Our second day of cruising in Glacier Bay was every bit as nice as a week ago. The Zaandam entered the bay near Bartlett Cove, where the rangers, the cultural ambassador, and Alaska Geographic reps boarded the ship at 6:30am. The temperature was a cool 39 degrees, the humidity was 82%, and the winds were slight at 3.2mph. The forecast on the tv was broken clouds, but there was more blue sky than clouds or fog today. With the ship doing 14 knots, there was a wind chill factor making it seem colder than it was. It does rain a lot here, like 70 inches annually in the months of May and June. Today we welcomed the sun.
By 7:30am we were passing Willoughby Island on the port and the Marble Islands on the starboard. We bundled up and went out on deck six forward to be able to view Gloomy Knob up close and personal. We skipped going to breakfast at 8am and stayed for at least an hour taking photos of another surprise sighting of bears at the start of the granite cliffs of the Knob. Although the ranger pointed them out, these bears would not be visible without binoculars. This time we saw one female brown bear with two cubs, then another adult bear in the creek that flows to the bay here. The ranger claimed to see two more cubs with the second bear, but we did not spot them. Last week we had a sighting of a Grizzley bear directly above the sandy beach standing on a cliff. Pretty exciting.
This time of day, the granite cliffs are in the shade, so seeing the mountain goats is more difficult. Very few of the daring goats were visible, but we did manage to get some photos as the ship sailed by them slowly. That's about the time we decided we were frozen to the bone despite the heavy clothing. It was time to head for breakfast and lots of hot coffee. Megan, the manager, knew we were outside for this scenic cruising, so he had not given our table away. Our waiter Ano had our yogurts ready with soaked apricots and the best-looking berries he could find. Now we had blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. Are they spoiling us or what? We stayed until close to 10am, chatting with Megan for a while. Since tonight was the Morimoto dinner, there would not be any lunch here today.
Shortly after 10am, we had reached Margerie Glacier, which once again did not display any calving. There were a couple of loud cracks, but no results. The Captain turned the ship for all to view the glacier before heading back down into the bay and out of Tarr Inlet where we spotted the sea otters floating by. Once again, the itinerary said we would pass by Johns Hopkins and Lamplugh Glaciers, but we had another surprise of sailing into the inlet, passing Jaw Point on the port side. We did a quick turnaround at Johns Hopkins and went back out sailing by Lamplugh Glacier. This glacier is mostly "dirty" ice with glacial silt and rocks. A small expedition vessel, the Safari Quest, was stopped near the face, and later we saw in our photos that a zodiac had been launched with a couple of guests possibly going for a landing. Lamplugh is 1 mile wide with a 19-mile ice flow to the inlet. The state of Alaska has over 100,000 glaciers reportedly 95% of them thinning, stagnating, or retreating. A trend we suspect is a natural change of events in evolution.
We saw very few birds today, even the common seagulls were not flying in flocks. No cranes or eagles....just a few ducks here and there. We passed Gloomy Knob again at 1:30pm where the exposure was far better with the sun shining on the cliffs. We did see the mountain goats this afternoon, and although there were fewer wildlife sightings, the scenery was stunning. The waters of the bay were smooth as glass with reflections to match.
Passing by the Marble Islands, there were a number of Stellar sea lions resting on the rocks. You really needed good binoculars to see them.
Sitakaday Narrows, near the opening of the bay was reached by 3:30pm. The ranger said it is a very rich area for the otters, seals, and whales. It was also close to where the rangers departed for Bartlett Cove after 4pm. By that time, the temperature had warmed up to 57 degrees. Still cool.
We had an invitation to a cocktail party with the hotel director and a few other guests at 5pm in the Crow's Nest. However, due to ongoing back problems, we had to decline. Still nice to be asked.
We filled out another Canadian declaration form to be turned in tomorrow morning. Then we were off to the Dutch/Orange dinner in the dining room. We had missed the Dutch pea soup at 10:30am, so we looked forward to a bowl of the soup for starters. Worth the wait...it was good. One of us had the bay shrimp cocktail and the other ordered the Westland salad. While we waited for the beef tenderloin entree, we had a visit by Liberty, the nicest assistant maitre'd we met while on last year's fall cruises. Last year, he personally served us hot food every evening. We understand he will be replacing Yudy who will leave the ship soon. There sure have been many changes with the crew this time. Once we get the names memorized, they seem to be departing.
There was a comedy show in the World Stage with Pete Zedlacher. We heard he was funny. Tomorrow we will be in Ketchikan again. Sure hope this streak of good weather follows us.
Bill & Mary Ann
