Juneau Whale Watching

This morning we arrive in Juneau, the state capital of Alaska. It's a leisurely start: this afternoon we are booked onto a whale watching trip, and this morning we have a class in cooking with salmon at 10am. So there's time for a little breakfast before our cookery, which will turn out to be a mistake

The lesson is in a test kitchen on deck 4, and all of our ingredients are neatly laid out, including lightly poached salmon and smoked salmon

Our teacher talks us through the steps in the recipes as we struggle to follow and keep pace. We make smoked salmon spread, to go atop toasted baguette rounds, and salmon fishcakes. The fishcakes are the sort of food that locals would prepare in the summer and autumn, when the fish is abundant, and freeze for the long winter ahead.

Our results are delicious, if only we had skipped breakfast we could have eaten more. Should we ever be faced with a glut of salmon we now know what to do with it

The ship is anchored in the Gastineau channel, very near the centre of the city, and we take a small tender boat ashore

Officially a city, Juneau feels more like a small alpine town, with waterfalls cascading down steep mountainsides, which disappear into the cloud. The glacial origins of the landscape are very clear

It's a short coach journey to our whale watching boat, the Saint Nicholas

which takes us out into Auke Bay to find some wildlife

It's not long before we encounter a pod of orcas, swimming and feeding with their calves. Large dorsal fins appear and disappear beneath the waves. Long rounded bodies gracefully emerge and silently submerge. Whole orcas leap from the water, their distinctive white markings very visible, and crash back down with an almighty splash. It is an absolute delight to watch

After 20 or so minutes of watching this our skipper moves off to see what else is around

Spouts of water tell us more whales are nearby, and I go up onto the roof of the boat for a wider view. Suddenly there is a large whale just off our port side. I can look down and see its blow-hole, its long back arches through the water, and its tail flips up as it begins its dive

The fin markings enable the crew to identify this as Flame, a 20 year old humpback, and she was here with her latest calf Match

We there then treated to a display of breaching as Match would leap athletically out of the water, twisting in mid-flight and splashing back down

Once hunted to near extinction, the humpback population now stands at about 135,000 animals and is still increasing

Our time on the boat flies by, and we are returned to Juneau, our ship is moored nearby

We head into the Alaskan Brewery's taproom to sample their wares. Vera even manages to get a free sample of Snow Crab claw to try.

Our tender arrives to transport us back to the Silver Moon, while we await our departure I watch a small harbour seal swimming around us

We are late for our table reservation at The Grill, a semi-outdoor restaurant where you cook your own food on hot slabs of rock brought to the table. The staff offer to cook our steaks and bring them to the table. This is what almost everyone else seems to be doing, but appears to defeat the whole point of the experience

So we cook our own

and the results are delicious 

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