Cruise Day 9 - Juneau

After getting up early for our 8:15 excursion, we boarded busses and headed for the whale watching boat.  The sun came out and the weather was beautiful, if a bit chilly. Lots of great mountain views as you can see in the left photo. After a chilly ride, we spotted out first whale blow.  It was hard to get good pictures of the first few whales. 

Later on we had a whale come up very near the boat and I got these pictures of the humpback arching its back for a deep dive and a picture of its fluke (tail).  After that I stopped taking pictures and just enjoyed seeing the whales. 

Later on a large group of humpbacks were spotted blowing and then diving.  They were too far away to get a good picture.  I counted at least 8 tails!   As we headed for the dock, the guide said we saw over 20 whales today as well as some steller sea lions and a few sea otters.  But, again, nothing we could get a picture of. 

Overall this was a very good excursion and we are so glad we scheduled it. Our guide said that yesterday they had a driving rain and only saw a few whales.  Good weather seems to be following us!

After getting back to the ship for lunch, we headed out to do some shopping.  There were four cruise ships in port so the town was a bit crowded.  I enjoyed a hot tub for a while before sail away and dinner.  Nothing else going on this evening, so we are relaxing and enjoying the scenery as the ship quietly slips though the inside passage on our way to Ketchikan.