The morning began with steady drizzle and wind, gray skies, and fog. Folks stayed warm and dry tucked in the lounge as National Geographic Sea Bird made her way through whitecaps and turned into Peril Strait. We spent the morning enjoying presentations by our naturalist staff and waiting for the weather to calm down. Our photo instructor Eric had a hands-on smartphone session and our naturalist Gretchen presented a talk on birds. The clouds parted, blue sky emerged, and tendrils of fog reached around the sides of the mountains. During lunch the rain ceased and by the time we hopped into our expedition landing craft for afternoon adventures the skies were gray but not too drizzly.
About half of the guests headed out on a long all-afternoon hike to Lake Eva. The trail wandered over small hills, a bridge over a saltwater inlet, and past an inlet flooded by the high tide. Salmon swam upstream, leaping up the whitewater of a waterfall and heading on to the spawning grounds. Other folks went on shorter walks to a salmon overlook, took photos of the beautiful forest and banana slugs, and investigated the wonders of the temperate rain forest. Many enjoyed kayaking along the shoreline, surrounded by salmon swimming alongside them. Kayaks were able to reach the base of the waterfall and found a bear walking on the beach, wandering in and out of the forest. Walkers congregated in the forest, looking over at the bear as it walked the opposite bank. Enthusiastic photographers snapped photos and the afternoon ended with an energetic walk back to the beach and quick zip by expedition landing craft over to the ship.
During dinner the young explorers enjoyed a movie in the lounge and the evening ended with a video presentation by our undersea specialist Colin.
