Alaska Summer Solstice Cruise - Cruising Hubbard Glacier

Cruise Day 5

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Once again, we woke up to mostly sunny skies, a very good sign for us as this area has a reputation for foggy weather.  The scenery was spectacular with very tall snowcapped mountains rising up from the shoreline, with dense forests and rocky slopes below the snowline.  We sailed into the large Yakutat Bay, and we could see the Hubbard Glacier off in the distance 35 miles away.

The red marker is Hubbard Glacier.

We sailed into Yakutat Bay.  The white area at the end is the Hubbard Glacier. The smaller bay near the Hubbard Glacier is called Disenchantment Bay named because of the disappointment felt when in 1792, a Spanish ship looking for the legendary Northwest Passage was disappointed to find another dead end.

Here is a description of the Hubbard Glacier from Google: “The Hubbard Glacier is North America's largest tidewater glacier. It is 76 miles long, 7 miles wide and 600 feet tall at its terminal face (350 feet exposed above the waterline and 250 feet below the waterline)”.

Even though this is a cruising only day and the ship won’t be docking, there will be a boat meeting the ship and about 100 of us who were lucky enough to book this excursion will get off the ship and onto this boat that will take us very close to the Hubbard Glacier. Since neither the small boat or the ship will be at a dock, it's called a "mid-sea transfer". The ship is limited as to how close it can get to the glacier, but the smaller boat can get within a half mile.

We again had a leisurely morning as the boat wouldn’t be picking us up until eleven.  It was very cold out on our balcony, so we dressed very warmly wearing several layers of clothing and coats.  As we got nearer to the Glacier, we could see there was a Celebrity cruise ship there, but they were on their way out.

The coastline is spectacular with the snow capped mountain seeming to rise right out of the ocean.

Our first view of the Hubbard Glacier.  We are probably around 30 miles away right now; that gives you an idea of just how massive this glacier is.

As we got nearer we could see there was another cruise ship ahead of us.

They were on their way out and we passed them as we drew closer.

When the time came, it was very easy to board the boat as there was a gangway that went from the ship right onto the boat.  It was a pretty big boat with three decks with plenty of seating inside as well as outside deck viewing areas.  As usual, Val and I headed out to the outside decks where we spent almost the whole time.

Boarding the boat that would take us closer to the Hubbard Glacier.

We're on our way.

 

This is how far away the Glacier was as we left the ship, but we'll be getting much closer.

It wasn’t as cold as expected, except when the boat was going at a faster rate to make time, but other than that, we were quite comfortable the entire time.  The scenery in this area was just incredible, as I said before, there were snowcapped mountains coming down to the water’s edge and now we were getting very near the glacier that was spectacular by itself.

Looking back we left the ship far behind.

As we drew near Hubbard Glacier we could see a large group of sea lions on the rocks around the shore.  Unlike what we are used to at home, these sea lions were very active and very noisy.  As I said, the glacier itself was quite spectacular and the boat cruised along the face, turning at times to give us different points of view.  Looking back, you could see our ship in the distance as it made its way back out.  

 

Because of its immense size, it felt like we were very close, but we were actually a half mile away because it was unsafe to be closer due to the danger of the glacier calving (large chunks of ice breaking off and falling into the ocean).  We were surprised that we actually saw (and heard) quite a bit of the calving going on, it was amazing.   We would hear a very loud crack and everyone would be scanning the face of the glacier to see where the calving was.  It was very difficult trying to get pictures of it as there was just no way of knowing when or where it would happen.  Val caught a couple of them but we won’t know how well they turned out until we look at the pictures when we get back. 

It turns out Val got a great sequence of a glacier calving.  The darker area in the middle of a picture is a huge hunk of ice already starting to fall.  Keep in mind that the glacier is over 200 feet high above the waterline so the chunk that broke away is probably over 50 feet high.  Follow the sequence below as the pieces hit the water causing a huge splash almost halfway up the face of the glacier.

This tour is only two hours long and too soon it was time to get back to the ship.  The ship was on its way out, but we caught up and the boat’s captain did a great job of maneuvering into position and matching the ship’s speed until it could tie off and attach the gangplank.  It was quite a maneuver, but she had probably done this many times, but we were impressed.  We loved this tour, and it will probably end up being one of our favorites of the trip.  Being able to get so close to a glacier is something you can’t do on a big ship, so this was great.

Time to be on our way back leaving the Hubbard Glacier behind.

 

The ship is out there somewhere around the bend.

The captain uses the deck controls to maneuver the boat next to the ship.

With every one off, our tour boat heads to the small village of Yakutat, their base for the tourist season.  They said they have a house there where the whole crew stays.

We got back on board and immediately went to lunch and then I spent the afternoon downloading our pictures and writing up the blog for the last two days.  After that, we relaxed until dinner.  We had a good dinner and spent our time in the casino before calling it a night.  Our next port is Valdez, but we won't be arriving until noon so we will have another leisurely morning.

Alaska Summer Solstice Cruise - Sitka, Alaska

Cruise Day 4

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Today we are in Sitka.  Sitka is located on Baranof Island and the only way to get there is by boat or plane.  There is ferry service available to a lot of these small isolated towns via the Alaskan Marine Highway, but if you bring your car, the only roads are in the town and surrounding area.   Sitka is a very old town and was part of Russia until 1867 when the US purchased Alaska from Russia and Sitka became the first capital of Alaska.  Today it has a population of around 8400, but by total area, it is the largest city in the US.  Its primary industry is fishing, but it is also a very popular cruise ship port as evidenced by the three cruise ships visiting today.  For more in depth information on Sitka here is a link to Wikipedia.

