This was the day we were glad we had a cabin with a balcony. We spent most of the day in Glacier Bay, and most of that time on the balcony.
It was magnificent.
We entered Glacier Bay from Icy Strait (Alaskan geographical labels may not always be poetic, but they're certainly accurate) around 7.30am and, true to form, it was foggy.
Fortunately it cleared shortly after breakfast, without a trace of mist. We heard later from Roger, the National Parks Ranger providing commentary on the ship intercom, that this was the clearest day for weeks.
A mere 218 years ago, when George Vancouver sailed up the coastline Glacier Bay didn't exist. It was a single glacier hundreds of miles long. It rapidly retreated, at a truly blistering pace as measured in geological time, leaving a number of smaller glaciers behind.
Just for the tourists, no doubt.
So we rugged up with every layer of thermal gear we owned, and
propped ourselves on our balcony, both sets of binoculars and camera ready-to-hand.
By purest accident we also had the good fortune to be on the port side. That gave us the perfect viewing spot for Reid Glacier, and for glimpses of Lampugh Glacier, as we slowly sailed up Tart Inlet towards Margerie Glacier.
We were able to see quite a bit of detail in the glaciers: crevices, caves, trickling waterfalls, and a considerable amount of the deep blue ice produced by glaciers.
Margerie Glacier was the best of the bunch. The captain brought the ship to a stop a short distance, and after 20 minutes or so slowly began to turn the ship. This was our cue to go to the top deck on the aft of the ship, which gave us a broader panorama.
The whole setting was stunning, but Margerie was still the star.
While we propped on the railing we heard an almighty KRAAAAAAAK!!! from the glacier. It sounded like a whip cracking, with that same sharpness, but much bigger and longer. We hoped this meant we'd see a large part of the face fall into the water, but this particular crack came from further up the glacier.
We heard a number of other cracks while we were there, but that was the one I'll always remember.
Although we didn't see any dramatic falls, we did catch a number of smaller ones. Probably "only" a tonne of ice, still capable of producing a suitably impressive splash.
After Margerie we sailed back south, and then up Johns Hopkins Inlet for a better look at Lampugh Glacier. While watching frozen ice may not sound like the kind of thing that would hold a person's attention for six hours or so, we were so absorbed we forgot to have lunch.
Mind you, it wasn't just the glaciers. We also spotted several bald eagles, a seal, and a whale between us and Margerie Glacier.
After Lampugh we set off towards the mouth of Icy Strait 100 km/60 miles to the south. We may have left the glaciers behind, but the wildlife show was just beginning. We spotted various sea birds, more eagles, mountain goats, seals, a sea lion, several pods of what could have been porpoises or minke whales, and so many sea otters we lost count.
By late afternoon the temperature was dropping, and I was starting to get cold. Very cold. Very "this is all fabulous but I'm going into the cabin before I lose another finger to frostbite" cold.
Emma wouldn't budge until we were well beyond the mouth of the bay. She might miss something - after all, where were the orcas?
Eventually darkness overcame even Emma's fortitude, so we went upstairs for a highly nutritious pizza and Alaskan Amber Ale, and watched a movie (The Artist) in the open air cinema.
Then, being the intrepid explorers we are, we read until we passed out around midnight.
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