After a truly amazing morning there was just enough time to get back on board the boat, have some lunch, throw some additional layers on and then head off back on another excursion. This time we were off to see the glaciers in the Tracy Arm wilderness. The cruise ship went quite close to the glaciers as well but the excursion allowed you to see both glaciers (the Sawyer and South Sawyer) and up close (although not so close that the underwater ice shooters can get you).
We boarded out catamaran just before 1pm, half an hour before the cruise ship left Juneau. We then sped off down to Tracy Arm – Fords Terror Wilderness Area to explore before boarding back on the cruise ship which would catch us up 5.5 hours later. The first 2 or so hours were spent bumping our way down Stephens Passage. The wind was blowing and the sea was pretty choppy for a while. They had to hand out chewy ginger sweets which are a natural smoother to motion sickness. I wonder how they find these things out?
As we reached Harbor Island we took a left into the wilderness area and almost immediately we encountered Toby’s worst nightmare! From the moment we had told the boys (not pronounced boo-eee’s) Toby had been worrying about ice-bergs (mainly because Harry had told him that there were lots of ice-bergs in Alaska and we’d probably sink). Fortunately these were only small versions and probably not capable of sinking our catamaran but they were however quite incredible to see. Although I had seen pictures of them before it had never really struck me what an incredible shade of blue they were. They were completely out of place with the rest of the environment but here they were, giant blue blocks of ice floating their way out to sea. Amazing and slightly odd!
As we continued on up the fjord (a French word according to one lady that Tracy overheard) we started seeing more and more of them. Just bright blue blocks bobbing away to sea. One interesting thing we noticed about ice-bergs is how the all get shaped differently by the water as they sail along and mainly they get carved into the shapes of animals (apart from one giant berg that looked like an 18oz New York strip steak! I think between us we saw whale, swan, horse and crocodile shaped ice-bergs along with one that looked like an angel!
At one point we sailed across to a gorgeous waterfall that was exploding out into the fjord. We were all stood up on the top deck and the captain took us closer and closer until the waterfall spray was covering us with its icey cold water. After giving us a soaking we then went further up, dodging the far more frequent bergs and taking loads of pictures of the incredible glacier carved cliff faces. Thank god for digital cameras – I don’t know how much these photos would have cost me in film and printing costs 10 years ago!
Eventually we reached out first destination – Sawyer glacier. I’m not really sure how to describe. It was half a mile wide and 250ft high from the surface of the water with another 300ft under the water. It looked amazing. And it sounded pretty awesome too with the booming thunder like cracks of the ice splitting and cracking. You can’t go any closer than a quarter of a mile because of the ice falls that happen off the glacier. The ones above the surface are not such a problem because they just fall down into the water and if they are really big cause a bit of a wave to come down towards the watching boat. But the same thing also happens under the water – the ice cracks and big chunks break free. This type are called shooters because the break off the glacier and shoot up towards the surface a bit like a torpedo from a submarine (at least that’s what I imagine). So if your boat is any closer than a quarter mile it runs the risk of getting tanked by a giant lump of glacier ice.
After taking countless photos we set off back down the fjord to South Sawyer glacier. This one looked even more impressive to me. You can see the glacier snaking backwards up the mountain and it also had hundreds of small ice-bergs in front of it. Lots of these bergs had harbor seals on them have a relaxing bob about. Here we stayed taking in the most incredibly sight until our cruise ship arrived. I’m sure they had a pretty good view of the glacier but it was definitely not as good as ours – ours was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. Wowsers!
Now for the slideshow. Probably best to get yourself a cup of tea before sitting down to go through all these!