Capturing the Moment

  Exploring thousand foot cliffs, covered in tropical beauty and raging waterfalls, on the North Kohala coast of Hawaii. After an afternoon cruise along this wild coastline yesterday, and a big storm still crashing into the island of Hawaii from the south today, there wasn't much we could do, except hide from the winds and waves on our expedition cruise ship, the Safari Explorer, until the storm lets up a bit tomorrow. But I really didn't want the guests to just sit on the ship all day. We had to do something. So why not do something we've never done before. That is the difference between cruising and expedition cruising. On expedition cruises, you have the flexibility to change your schedule and take advantage of opportunities as they come up. We can change based on weather, whales, or even the guests we have on that trip. And this morning was the perfect example of that expedition cruise mentality. Even though we had some big north swell rolling in, we attempted to crane ...

The whale action has been intense lately in Southeast Alaska. I've been traveling the waterways of Alaska's Inside Passage   on the luxury adventure cruise ship Safari Quest. I absolutely love getting people out with the humpback whales on our small skiffs. The low vantage point, almost water level, gives a whole new perspective of how big these animals really are. When you are in a small inflatable boat the size of a suburban, and you are surrounded by animals the size of city school buses you can't help but feel in awe of their sheer size and power. Today was one of those lucky days where we had so many close humpback whale encounters from the skiff, and the water conditions were so calm, that I was able to get a bit creative in my whale photography. We were able to position our skiff to view the diving humpback whale in between us and the Safari Quest. I always like to think about the backgrounds in my pictures to see if I can use anything to help tell more of a st...

Orcas from Water Level     Today was our morning to cruise for charismatic megafauna, aka really cool big animals, in the whale rich waters of Frederick Sound, Southeast Alaska. We were nearing a group of islands called the Brothers Islands which are well known for having a stellar sea lion haul out. I often like to take the small groups aboard the Safari Quest to these islands and then get a more intimate experience by loading into our small skiffs. As we neared the islands this morning however, I knew it was going to be a skiff ride to remember.    As we slowed down the Quest to load the skiffs the captain and I were both looking in the opposite direction from our destination islands. Sure enough there they were again, surfacing and heading our way. It was a pod of transient orcas, or killer whales. I can count the number of times I’ve seen orca from a skiff on one hand, so I was anxious to load everyone up. We quickly got all the guests ...