Hoonah, 21st June – Magical place.
We woke this morning with the ship at anchor off the shore of Icy Straits. Icy Straits Point is a place totally owned and created by the cruise lines (Royal and Celebrity) and set up as another glitzy tourist trap. They bought the land and set up the ‘town’ themselves.
It had all the usual souvenir and food shops. A fake salmon cannery.
A zip line and other ship excursions. One being a whale watching trip on a cat with 200 tourists. There was no wharf big enough for a cruise ship so this was a ‘tender’ stop. We got to travel ashore in the life boats. Nothing like the Titanic. Big roomy boats with roofs and heaters. Very comfortable.
While Icy Straits was a disappointment, only five minute off the company lands, and we were picked up by our guide for the day – ‘Glacier Winds Charters’. A further five minute drive took us to the stunning little fishing town of Hoonah. No wonder the company didn’t want us to discover that gem!
After a drive around it was onto a boat for whale watching. “Glacier Winds” – 6 passengers.
Icy Straits Point is one of the few places in the world where humpback whales ‘bubble net fish’. Bubble netting is where a pod swims around a school of fish and blow bubbles. The bubble circle corrals the fish, who will not swim through it. As the bubble net gets tighter the fish are driven into a small ball. A few of the whales then shoot up with their mouths open, catching giant mouthfuls of salmon.
The whales then proceed to eat the ball. As we arrived at the whale spot we saw bubble netting as well as a full breach. We spent the next 4 hours surrounded by about 30 whales – eating, diving, sleeping and singing.
A huge sea lion swam up to our boat, bobbed up to stare at Sarah then roared at her. Wonderful.
The eagles were amazing as well. So many salmon equals so many eagles and whales. We saw one snatch a fish then fly off with its catch. We learnt that only a few things kill bald eagles – one of them being their refusal to let go of the massive fish that they catch. If they are pulled into the water, they cannot fly with wet feathers and drown.
After the trip we went into Hoonah. It was the first day of Crab Season. The famous Dungeness Crabs were on. My Oh My, they were wonderful. Sweet, tender and huge! So huge that one crab fed us both!
The Americans ate them with big pots of dipping butter! It looked OK at first but at the end of the meal it had solidified into a blob of fat. Ugh!
Hoonah was the postcard sea side fishing village complete with nine metre tides.
Hoonah – AKA Icy Strait Point is amazing. Go in a small boat!
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