Alaska 6

On the third day of kayaking, we started paddling in more gloomy grayness. During lunch, the sun broke through the clouds, and by the time we launched again after eating, the sky was blue in all directions. After a couple days of steady drizzle, it seemed like a rare treat, especially with no guarantees it would last.

We paddled around the big island in the lagoon, through increasing traffic of ice floes ranging from a couple inches to a couple yards across. Rounding the island was perhaps the highlight of the trip - the entire lagoon past the island was clogged with icebergs, and dozens (maybe hundreds?) of harbor seals were hauled out sunning themselves on the ice. They're a bit small to see in the 360-degree panorama above - but they're right in the center. Click on the picture to see it much bigger, but probably not big enough to spot the seals. As a substitute, we present the picture below of one of the many seals who swam over for a closer look at the kayaks -- your correspondents would swear they were following us for quite a while, although it is a bit tough to tell one seal from another to be sure.