Sitka is located on an island accessible only by sea or air.

When we woke up this morning we were sailing into Sitka and happily, the sun was shining, a nice change from rainy Ketchikan.  This will all be new to us as this is our first visit to Sitka.  The sail in was picturesque with small, forested islands in the harbor area and snow capped mountains towering above the town.

A closer look at Sitka.  In the middle upper part of the picture you can see a bridge that goes to a smaller island from Sitka.  Just under the right end of that bridge is where the tenders docked.

As we sailed towards Sitka we saw a huge Royal Caribbean ship also heading towards Sitka.

 

Today is a tender port which is a little disappointing, but as we found out later it is probably for the best as the docking area is five miles out of town and the tenders will drop us off right in the middle of town.

We have a ship’s tour today, but it doesn’t leave until 10:45, so we didn’t have to rush around to get ready and were able to do our normal morning routine.  Because of having to tender ashore, we had to meet a half hour early in the World Stage (the ship’s main theater) to check in with our tour group.  After a short wait, our tour group number was called, and we headed off to the tenders.  It actually took longer to load the tender than it did to get to shore as it was a very short distance.

This is the area where the tenders docked.

Our tour today is called "Alaska Raptor Center and Sea Otter Quest".  When we got to shore, we were directed to a bus that took us to the Alaska Raptor Center where they take in injured raptors and nurse them back to health and if they are able, release them back into the wild.  The Raptor Center mainly works with eagles and owls, and we saw many of them in an inside area where they were nursed back to health.  There was also an outdoor habitat for raptors that weren't able to be returned to the wild.

Eagles in the outdoor habitat.  These eagles will never be able to return to the wild.

From the Raptor Center, we were taken back to the harbor where a boat was waiting to take us on our wildlife quest.  We expected to be taken into some inlets and along the shoreline, but we actually went out among some of the various islands in the harbor area.  The scenery was very beautiful, but the wildlife was less interesting for us as it was mainly sea otters and sea lions and for us living in the Central Coast area of California, seeing sea otters and sea lions is very common.  

The view from the boat dock.

We're off on our wildlife quest.  You can see the tenders under the right end of the bridge.  The boat dock what a short walk to the tenders.

The Westerdam off in the distance.

Some sea lions snoozing on the buoy.

We did have one exciting time though, as the boat found an area where there was some gray whale activity.  We could see them spouting and sometimes saw their backs or their tails, but no breaching.  We stayed there quite a while, but the word was out and soon there were many other boats in the area, and that, unfortunately, seemed to cause the whales to move on as we didn’t see any more action.

It was time to head back anyway, and on the way back we passed the docks where two other cruise ships were and saw that they were quite a way out of town.  It’s a tradeoff I guess, they had the convenience of just being able to walk off the ship, but they couldn’t easily walk into town, whereas we had to go through the hassle of taking a tender in, but once ashore, we were right in the center of town.  We enjoyed our tour today, but it wasn’t one of our most memorable ones and although we were grateful for the sunshine, it was quite cold out on the boat with the wind blowing and there was also quite a bit of spray when the boat was going fast.  It was nice and warm in the boat’s cabin area, but Val and I prefer to be outside for better viewing  and taking pictures so we did get a little chilly.

Time to head back to Sitka.

 

We passed where the other ships were docked and were glad we tendered even though it was inconvenient as this was quite a ways out of town.  The ship in the foreground is the Royal Caribbean ship we saw this morning.

We got back to the ship around 3:00 and were very hungry so after dropping our things in our cabin, we made our way to the Lido for a late lunch.  After lunch, I downloaded our pictures and backed everything up and then relaxed until dinner.  It had clouded up and even rained a little since the end of our tour, so we were lucky our tour was in the morning.

We sail away from Sitka, the weather wasn't nearly as nice as when we arrived.

Val and I always opt for fixed late dining, and that means we always sit at the same table and have the same waiters every night and have dinner at 7:30.  We like to get to know our waiters and that they get to know our likes and dislikes.  We were less than happy with the table location we had been assigned as it is against a wall quite a ways away from any windows so it is a little dark.  This morning we asked Lorraine, the Neptune Lounge Concierge, if she could get a different table for us closer to a window.  She was able to do that and tonight we’ll see where our table is.

When it was time for dinner, we went to the dining room and asked the maître de where our new table assignment was, and he led us to a table that was almost next to a window.  I say almost because one side is next to the window and the other side is near an emergency door out to the deck, but no complaints as we feel lucky to get this table after everything had already been assigned.  We met our new waiters, Aris and Hendri, and they seemed very nice, and we liked them better than the waiters at our previous table, so we won on two counts.

We weren’t very hungry as we didn’t finish our lunch until after four, so we only had an appetizer and dessert.  After dinner it was off to the casino where I once again went through my day’s allotment quickly.  After her big win yesterday, Val lingered around the casino longer than I did, but she couldn’t repeat her winning ways of yesterday.

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is the music venue, The Rolling Stone Lounge.  We pass by it every night and sometimes stop to listen as they have a very good band.  They do three sets a night usually with a different theme – funk, R&B, 70’s rock, unplugged, disco, etc.  The theme isn’t always to our liking, but the music is always very good.

Tomorrow we are cruising by Hubbard Glacier, so it will be like a sea day, but we actually have do a ship excursion booked.