Day 13 - Mon - 09/28/26 - Glacier Bay

 This Monday morning had me waking up early in order to watch the entrance into Glacier Bay which I never gave on previous trips. I was up and dressed by 7:15 AM and went up to the Lido for my customary breakfast. The National Park Rangers and their support staff had already boarded the vessel and were setting up their shop for the day in the Crow's Nest area. Up ahead, I could see that cloud level was fairly low, drizzle was falling  and the visibility was not looking promising for the day. Glacier Bay is about 65 or 70 miles long and for this voyage we're going to be able Johns Hopkins and Margerie glaciers. Normal seven day cruises simply choose one or the other to visit. Last year's cruise went to Margerie Glacier while the previous year's cruise went to Johns Hopkins.

The first major wildlife spotting point was at the Gloomy Knob where mountain goats typically can be seen. The spotters on the front of the ship spotted two goats, but I was unable to see them with the weather conditions we had. There was also a sighting of an orca whale very close to the shore which did not see but I spotted another one right next to the ship. This is the first time I've seen orcas in this bay on the many trips we've been here. Later on a humpback whale was spotted for once again I did not see it. After making the turn into the channel leading to the Johns Hopkins glacier, we began to see more small pieces of ice, and then we started seeing seals who had taken up residence on top of the ice. We passed by Lamplugh Glacier and finally came to a stop in front of the Johns Hopkins glacier. There were hundreds of seals on the ice in front of glacier and several times I heard what sounded like glacier calving but I never did see it actually occur. After a while, the bridge team team pivoted the Zaandam to allow both sides of the vessel to have a full view of the glacier.

When the time was over at the glacier, the ship was positioned to sail out to the main channel and make a left hand turn and head up Tarr Inlet toward the Margerie Glacier. Dead ahead of us was what was the Grand Pacific Glacier (a tidewater glacier) which we had seen a number of years ago; however, it has retreated and is now fully on land and not reaching the sea. The Marjorie Glacier to its left is a ruggedly impressive 3 mile wide glacier that can calve portions of itself into the ocean.  However, today, I did not see any of that activity. And once again, there were lots of seals, resting on ice flows in front of the face of glacier. The bridge team eventually rotated the ship so that both sides could have a full view of the glacier and we rested here quite a while. Throughout the day, a Ranger gave commentary about what was being seen and pointed out wildlife sightings, and other observations. That commentary ended as we started sailing away from the glacier.

The program then shifted inside where a Ranger gave a conservation talk,  and she was followed by a representative from the local indigenous community. His name was Kevin in English and he presented a very engaging talk about conflict between the indigenous people and National Park Service. He likened the relationship to an arranged marriage. It turned out that as a high school student he was instrumental in restoring the ability of the indigenous people to collect sea gull eggs, which they've been doing for tens of thousands of years before it was stopped by the park service. The Tlingit cultural way was if there were 3 eggs in a nest, leave it alone; if there were two eggs, take one, and if there was one take it as the bird would lay another to replace it.

Afterwards, I positioned myself in a portside window seat in the Lido dining room to be able to watch the sail away and ranger departure.  It was a dark and cloudy and misty sail away and difficult to spot any wildlife like we gave on prior trips.  By 7pm we were back in Icy Strait and on our way to Juneau.

After dinner our evening entertainment was Hyperion Knight, an excellent concert pianist we've seen many times on Holland America and Princess ships.  He's very instructive while he's playing and you want him on your trivia team.  We wrapped up our evening with a game night in the Lido pool area featuring various games like bean bag toss, cornhole and the like.  Raffle tickets were awarded for participation; and if points were scored, additional tickets were earned.  1/2 of the ticket was then deposited in a bin and periodically tickets were drawn for prizes. We didn't win anything.  This lasted for about 50 minutes.  Drinks and popcorn and fish & chips were available to snack on.  It was a fun event.

That concluded our evening and we retired to our stateroom.  Tomorrow begins the first of 4 port stops: Juneau, the town I grew up in.

Lamplugh Glacier

John's Hopkins Glacier

Margerie Glacier








Kevin

Hyperion Knight



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