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ISLAND SPIRIT IN ALASKA: Go where the big ships don’t GO If you are considering a cruise through Southeast Alaska because you want to see whales and dolphins and calving glaciers, consider Jeff Behrens’ 128-foot Island Spirit. Being on board the Island Spirit is akin to being on board a friend’s boat, a friend who wants you to fall in love with Alaska the same way he has. Jeff left the east coast and a career in marketing for IBM and PepsiCo to start Fantasy Cruises with a fleet of one, the Island Spirit. The independence and flexibility of being both owner and operator enables him to take advantage of an ever-changing environment. If it starts raining where he first planned to go but is sunny somewhere else, he may change course. If he spots whales or other wildlife he may go off course for a better view or even stop to take passengers closer in skiffs. If he is near the historic Five Fingers Lighthouse, he’ll check to see if the keeper and his two golden retrievers would enjoy some company. Before boarding the Island Spirit for our 8-night cruise we were taken on a tour of Sitka where we learned about the city’s Tlingit and Russian history and visited the Alaska Raptor Center. The next day we sailed to Baranoff Warm Springs where skiffs ferried us to the dock. A short hike through hemlock, spruce, alder, willow and salmon berry, a tart raspberry like berry the color of salmon roe, took us to hot spring pools separated by giant boulders from a roaring creek feeding a waterfall less than a hundred feet below. We thought we were settled in for a quiet evening at anchor in a secluded bay, when just as salad plates were being cleared, Captain Jeff told the chef to hold the main course so we could all pile into skiffs to get a better view of a bubble-netting humpback. We watched as the young humpback swam in circles, first hitting the surface with his fins, then diving under, still swimming in circles while releasing a net of bubbles. This agitates fish so they cluster together. The whale then comes up under the closely bunched fish, mouth wide open. We were close enough to see the baleen hanging from his upper jaw and the wide pink stripe down the center of his upper palate. We snapped pictures, shot video, and oohed and awed for close to an hour. Finally the whale took a long dive and surfaced on the far side of a small island nearby. We returned to the dining room where, amazingly, we were served salmon perfectly prepared and not the least bit overdone. Ford’s Terror, a narrow inlet off Endicott Arm, is named for the emotion felt by a group of hunters who rowed into the fjord in 1887 at high tide. When the tide changed the calm water at the narrows became turbulent rapids and whirlpools, grinding rocks and icebergs together for six terrifying hours. While Lindblad/National Geographic’s Sea Lion hovered outside the narrows, Jeff took us in, carefully timing our entrance and exit. Rockweed, the original source of iodine used to treat goiters, lined the banks, turning them a deep gold. Low tide exposed mussels attracting the brown and black bear we watched from skiffs. The air was still. The water, unrippled. The shore line seemed to disappear in the reflection of the mountain in the water. A tern called. An eagle flew overhead. An otter surfaced eyeing our ship. We had 18 hours to explore on kayaks and in skiffs, the only humans in the inlet, surrounded by mountains and waterfalls. Mendenhall Glacier was not on our itinerary. Jeff told us he had a better glacier for us. Continuing up Endicott Arm we felt the chill of the cold air off Dawe’s Glacier slowly revealing itself in the distance. Ice chunks and then mini ice bergs floated past. Seal mothers rested with their calves on the ice. Between 500 and 1,000 seals return here every year to give birth. We stood on the bow of the Island Spirit wrapped in our warmest clothes, sharing the inlet with seals, eagles and little arctic terns. We gazed in awe at the glacier, then exclaimed with delight as it calved, a massive chunk of ice fell from its face, releasing a splash at least 100 feet high, followed by a sound louder than thunder roaring through the inlet. On our last afternoon Jeff announced there were bay dolphins surfing off the bow. Each time one surfaced I could see its blow hole open and close. There is no endless buffet on the Island Spirit, but the food is excellent. A continental breakfast including freshly baked muffins, coffee cake or other pastry was available each morning at 5 am followed by a hot breakfast at 8. Lunch was followed by cookies still warm from the oven. An appetizer was served with cocktails before a three-course dinner of salad, main course and dessert. Menus featuring fresh sea food, poultry, whole grains and vegetables were posted each morning and we were encouraged to let the staff know if we preferred a substitution. There were 18 passengers on our cruise. The Island Spirit’s 17 cabins will accommodate no more than 33. Shared interests, wonder and experiences made us a compatible group. One couple was from Australia, the rest from the United States. We ranged in age from middle age to two passengers in their 90s. Jeff believes the cruise can be enjoyable to everyone “if they have the spirit to go out and try to see something new.” He is committed to making this possible, doing whatever is necessary to accommodate wary or disabled passengers. The two most senior passengers were accompanied by adult children who provided some needed assistance and took delight in seeing their parents participate eagerly, never fretting about their limitations. -- Catherine Close For a video of the Island Spirit cruise, go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/nkaufman Fantasy Cruise website: http://www.smallalaskaship.com
To book a cruise on Island Spirit
click Book a Cruise
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