Friday 12 August 2022 – Our first day at sea has largely been an opportunity to draw breath after four days of scampering about, but we have managed to pack in a bit of Playing Tourist as well. The Tourist Thing is to view the Hubbard Glacier, one of the few glaciers in the world that are actually advancing – most are receding in the face of climate change. As I said in my earlier post, the outlook for a decent outlook wasn’t bright and the ship’s foghorn was sounding regularly.
However, there wasn’t a great deal we could do about the weather, so we turned our attention to Catching Up With Stuff in the hope that it would clear before we got to the glacier. The blog, for example, needed attention; yesterday was as yet undocumented and That Would Never Do. Another task was a bit of laundry, because these things are important, you know. So the morning passed in contented admin, until the captain announced that we were nearing the glacier, at least as far as his navigational instruments could tell – I’m sure he couldn’t actually see the thing. Francis (our butler) had recommended that we go to the observation deck café, so we hied ourselves thither in haste, with me clutching the recently-purchased extra-long telephoto lens as well as the camera to plug it into.
After a while, the fog began to lift.
and you could begin to make out the glacier from the clouds.
The clouds lifted further
and the glacier became clearer.
Eventually, glory be!, the sun came out and we had a clear view of the glacier.
The cruise has a couple of onboard experts on various things, including, fortunately, glaciers, and so we had a lecture over the PA system. I expect it was highly informative, but frankly I was too busy taking photos to ay much attention. Also, since it was clear that the boat was inching closer to the glacier, we thought it might be a good idea to get some lunch. So we headed to La Terrazza, where a buffet lunch was on offer and seating on the deck seemed a good idea.
After a swift lunch, I headed back to the top deck, where it was clear that we’d got a lot closer to the glacier
(to give you some idea of the size of the glacier, we were some seven miles distant!)
and the deck was a popular place to be, now that the sun was out
not that everyone was dedicated to marvelling at the wonders of nature, mind.
The surrounding scenery also had a lot to recommend it.
After a while, the ship started very slowly to turn, and we realised that the view from our cabin was going to be pretty nice. So we went down and I started processing photos whilst Jane took one last look at the glacier from our veranda.
Before long, the ship was under way to distance itself from Disenchantment Bay, and the weather closed in once again, underlining how lucky we’d been to have such a clear view of the glacier.
Mind you, it cleared again later, as we got further away from Disenchantment Bay.
Despite the excitement around seeing the Hubbard Glacier, today has been a fairly quiet affair, getting used to the idea of cruising; an opportunity to gather strength and gird our loins for the morrow. Maybe.
We arrive in Juneau, actually the capital of Alaska, at 0930ish tomorrow. In theory we’re going to walk up a mountain and then go whale watching. However, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if the weather had some influence over what we actually do. The forecast is for a reasonably cool day with some showers, but who knows? If you’d like to see how we got on, then please check in on the next entry here.