27th May 2003 29th May 2003

28th May 2003 - Thomas Bay

This morning we awoke in Thomas Bay, south of Juneau on the mainland. It was calm but damp, with light drizzle falling most of the morning. After breakfast, we got into a kayak and spent an hour or two paddling around the bay. Now that we were experience paddlers (and in protected waters), we were let loose to paddle where we wanted. There were lots of birds around, the names of which I've forgotten, and even a curious sea otter who popped his head out of the water every so often so see what we were up to.

After lunch we went ashore for a walk through the rainforest. This was a very difficult walk over steep, muddy, slippery terrain. There was a lake a few kilometres up the hill, but it soon became apparent that it would have been an overnight trek to get there. After struggling for about an hour we only got a few hundred metres away from our starting point. On the way back we saw fresh bear droppings, but the bear has either gone or was hiding from us.

As we set off again, the rain became a bit more serious, but this time we could watch it from under shelter. Some brief excitement was caused by a man overboard drill. Fortunately there were many observant crew and passengers so the man overboard was rescued within a few minutes.