Once again we are able to offer a unique Alaskan adventure for 2012 with Dolphin Charters and aboard their fifty foot power yacht Delphinus. Captain Ronn Patterson has been leading groups through out Southeast Alaska for over 20 years and is an expert on the landscape, wildlife, and fauna. The 2012 year trip covers an outstanding itinerary and will be nine days long traveling the heart of Southeast Alaska. It starts and ends in Petersburg, a small, historic town. We will sleep and eat on Delphinus and wander as close to scenery and action as possible. I have traveled with Ronn and Delphinus for several years and I am convinced this is the best way to explore the wilderness of Southeast.  This a very special trip for photographers and non photographers alike. My non photographer wife rates her time on Delphinus as one of the best trips of her life. I hope you can join us to this magical location. This cruise is truly special, offering you an opportunity to not just see but to experience and become a part of some of the most magnificent and overwhelming scenery in North America. 

The following is the official description of the trip written by Dolphin Charters.

We will cruise through Frederick Sound and the very best humpback whale area in route to Pack Creek and grizzly bears! Pack Creek is wonderful for observing brown bears and their playful cubs. We'll focus on the needs and desires of the group: we'll immerse the photographer in the wildlife and photographic highlights of southeast Alaska. The possibilities are endless!

You will be swallowed by the cathedral Old Growth Temperate Rainforests, where salmon live not only in streams but in trees, black and brown bears are still common, thunderously calving glaciers are creating new flower gardens, and humpback whales are feasting in their own gardens in the sea.

The grandeur of the scenery, with the Ice Kingdom and calving glaciers, is equal to the natural spectacle provided by the animals. The area around the south end of Admiralty Island provides some of the most beautiful anchorages in Southeast Alaska; Pybus Bay, The Brothers, Gambler Bay, Eliza Harbor, and Warm Spring Bay are a few of the possibilities for overnight stays.

 Admiralty Island has the greatest concentrations of nesting bald eagles and breeding brown bears of any similar-size area in Alaska—or the world! There are more bald eagles on this one island than in all the rest of the forty-nine states.

              
                                   © Roger Devore                                                      © Roger Devore

To the west are the high snow-capped mountains of Baranof Island. To the east are the ice-covered peaks and moving glaciers of the mainland. As we cruise and follow the whales about, this pageantry of splendor continues to unfold. There is always a new angle, new light—sunny, misty, sunny again; broken clouds, scattered clouds, overcast, clear; sunrises and sunsets—that goes on for hours providing outstanding photo opportunities. The light is always changing—great for dramatic photography!

It is both easy and exciting just to be around the humpbacks, hour after hour, as they alternately feed and rest. We can record their summer vocalizations—their trumpeting.

Orcas also regularly are seen in Frederick Sound. It is a part of the territory of the resident J-pod of the North—creatures as playful, shore loving, friendly, curious, and as easy to be with as the J-pod of Puget Sound. Frederick Sound is also frequented by transient orcas. These we have seen many times going after various mammals—often close to the boat!

Dall’s porpoise and harbor porpoise are also resident. The former like to bow ride and rooster tail—they zip through the water so fast as to send up a spray of water like a rooster tail! Sea lions and harbor seals are resident too, and both have rookeries on several islands.

Another special feature is the brown bear  reserve at Pack Creek on Admiralty Island. This location offers excellent photographic opportunities and great old-growth forest walks—even without the bears, these areas would be quite special. Bears at this time of year are often eating grasses and sedges on the meadow-like river flats and clamming on the tide flats. It makes it one of the easiest times of year to find bears, although not in the numbers found during the peak salmon runs.

Each day, you can go ashore and explore, photograph, or just sit and contemplate. The days are very full, and life in Southeast Alaska is very rich. You will be in the very heart and spirit of this region.

 Tentative Itinerary

Our itinerary is deliberately kept flexible to allow for the unexpected events that are often the highlights of traveling. Our days will be spent whale watching, hiking, and cruising and photographing. To enhance and hopefully increase your enjoyment, our naturalist will talk about the marine biology and the natural history of the areas you visit. We will bird watch and beach comb; read, write, and sketch; and, of course, photograph. Because you are living the Alaska experience aboard Delphinus, you will have time to relax and just contemplate nature. Our goal is to maximize your opportunity to experience nature and to put you in the place of maximum opportunity for great photography. We’ll study tide pool environments, glaciers, whales, bears, salmon, eagles, temperate old-growth rain forests, trees, plants, and the mosaic of communities that make up Southeast Alaska. A flexible itinerary also allows us to customize it to best accommodate your interests and desires.

