a Norwegian, who began what would become the huge fishery of this whole area of Southeastern Alaska.
But we sailed on and awed at seeing so much pollen of the Sitka spruce in the ocean. Currents had collected it in smaller places, where this yellow scum indicated the fruitful reproduction period of this species of tree. Every piece of furniture outside the ship was covered by a fine layer of yellow dust!
As we reached the southeastern-most point of the island, we anchored, had breakfast and prepared our day with the first activity: hiking in Ideal Cove. A well-maintained boardwalk led us into the forest, where we saw many a new plant for many of us. A few plants had flowered already, the most notorious was the skunk cabbage, which melts its way through the ice to flower and then begin growing its huge leaves, which eventually are loaded with oxalic acid: poison! Some hikes were longer, some were shorter. But we all enjoyed the quiet forest, except for the calling of a few birds.
By midday we were sailing back to Petersburg, where we tied up after lunch, and divided for different activities: airplane flights over the Le Conte Glacier, hiking into a fantastic bog (also called a muskeg) on the neighboring island of Kupreanof where we saw the adaptation of many plants to such a difficult system as this one. Among the favorite was the sundew, which catches small flies and digests them to obtain their nitrogen salts from the flesh amino acids! Other activities were bicycling in the area, as well as walking along the dock of one of the marinas of this small city and learning about all the different types of fishing boats tied up there. Of course, walking into town was important, as this is Memorial Day, and there was a salmon derby to weigh the largest salmon caught! The winner was Kara Malcolm, with a monster king salmon of 46.4 lbs.!
By six o’clock we were all back on board and sailing off into the horizon, as we were sailing west into Frederick Sound bound for Chatham Strait, exploring the myriad coves and waterfalls on Baranof Island.
