This morning the Sea Bird anchored outside of La Conte Bay. Although the ice-choked bay was impenetrable to the ship, the ice was no match for our sleek little Zodiacs. The ice bergs had recently been calved from La Conte Glacier, the southernmost tidewater glacier in North America. For reasons that are not well understood, La Conte Glacier has been rapidly retreating since the mid 1990's. Throughout the morning our progress was carefully noted by several bald eagles roosting atop trees along the shoreline. Our afternoon was spent in the small fishing port of Petersburg on Mitkof Island. Petersburg is a real Alaskan fishing town and boosts the best hardware store in all of Southeast. While some guests took helicopter and flightseeing tours of the surrounding area, others explored the temperate rainforest and muskegs on Kupreanoff Island. Our departure from Petersburg was delayed by a pod of orca that insisted on entertaining us for over an hour. It was another great day in southeast Alaska.