 Day 0 or sooner—Pre-trip arrival in Petersburg. Allow time to take care of your last minute shopping, such as buying a fishing license or outfitting yourself with rubber boots and rain gear. Visiting the hardware and clothing stores here is to become familiar with Alaskan necessities for making a living and enjoying daily life. Hotel and meals in town are not included in the price of the trip.

 Day 1  (June 17) and 2 (June 18) — 4pm departure. Thomas Bay, Bairds Glacier, Cascade Creek, Scenery Cove, and Frederick Sound.

Thomas Bay is a large and complex world of its own just off the side of Frederick Sound and only a short distance from Petersburg. It was formed by the retreating Bairds Glacier, which snakes down the costal mountains as a river of ice. The entrance to the bay is nearly blocked by the terminal moraine, which causes swift currents. The Patterson Glacier is off to the south and the Patterson River flows swiftly into the end of the bay. Cascade Creek is one of the most energetic streams in the area—it flows into the bay with a torrent of water, waterfalls, and cascades. A short, developed trail goes up along its side, allowing easy access to dramatic scenery and abundant forest flowers. Scenery Cove, on the north end of the bay, lives up to its name. As always, be ready when we go ashore, as we have had moose standing on shore as we motored to them.

Day 3 (June 19) —Ice Kingdom: Holkum Bay, Endicott Arm, Fords Terror and Dawes Glacier.

                         
                                         © Roger Devore                                                        © Roger Devore

                       
                                         © Roger Devore                                                        © Roger Devore

 A continuous highlight of the cruise is the grandeur of scenery that is equal to the natural history spectacle provided by the animals. The Ice Kingdom and calving glaciers of Endicott or Tracy Arm provide some of the most dramatic scenery in Southeast Alaska. Here house size blocks of ice break off two hundred foot tide-water glacier faces, splashing into 300 foot deep water with thunderous roars, creating waves and miles of floating growlers, bergy bits and ice bergs. Fords Terror is another possibility for our cruise. It is like a flooded narrow Yosemite – tall, steep, glacially carved granite walls reach to the sky, then descend again with numerous waterfalls gracing the sides. Its entrance, however, is hidden and guarded by intense tidal rapids accessible only at slack tide.

 Everywhere there are snow-clad mountains cloaked in the intense green of old-growth forests. Best of all, you will not only view these ancient forests, but you’ll go ashore to explore the intimate life of their giant trees, mossy glades, berry patches, and babbling brooks. You will not just visit Alaska, you will live it.

 Day 4 (June 20 ) - Stephens Passage, Frederick Sound, Seymour Canal, Pack Creek

 Admiralty Island, along with the adjacent mainland and surrounding Frederick Sound, is the heart and soul of Southeast Alaska. The island has a greater concentration of brown bears than anywhere else on earth. The entire island (except for a tiny peninsula on the northern tip where a copper mine is located) is a National Monument. In order to preserve the solitude and wilderness character of these pristine areas, groups of no more than twelve are allowed to visit this wilderness area.

 Pack Creek is simply one of the best places to see, enjoy, photograph, and study brown bears or grizzles just being themselves. It is one of the earliest bear reserves to be established in Alaska, a place where bears are protected and not hunted. It was established in about 1935 when it was becoming obvious that grizzlies were disappearing from most of their habitat in the lower forty-eight states. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a trail and “tree house” to enhance human’s opportunities for viewing the bears. Then Alaskan woodsman Stan Price moved there, with his wife, to be with the bears, and they did so for over thirty years, care taking and sometimes raising orphaned cubs when their mothers had been killed. The Prices not only prevented poaching, but also helped habituate the bears to humans. While Stan has passed on to bear-human heaven, his presence is still very much felt. Today, the bears are used to the same number of people coming to the same areas, at the same time, each day. You will be a “normal” part of their existence. The bears are free to be themselves, and, by following a few simple rules, you can observe them just doing so.  One caveat, the bears are in force and tolerating each other only when salmon are running.  Almost always bears are in the vicinity, but it is the fishy resource that brings them out in larger numbers. In the early part of summer, bears are also easy to find and view because their primary food at this time is Lyngby’s sedge which grows on open river mouths and tidal flats.

