We saw the glaciers in Alaska and they were magnificent!
Yesterday morning we saw the Hubbard Glacier which is 76 miles long and over 200 feet in depth. The experience was serene and surreal. It is very quiet on this bay which is protected from the wind by large mountains. The glacier of compressed ice looked to be turquoise in color, much like the water around us, loaded with minerals from its scraping of granite and other rocks.
After taking lots of pictures, we decided to just watch, marvel, and wait in hopes of seeing a chunk break off. This is called ‘calving’ and it happened right in front of our eyes. Suddenly, we witnessed a huge block of ice fall straight down, leaving a white trail of stardust falling after it. The ice hit the ocean with great force causing a splash of water that would cause an Olympic diver to get a score of zero! Two to three seconds later, the air filled with the sound of a sharp crack, like a whip, followed by a slamming, rumbling explosion, as the soundwaves finally reached the ship. Here is a wide angle pic of the glacier taken from our boat which was miles away:
The cruise ship slowly entered the bay as far as the local pilot would allow, then over the course of an hour the ship spun around in circles using it side-thrusters. There was a great view from everywhere on the ship and we enjoyed watching most of the action from our stateroom balcony.
This was a great morning. The entire afternoon and evening we cruised north-west to Seward on calm seas, and our last full day aboard ship was relaxing and peaceful.
