Valdez is an oil town with a tourist and fishing problem! Of course this is where the end point of the famous Alaska oil pipline is so a large part of the economy revolves around that. No refining here just oil tanker loading which is across the sound and away from town. This time of year the toruists pour in for Halibut fishing and boat tours of Prince William Sound (PWS). There are a few museums in town depicting the local history, one of which we visited. But the major event for us was a day trip into PWS abord the Lu-Lu Belle. There are many tour boats in the harbor but we were advised to take this boat even before we got to Valdez.
The LLB is a 75ft boat, small for this type of use, that, on our tour only had about 30 people. The captain is the owner and takes his time on each tour, i.e. if he sees wildlife he will slow down to make sure you get as good a view as possible. That day we were out about 7 ½ hours. We saw sea otters, eagles (too far away to photograh), sea lions, humpback whales and fin whales. Plus we spent about an hour very close to the foot of Columbia Glacier where we were able to watch the glacier calving (large chunks if ice breaking off into the water).
Not much more to describe but hopefully the photos will give you an idea of our day on the water.
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