Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. We woke to partly cloudy skies but it just got better as the day went on. I'm feeling much better, except for this horrible-sounding cough that comes on me if I laugh. I blame my co-travelers for making me laugh too much.
We had 2 lectures this morning, the first by Jeana Rogers on "The True Beauty of Alaska's Wildlife" which was OK. But the second, by Terry Breen on "Glaciers: Rivers of Ice" was wonderful. She was so clear about what we would see at Hubbard Glacier and how glaciers are formed and the various types, I learned a lot. The average glacier moves around 1-2 feet a day, but Hubbard moves 3-5 feet. It is about 76 miles long and roughly 6 miles wide and is one of the few that is not retreating. About 1/3 of the glacier is seen above sea level, and I believe she said we can see about 300-400 feet of Hubbard, so there is another 600-800 feet below the sea. Calving, or the breaking of ice from the face, is often observed. But ice also breaks free from below the surface and will come shooting out of the sea like a missile, which is another reason ships don't get too close. We got to about 1.5 miles from the face. On the way, we passed an area where lots of sea lions were sunning themselves. We could hear them growling and grunting and diving into the water. I tried to get a photo, but they were just too far away. Other than a few stray birds, that was the only wildlife we saw.
The outside temperature was around 45 degrees and there was no wind. We spent most of the viewing time on the back deck behind the buffet where there were almost no people and we had a perfect view as the Captain turned the ship around so we could get a 360 degree view. The glacier was magnificent. We could hear it moving down the gorge and if we were looking just right, see calving. The noise was sometimes like the crack of gunfire and sometimes like a crash of trucks or the roar of an airplane. I loved it! Nothing like Mother Nature to put you in your place on this planet.
We spent about 2 hours hanging around and enjoying the beautiful day with blue skies and white snow. Terry Breen gave a commentary occasionally on what we were seeing.
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| These bergs were as big as houses |
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| I wish I could have recorded the sounds coming from the glacier. |
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| These mountains were so beautiful, they looked fake. |
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| One of these days I'll get the hang of selfies. |
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The Captain sent this lifeboat out on a mission to collect some glacial ice. We didn't hear if they were successful. If so, and it was clean, they would serve it in your drink.
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| Bye, bye Hubbard. Thanks for the wonderful show. |
We had dinner with Phil/Carol and Jan/Tom at Chartreuse. Our time together is getting short.
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| Dinner at Chartreuse |
It's another calm sea night and tomorrow we're in Sitka.
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