Valdez, Alaska – Sunday, July 31, 2011
Today we are off on a 9 hour cruise. The weather is not optimum for viewing mountains, but we’re looking down for whales, seals, otters and stuff. It’s overcast, cold and a bit windy with rain predicted, but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. The bus picked us up at the RV Park at 9am. We have every layer of clothes we brought with us because at the base of the Glaciers it’s only about 40 degrees. Down to the harbor and onto the Valdez Spirit catamaran.
Lots of other activities in the harbor.
We started out on the top deck of the boat and ventured into the bridge to check it out.
On our way out, we can see the oil storage tanks at the pipeline terminal.
It doesn’t take long for us to spot some wildlife. A raft of sea otters just floating around. Then some juvenile Steller sea lions hanging out on a buoy.
The scenery is really beautiful as we make our way out to the glaciers.
Our intended course was to be on the outside of Glacier Island, but as we got into more open waters it became clear it would be too rough, so we stayed on the inside. We did have some good wave action even on our new course. As we made our approach into Meares the water turned a different color and it became much calmer.
And before long we were rewarded with some spectacular icebergs. The boat was able to get really close and you could hear them crackle.
The captain brought the boat up really close to the glacier. He said it was a quarter mile away, but it sure seemed closer. We were into the slush of ice and you could hear it against the boat bottom. It was definitely colder here and of course it was raining, but what a sight.
We stayed outside for at least an hour as we waited to experience a calving of the glacier. You could see all kinds of cracks and areas that looked like they were ready to fall. We heard lots of gunshots like sounds and loud rumbling. A few small areas dropped off, and then finally a large piece went. It was so quick, that the picture only shows the splash, but it was great and worth the wait.
We were chilled to the bone, but enjoyed every minute. We went inside to sit and warm up. They had coffee, hot tea and hot chocolate always available. We were served a nice lunch (chicken Alfredo over rice with veggies and roll) earlier. And later we are having a bowl of clam chowder. They are very accommodating. The boat will hold 150 people but they only like to take 130 and today we only had 48 people, so lots of room.
Since we didn’t get to go on the outside of Glacier Island, we had some extra time. The captain took us up into Columbia Bay to see if we could spot any other wildlife. And his hunch paid off. Seals and Orca whales.
All in all a great trip. We were tired, but had another great adventure.
| BG Miles Today | 0 | BG Total Miles | 5880 |
| Eat Out total $ | 512.63 | BG Total Fuel $ | 3099.16 |
| Entertainment total $ | 421.52 | Total Camping $ | 758.75 |
| E Miles Today | 0 | E Total Miles | 1880 |
| E Total Fuel $ | 387.19 | Day # of Trip | 61 |
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