Cruising Glacier Bay on the Coral Princess
Today is the final full day of this voyage – tomorrow we dock at Whittier. It’s now 03:15, 1 hour and 8 minutes before sunrise, but it’s fairly bright outside. We’re just north of Yakutat, sailing on calm seas for Prince William Sound and College Fjord.
We had an extremely good day in Glacier Bay yesterday. When the first photo was shot at 06:08, it wasn’t clear what the weather was going to do. While there was some blue sky, the Norwegian Pearl was sailing into a fog bank. The National Park Service only allows 2 large ships into the park each day.
Despite the iffy weather, the crew was preparing the viewing areas of the Coral Princess set up for sunshine, setting up chairs at the section of railing without wind-shields, and loungers on the opposite side.
Clearing skies and lifting fog – way to go, Mother Nature! 🙂
Just before 08:00 we sailed through a brief but heavy rain shower. There was plenty of rain all around us, but except for that one shower a patch of blue sky was staying fairly close to us.
Ragged clouds certainly added to the drama of many scenes.
The bow viewing area. At each side of the blue wind-shield is a 4-inch gap, just large enough to take a picture through.
The NPS and the non-profit Alaska Geographic Society set up a table in Horizon Court with a natural history display, and Glacier Bay related books and other material for sale.
The viewing areas were still almost empty when we sailed past the Reid Glacier at 08:45.
A closer look at the Reid Glacier. In this photo there are 2 boats just above the sand bar.
Patterns in the Lamplugh Glacier.
A river flowing from the Lamplugh Glacier.
These peaks are immediately north of the Lamplugh Glacier.
John Hopkins Inlet, with the glacier of the same name at the head. There really are no words to describe a scene like this, but “stunning” is a start. Mount Orville is 10,496 feet high. Unlike my previous visits, there was very little ice in the water here.
As we got closer to this beach near the head of Tarr Inlet, the ranger who was doing bridge commentary spotted 2 brown bears at the water’s edge. Her description of how to look for a distant bear was funny – “don’t look for a large bear, look for a hamster.”
This peak is just to the left of the John Hopkins Glacier. I need better maps – ones that name more mountains.
A broad view of the John Hopkins scene.
The Norwegian Pearl at 10:25.
The center of the Grand Pacific Glacier.
At 11:30 an outdoor buffet was opened as we sat in front of the Margerie Glacier. It was a quiet day at Margerie, with only a couple of very small ice falls (too small to call “calving”) during the hour we spent there.
A bald eagle on one of the Margerie Glacier’s icebergs.
A closer look at the Margerie.
One of the rangers did an excellent presentation in the theatre, a slide show about a 24-day solo kayak trip he took up Glacier Bay’s East Arm (Muir Inlet) in March-April.
A wide-angle view from my cabin on Deck 5.
The view of the rangers leaving, from my position on the bridge. I spent just over an hour there doing commentary. We had an event that I didn’t broadcast the details of – 2 humpback whales surfaced less than 100 feet directly in front of us! I think, but don’t know for sure, that the pressure wave from the bow would almost always shove them aside.
Last night was our second formal night, and I went to this one. I lucked into another excellent table, a family of 4 from Texas and a couple of women from Manitoba. I’m not doing any of the fun stuff on board, though. I’m spending a lot of time fine-tuning my programs and yesterday I basically wandered the decks listening for people wondering about things (or making incorrect assumptions) that I could clarify. The response has been great, and I got into lots of good conversations.
Today is going to be a busy day – I have a theatre presentation at 1:00 and I’ll be on the bridge for probably 4 hours in Prince William Sound and College Fjord.
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