Trip Journal - 7 day Alaskan Explorer on Westerdam

[NoobCruise]

As we sailed away, we saw what those on the bow saw on the way in. The majestic beauty of the towering glaciers flowing into the sea side by side is an image that will stay with me.

 

 

429 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

436 Margery Glacier and Grand Pacific Glacier by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

 

One of our sister ships, the Statendam, sailed in as we sailed out, and I got some great shots of the cruise ship dwarfed by the glacier.

 

 

449 the MS Statendam sailing in by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

453 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

We headed towards Johns Hopkins Bay, the sun shining bright and flashing off the water. We passed several smaller glaciers along the way, each beautiful in their own right. We also passed where a glacier had receded back from the tide water, leaving a fanned swath of mountain cleared away.

 

 

 

442 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

462 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

This is probably the size of a Volkswagon Beetle lol

 

 

472 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

The downside of being on our balcony at the back of the ship was we couldn't hear the park ranger's talk. It was on the speakers on the deck directly above us in the Sea View area, but we couldn't hear clearly what they were saying. So I'm not sure what many of these smaller glaciers are. They're between Margery Glacier and Johns Hopkins.

 

 

478 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

481 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

Alaska Cruise_20120904_120117 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

The closer to Johns Hopkins w got, the more ice flows and slushy the water became

 

494 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

As we chugged down the channel towards Johns Hopkins, the temps started to drop. The sun was still shining bright, but when we walked to the side balcony, we stepped into a strong cold wind that I can only imagine was bone chilling on the bow. We were protected from that icy knife in our little cove on the back of the ship. We kept peaking around the side towards the bow, watching in awe as Johns Hopkins came into view, then stepping back out of the wind to warm up lol The closer we got to Johns Hopkins the more stunned we were. This glacier blew all my expectations out of the water as we stood facing the mile wide, 250ft high, 12 mile long wall of ice.

 

 

497 Our first glimpse of Johns Hopkins Glacier by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

For a size reference, that little boat up there is a National Geographic Expeditions cruise ship.

 

502a Johns Hopkins with boat by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

Much smaller than our ship. There was a lot of cheering, waving and whistling back and forth lol

 

529 National Geographic Expedition Cruise by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

(I’m going to change to present tense here deliberately because I think it makes a bigger impact, so forgive my grammar offense lol)

 

The beautiful blues, browns and whites curve gracefully and majestically down the canyon. The view of the glacier is just mind-blowing. There’s a peacefulness and calmness across the water that is surreal. Then suddenly, as the ice of the glacier cracks, there’s a thunderous crackling that you can FEEL as it echoes through the walls of the fjord. It sounds much like a thunderstorm in the mountains. Sometimes it comes from further back in the glacier, a mysterious monster roar echoing behind the wall of ice. Sometimes it’s at the face, where we’re rewarded with a shower of ice that falls to the sea.

 

At first, only small areas calve. We’re transfixed, fascinated, thinking we’re getting a great show. Then a little more crumbles…..And a little more…. We start to comprehend that what we’re seeing is like birthing pains, just the beginning. We realize maybe we’re only seeing hints of what’s to come. We wait in anticipation, as a huge area is slowly undermined and eroded. There’s crackling coming from the front and from places hidden behind the jutting face that echo across the sky. Then an enormous boom explodes as building sized chunks of ice break off the glacier face and fall to the water, stunning us all. Cheers ring out as the ice crashes into the sea and creates a splash that shoots outward in a majestic arc. There’s stunned amazement as a huge wave rises from the submerging chunk and rolls towards us, rocking our 82,000 ton ship. We’re amazed and awed, moved…. and somehow changed.

 

 

Quick reminder of size perspective. The entire circled area on the right is going to go.

 

 

 

502 Johns Hopkins with boat copy by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

These two links will take you to our Flikr albums for the glacier calving sequences. Each link has a sequence of 138 pics. Select full screen mode! That seems like a lot of pics, but I want you to click through them very rapidly, like a video in slow motion. They're worth it! Hopefully your internet is fast enough to handle the large images.

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rescue-diver/7986621325/in/set-72157631536760184/lightbox/

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NoobCruise]

Ok, last sequence. It's only 66 photos

 

 

You can see as our afternoon waned on, we were quite bundled up in our layers again. It was downright cold lol I was so glad I took my tri-climate jacket!

 

572 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

Alaska Cruise_20120904_160344 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

As we sailed out of Johns Hopkins Bay, we were treated to the panoramic view of the glacier that we missed coming in

 

578 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

Our sister ship the Statendam sailed in to the glacier as we sailed away.

 

588 the MS Statendam sails into Johns Hopkins by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

594 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

598 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

599 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

601 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

Somehow, as we sailed our way back out of Glacier Bay, we felt a very self-satisfied sense of accomplishment. I don’t know why that was lol Maybe because we were lucky enough to witness something so grand. It was humbling. We stayed on our balcony until the sun was setting, drinking in every drop of beauty. The sun slid quietly back behind the clouds before sliding down behind the mountains, oddly dull on this night.

