Sunday 23 June 2013 Glacier Bay, Alaska

Our wake-up call at 6:30 announced the beginning of the supposed highlight of the cruise – Glacier Bay. In addition to the glaciers, there is the likelihood of seeing whales, several other mammals, and many kinds of birds. So, we were a little disappointed when we turned the TV to the outside view from the bridge and all we could see was gray fog. However, by 7:30 the fog was beginning to lift. By evening the sky was completely clear. [Glenn is a wonder – how he can remember all these details! – Ed.]

 

After breakfast we staked out a table in the indoor pool area with an outside window. It wasn’t long before we saw a pod of about six Orcas swimming beside us, but I didn’t get any good pictures. Here is the best of the bad ones.

The Captain announced that we had a problem with one of the two propellers and would be stopping for a while to fix it. He kept talking about the propeller, rather than the engine, so we never did learn what the exact problem was. They weren’t able to fix the problem during our stop, so we carried on so as not to disrupt the day any further. There was no safety or manoeuvrability issue (so he said), just a loss of speed and, since we would be operating at slow speed for the day anyway, they decided to tackle the issue later.

We soon slowed to pick up some Park Rangers from Glacier Park who gave intermittent commentary for the rest of the day. Meanwhile, I went up on deck while Celeste held the fort by the window. The commentator pointed out a mountain that was a good bet to see mountain goats and, sure enough, there they were – about three adults and two or three kids. Too far away for pictures though. A little later Celeste also spotted a sea otter.

Near the end of the bay we encountered several glaciers, culminating with the two at the very end. The main glacier from the north carries a lot of debris and appears as a dirty black two-mile-wide wall. The other one from the west is much cleaner and more picturesque and about one mile wide at the face. They are both about 200-250 feet high, about the height of a twenty storey building. The Captain pulled up alongside the prettier one and slowly spun the ship around while they served a barbecued salmon lunch around the pool. We missed some of the action, but we were too hungry not to eat. The glacier was calving while we were there, dumping several huge chunks into the bay with a loud “Boom!” each time.

Just before the final glaciers, Celeste spotted some Bald Eagles and some Scoter ducks. As we worked our way back down the bay, we spotted much additional wildlife. We saw two humpback whales traveling north together and another group of four or five that seemed to be feeding, although not co-operatively like we saw near Juneau. In this group we saw two cases of a whale breaching, throwing its body into the air, completely clear of the water.  We saw a colony of Stellar Sea Lions on an island, more than half a dozen sea otters, and about three seals, one of which cavorted quite near the ship doing somersaults and rolls. We dropped off the Park Rangers at the mouth of the bay and stopped the ship for a while to make another attempt to fix our mechanical problem. The problem was soon solved and we were back underway. By 5 pm we were hungry again, so we reluctantly left the deck to change for the formal supper.

Today we were seated with a couple from St. Albert, Alberta and an older widower from Florida, who still had a New York accent thirty-seven years after leaving. Our wildlife watching still wasn’t over though, as we saw several more whales, sea otters, and seals from the dining room window.

Tonight’s stage show was magician Greg Gleason who has performed many times in Las Vegas. He was very good and also humourous. After the show we went for a walk and then sat down for some blogging and picture editing followed by our snack and the adult show of last night’s comedian at 11.

Weather: Foggy and about 10 degrees C in the morning; fog lifting and clearing through the day; afternoon mostly sunny through a high thin overcast, temperature probably in the mid-to-high teens, although it felt much warmer; evening clear and mild. All the tour oriented staff remarked on what a great day it had been.