6.22-23.9 MORE CRUZIN – AND COCKTAIL ICE?!?

Two Days for The Price of One

Monday was a day at sea and was spent just readin’, relaxin’, eatin’, drinkin’, more eatin’, more drinkin’, wandering around the DAM ship, NOWAT picture editing, and did I mention drinkin ‘n’ eatin’?
Seriously... we did absolutely nothing of note until dinner which was our first formal night, also nothing exciting. Took the requisite pre dinner portrait, a sample black and white, and the obligatory formal “at” dinner photo. Found them in the Gallery the next day...not impressed, over priced so we'll wait till the next formal night and see how that comes out.

The after dinner show was OK... singers and dancers trying their best with a “’round the world” medley that fell a bit flat. Headed to bed early and fell asleep watching an old movie.


Tuesday rolled in with a soft fog as we entered Glacier Bay. The fog slowly burned off and we awaited the arrival of the Alaskan Park Service Rangers who would give a short lecture and then guide us up and back through Glacier Bay, now a national park. A product of what was known as the “Little Ice Age”, the “bay” is a “Geologically Recent Glacial Advance” in the Northern regions. It reached its maximum extend around1750.

45 years later, Captain George Vancouver [yeah... Same guy... Same city] sailed down the Pacific Coast and turned east, searching for the Northwest Passage. While he remained behind ill, his first officer Joseph Whidbey set out with his crew to survey the area. They pushed through masses of floating ice into a large open bay on July 12, 1794. By the late 1800’s the massive glacier that filled what we now know as Glacier Bay had retreated over 50 miles opening new waterways. It remained relatively untouched except for the Tlingit people until 1879 when renowned conservationist and author John Muir rode a steamer up from Seattle and later a canoe north into what had become a 65 mile bay filled with fjords, and inlets. Through Muir’s efforts, Glacier Bay’s 3.3 million acres were included in an international Biosphere Reserve, as well as a World Heritage site that incorporates Wrantell-St Elias National Park, Kluane National Park and the Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park in Canada.

It was up this expanse of still, fresh water, floating on top of warm salt water that we traveled slowly past Russell Island into Tarr inlet until we reached the first of two magnificent living glaciers, the Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers. We killed the engines and listened as the park rangers lectured on the origin and 26 mile length of the Margerie Glacier that stands 250 above sea level, comparing its beautiful blue ice with the stark dark brown of the Grand Pacific Glacier.
At the Nowat Picasa album noted above, you can see these two great expanses of Ice, earth and living organisms along with other shots of the Bay. Margerie Glacier advances at a rate of 8 feet per day and as the ice meets the salt water, the salt’s corrosive nature causes portions of the ice to break off and cascade into the water with the thunderous roar of an avalanche. This is called calving and we sat in awe of Margerie’s bold white and blue ice as we watched several calvings take place.

We then turned about and proceeded past Jaw Point and Mount Cooper into Johns Hopkins Inlet to view the outstanding 12 ½ mile long Johns Hopkins Glacier, the only glacier advancing and growing daily. It is a restricted area at this time of year as the Harbor seals are mating there so we couldn’t get any closer than 6 miles. After another half hour of viewing and lectures, we head back out past Laplugh Glacier, another mass of Blue and White Ice. As we passed, a large drainage hole opened under one cavern and thousands of gallons of pent up water rushed out in a torrent that stirred up the silt and caused calving around it. [We got a bouncy video of that]
On the way out of Glacier Bay, we passed several other smaller glaciers and as we approached Drake and Willoughby islands, everyone crowded the port side rails of deck 3 hoping to spot hales seals and other water life. Not much action there and we almost missed dinner, freezing our noses off, looking for anything to break the surface. We bade goodbye to the rangers and headed up to the Lido Buffet only to find it closed.

After fending off some moochers on our balcony, it was off to the Vista Dining room where we slipped into a small table [the rest of our regular dinner mates had elected the Pinnacle Grill or casual buffet] grabbed a quick dinner and headed to the Vista lounge, alllll the waaaaayyyy at the other end of the ship for a very good Elton John impersonator/comedian who had the crowd in stitches. After a pretty good show, we headed back to Verandah 6153 to record this NOWAT and crash.

Tomorrow - Whale Watching, Glacier Landings and hopefully some great pictures to post as well.

Ciao 4 NowChuck and the upset she didn't see any whales or seals today, Dragon Lady.