Aurora Borealis - For Real

Ross sleeps with the forward hatch open.   He was looking out at the clouds last night and noticed them shimmering.  Clouds don't shimmer...   Ross woke us old folks up and we all went out to the foredeck to watch the lightshow.

Aurora Borealis and the Perseid Meteor Shower.

To the naked eye, the Aurora looked pale white, like high altitude wispy cirrus clouds, but they shimmered and danced in waves.

I was not aware that my pictures had even turned out until I looked at my iPhone this morning.  I was taking shots with the three-second exposure timer.  

In these pictures, you can't see the shimmer, but you can see the differences between the frames which were taken within a 15 second period.

And you can see the green, which we could not see with the naked eye.

I don't know if what we saw is typical or unique, as it is the only time any of us have seen the aurora.

We did see three or four of the Perseid meteors too.

We elected to sleep in since we were up stargazing late, so, we got a late start to Fitzgibbon Cove, only about 20 miles away.

We woke up to overcast and drizzly skies.   Back to Alaska standard weather.

A lazy post breakfast departure from Klu Bay about 1300 (1:00pm), put us in Hassler Pass where we encountered a wolf swimming across the narrow channel.  We almost ran over him before we saw him.  By the time I got my iPhone out, we had safely passed him.   I hope he made it to the other side OK.

While underway, we passed some beautiful glacier-carved rock faces.

Ross drove again for most of the day.

Karen worked on coordinating our upcoming Christmas trip.  Airlines...

Fitzgibbon Cove is gorgeous.   The water is that lovely blue-green milky color suggesting that there re glaciers higher-up in the surrounding mountains.

Here is our Misty Fjords adventure through day 3.  

More tomorrow...