. From the Island Princess’ navigator:
Transit through the Glacier Bay 6:00am – Expected to arrive off Bartlett Cove. 8:00am – Queen Inlet (Start of Commentary) 9:45am – Expected to arrive at Margerie Glacier.
11:00am – Expected to depart from Margerie Glacier.
Noon – Expected to arrive at Lamplugh Glacier. 12:30pm – Expected to depart from Lamplugh Glacier.
3:00pm – Expected to depart Bartlett Cove.
Please Note: The above timings are approximate and are subject to change. There will be fewer organized activities today thereby enabling you to view the transit and listen to the commentary by National Park Service Rangers.
Monday 16th July, entering Glacier Bay
The promise of a great day at Glacier Bay had me awake early at 6 am.
And then up in the Horizon Buffet for an early breakfast of egg, ham and cheese muffins. I was then outside on our balcony wrapped up against the cold, watching as the ship entered the misty Bay.
As I watched I spotted these Dall sheep high above us.
In front and behind the Bay was still misty.
We were passing some amazing scenery to our side as we made our way into Glacier Bay. I grabbed a shot of a sea otter and saw my first iceberg.
On Deck 10 forward I watched as we came closer to the Margerie Glacier.
Margerie Glacier in Tarr Inlet
It is difficult to describe just how big the glacier actually is, as the ship for safety reasons, stood some way off. The Margerie Glacier is over a mile wide and over 200 feet high. At the distance from it that we were it didn’t look that big!
Up above we could see where the snow fields were pushing down.
Between the ship and the glacier we could see ‘small’ icebergs.
Here’s a close up of the ice front of the glacier.
The ship drifted along the glacier and we watched as “small’ pieces of ice dropped off into the bay. The Sun was not fully onto the glacier so we were not expecting to see large calving events.
The calving that was taking place was not big enough to cause big waves to effect the ship.
We could also see the other glacier in the Tarr Inlet – The Grand Pacific. This did not look as spectacular as the Margerie.
Margerie Glacier in Tarr Inlet Continued
Everywhere was so quiet that we could hear the glacier cracking and creaking somewhere along its length. Then we would all all turn to see if this noise heralded more calving.
The colours in the ice front fascinated me.
This is the left edge of the glacier.
The Captain had kept the bow and port side facing the glacier and after a good while the ship slowly began to spin so that the starboard side now faced the glacier.
This is when we went back to our cabin’s balcony to watch the glacier some more. From there we could see more ice calving as the ship remained on station.
