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75
Opposite,
clockwise: Cruis
itinerary for the
Nautilus Swell,
Steller sea lion,
diver above a
field of plumose
anemone at
the Hydrocoral
Gardens, the
Nautilus Swell at
anchor off Baran
Falls.
Left: Breaching
humpback whale
at Point Adolphu
nd now for something completely different.” The words from the old Monty
Python skit reverberated in my head as I stepped out on deck my first
morning at sea aboard the Nautilus Swell liveaboard. I’ve been on plenty
of liveaboards in tropical destinations throughout the world, but this
time I found myself sailing Alaskan waters. The frantic knock on my
cabin door accompanied by a shout of “Breaching whales to port!”
announced I was already about to see something unusual. My
adrenaline kicked in immediately.
Unlike most of the photography trips I take, this charter was
to be as much about the topside photo opportunities as those to be found underwater. Of the 14
guests on board, only three of us brought drysuits and expected to dive. This is very atypical of the
groups normally booking the Nautilus Swell, for they cater to experienced cold-water enthusiasts.
But our idea was to bring long lenses to capture the topside aspects of the Alaska seascape, and so
we constructed an itinerary that placed us where the critters were at the times of day when the light
was right. Diving would absolutely be a part of the experience, but one or two dives per day would
be plenty for us, unlike the three or four a dedicated dive charter might deliver. Some might think
purposely reducing the dive opportunities sacrilegious, but the reality is topside Alaska is so visually
rich, we chose to strike a compromise weighted to the terrestrial. The knock on my door told me we
were right to do it; we were getting the chance to nail some hot shots from the very outset.
We’d departed from Juneau and gotten a good night’s sleep cruising the calm waters of
the Inside Passage, and we awoke just off Point Adolphus for that early morning photo-op.
My cameras were still unassembled in my cabin (rookie mistake), so when I heard the call of
breaching whales, I did the logical thing. I slapped a 400mm telephoto lens on my Canon 1D
Mark IV with its 10-frame-per-second motor drive and stepped out my cabin door, ready to
set up my tripod for some distant and random whale breach. Another mistake. This whale was
not distant; it was close to the boat, visible the moment I stepped out of my door. Watching it
breach no more than 50 yards off the railing, I was gripped with equal parts awe and frustration.
Nature in the raw
T e x t a n d p h o t o s b y S t e p h e n F r i n k
“
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