Day 5 (June 21).  Pack Creek, Windfall Harbor, Pleasant Bay

Day 6 (June 22). Optional Windfall Harbor and Seymour Canal and Brothers Island (stellar Stellers’!)

Day 7 (June 23). Frederick Sound

Day 8 (June 24).  Back to Petersburg via Frederick Sound

Day 9.  (June 25)  Depart after Breakfast or stay another day and enjoy Petersburg.

  
                                                                          © Roger Devore

Captain Ronn and our naturalist are always available to answer questions, assist, and generally enhance your insights and experience. Our chef is also there full time to delight you.

 We can accommodate persons with particular food needs, including those on special diets and vegetarians. Please be sure to note these on your food questionnaire. We can do this only if you let us know well in advance. If you require a special diet you must return the food questionnaire early.

Seasickness is a rare problem due to the calm conditions in the protected waters. The inside passage is always proteted by mountains on the shores. However, if you are sensitive to motion sickness, we urge you to contact your doctor about available treatments for this condition.

If you have any sort of chronic condition that warrants medical attention and could cause you trouble; or if you have any doubt about your physical condition; we ask that you have a physical examination. Discuss with your doctor the details of the trip as described in our literature, and let you doctor determine your fitness for this journey. Even though we have adequate first aid and emergency gear onboard, we will be in remote areas far from medical facilities. Our trips require that participants be in reasonable health and be able to get in and of a skiff and go up and down one or more ladders.

If you are not familiar with small ships, you should know that space is at a premium. Small vessels - and large - are designed for maximum efficiency. The cabins are basic, about the size of a small walk-in closet at home. Cabins are used primarily to change clothes and sleep. Very little time is spent there. There is plenty of space in the salon, pilothouse, flying bridge and on deck. Plan to have storage space for your clothes about the size of a laundry basket. Bring clothing in collapsible duffels so that when you have unpacked, the duffel ‘goes away’. Hard suitcases are hard to store. Bring as little as possible and you will be doing yourself a favor.

Delphinus is a fifty-foot power yacht that accommodates eight guests in double cabins. It is a comfortable boat and allows you to intimately explore wilderness areas. Large windows through out provide panoramic viewing from the salon and the pilothouse. The spacious main deck and flying bridge allow outstanding viewing and ease of movement outside. You obtain the benefits normally available only on a camping trip: close up and personal experiences and intimate wildlife viewing. These are combined with the comforts of a small live aboard vessel: warm and dry beds, hot showers, and professionally prepared meals. You can relax and visit with other guests.

The salon seats everyone in a round table like fashion; everyone can see and talk to everyone else. This facilitates discussion and presentations. We have a built-in screen and projector and video for evening slide shows and discussions.

Delphinus is equipped with 24-mile radar, digital depth sounders, recording fathometer, Loran-C, GPS radio direction finder, VHF radios and 110 ac current. She is certified by the US Coast Guard as a passenger vessel and surpasses all safety requirements.

The Cost for the trip is $3295. The price is all inclusive after arriving on board in Petersburg, room and all meals included while on board. Rooms and meals in Petersburg are not included. Dolphin Charters always has a fantastic chef on board to prepare gourmet meals not found in any other wilderness setting. A $750 deposit is required when registering for the trip to reserve your place. The balance is due on April 01, 2012. Single supplement for your own cabin on board is $1650.

Cancellations: A full refund (less $250 per person processing fee) will be made if your cancellation is received 90 days prior to the departure date. Late cancellation (less $500 per person processing fee) will be made ONLY if a suitable replacement is available: otherwise no refunds will be made for any reason. We strongly recommend you purchase trip cancellation insurance to protect your investment (check the Access America web site at www.accessamerica.com for one trip insurance alternative - this insurance is not expensive and can protect you from the unforeseen). Rarely is it necessary for us to cancel a trip. In the event that we are required to cancel a trip you will be notified 30 days before departure and all fees will be refunded.

This trip offers a personal, close up opportunity to explore the landscape and wildlife of Southeast Alaska. Join us for this spectacular journey.