Day 52- On Prince William Sound

I don’t think I’m going to give an account of today’s 9 hour tour on Prince William Sound. The company offered pickup service from our RV Park so we took them up on their offer. The weather should have been partly cloudy and I think I figured out the part that was cloudy, about 99% of the trip. We sailed with a family owned company, Stan Stephens Tours who also boasts employees who are full time residents of the area. And it was Stan himself who had control of our boat today, the Valdez Spirit. The cruise covered about 140 miles and took us to Meares Glacier plus gave us a pretty good idea of what the Sound and the surrounding area is all about. Captain Stan gave us some geological history of the area as well as historical, including the 1964 earthquake that literally wiped out the town of Valdez, causing it to be rebuilt on another location and the 1989 oil spill from the Exxon Valdez. Even now, after all the clean up and the years, a really fierce storm will stir things up and oil can be found on shore. We heard about some of the mineral mining history, stories of prospectors, people who lost their livelihood or their lives at the whim of nature or man. It gave me a new and unexpected appreciation of how much damage, then and now, was done by these Good Friday events. We saw some really cool wildlife but others were missing like my favorites, orcas and dolphins. The cruise served us an adequate lunch of Chicken Alfredo on rice with vegetables and a crusty bread with Oreo cookies for dessert. This lunch, unlike the one we had on the tour in Seward, was brought to our table, seemed more organized and the cost of the meal was already figured into the price of the tour. They served complimentary coffee and tea all day and I had three cups of tea which meant several trips to the head. We also had our choice of a cup of Clam Chowder or Minestrone Soup ( Carl had the Clam and I had the Minestrone ) a few hours later which hit the spot after hours of really damp and cold weather out on deck. I thought I would miss the fact there wasn’t a ranger on board but Captain Stan gave us enough information as well as nautical bearings from time to time. We could follow our progress with the flyers one of the crew members handed out before we left the dock. It gave us an overview of the area, our route of travel, some information about the area and on the back was a pictorial of wildlife, both bird and mammal, we might expect to see. The crew was helpful and the tour showed us the overall beauty of the area and the Sound in particular. I would recommend them to anyone coming this way. Oh, and we were returned to the dock on time. It began raining as we entered the harbor and has continued ever since. The true plus to the day was when we got home and found our Crock Pot Roast Beef ready to eat.