 

627 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

638 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

653 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

653 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

Tell hubby I said great pics. He should get Adobe Lightroom 4 so he can edit and catalog his new pics and then set up a smugmug account. You can direct import from Lightroom into Smugmug and it's much easier. You can make some nice edits to your images in in lightroom. Lots easier than Photoshop.

 

He's already ordered Lightroom lol just waiting for it to be delivered

 

All most all of these are my pics though with my little powershot. I threw in just a few of his. The glacier calving sequences our all his though.

[Assateague Island Princes]

One word - SPECTACULAR!!!

 

Loving your review, NoobCruiser, your words bring back all the feelings and emotions I too felt when first sailing the glaciers of Alaska. While I love Glacier Bay, for the sheer size and magnitude, Hubbard Glacier holds my heart. Alaska is just a magical place, filled with wonder for all ages and all types of people - you can't help but be mesmerized by what you are seeing. And your commentary sums it up beautifully. Keep up the GREAT work - can't wait for more!

[Rebel54]

Lightroom is awesome. He will love it. If he ever has any questions, he's welcome to shout at me! Even your powershot photos can go in there. You can make photo books and have them printed from Lightroom.

 

Awesome photos! I'm getting more and more excited!!!!

 

ONE WEEK!

[NoobCruise]

We woke up the next morning sailing in to Sitka. We were in port from 7am to 3pm. DH and I loved this little town with all the little islands sprinkled around the bay and the rainforest that surrounds the town. This is a tender port because there is no pier for the big ships to dock at. So they dropped some of the life boats in the water and ferried us back and forth to shore. We didn’t have anything booked for Sitka. We just planned to grab a taxi or bus out to the Raptor Center and the Alaskan Historical Park. There’s a little info kiosk when you walk off the dock. They told us that we could grab the bus right there at the curb, but the next one wasn’t for about 30 minutes. So we crossed the street and walked up to a look out for the views.

 

 

656 Sitka by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

657 the Westerdam from shore by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

658 Tender boats by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

659 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

After that, we decided not to wait for the bus. I had printed out a map of Sitka from the internet, but we didn’t really need it. You just turn right and start walking down along the harbor and when the road turns there are clear signs to the Historical Park and Raptor Center.

 

 

 

We passed some of the shops in town en route, and look! We found DH some undies to match the ones for me that we saw in Juneau! OK, we didn't actually buy them lol but we got a good laugh. I bet they're a hot seller for a quirky Alaskan souvenir lol

 

 

662 Found DH some undies too! by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

The walk along the harbor was very scenic. Notice our clothing in this pic. I’m just wearing my REI dry-weave top and my polar tech fleece pants. I was very comfortable for the weather. My north face jacket, both fleece and shell, and rain pants (just in case) were in my backpack.

 

 

 

 

664 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

The route takes you right by the fish hatchery. We didn’t go in, but we did take a little detour to walk out to the creek that goes from the harbor in to the hatchery and the salmon were running pretty thick.

 

 

 

671 the Sitka fish hatchery by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

They were just crawling over each other trying to get in. We’ve both been to fish hatcheries before, actually used to live near Hetch Hetchy, so we weren’t interested in touring it.

 

 

 

674 The creek was crawling with salmon by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

We headed to the Raptor Center first, so the trail takes you through part of the Historical Park. We stopped right in front of the Visitor Center for photos with the totem poles

 

 

680 totem poles by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

The walk through the rainforest was beautiful! We love to get out and hike so we enjoyed the walk. From the pics, it looks so peaceful and quiet, serene, but it’s actually very loud lol There are birds in the trees that squock and twitter in a raucous cacophony, and the closer you get to the river, the louder it becomes as the river contributes.

 

 

682 loved the rainforest! by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

 

You cross a little bridge over a river to get to the Raptor Center and the salmon were running thick.

 

 

684 the river was thick with salmon by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

685 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

You could just reach in and grab one if you wanted.

 

 

688 you could reach in and grab one if you wanted lol by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

Once we arrived at the Raptor Center, they took us on a little tour, then gave a little talk/demonstration inside. They rescue and rehabilitate birds. Their focus is raptors, but they’ll rescue any bird that needs it. If possible, they’ll release them back to the wild. Some they have to keep. You can see the beak on this one is deformed so she can’t eat very well and would have a hard time surviving on her own, so she will live out her life at the center and be used to help educate.

 

 

696 At the raptor center by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

 

The raptor center is not very big, so it didn’t take very long to do the tour.

 

 

704 Bald Eagle by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

705 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

710 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

714 snowy owl by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

718 baby! by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

We followed some trails that went around the center.

 

 

693 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

723 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

 

These were some wicked looking mushrooms along the side of the trail. It’s a little blurry, but they look cool anyway.

 

 

 

729 wicked mushrooms by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

This is some fungus that was growing on the trees. I like the droplets on it. It hadn't been raining at all while we were walking around. It's just that damp.

 

 

731 tree fungus by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

Then we headed back to the Historical Park, through more rainforest.

 

735 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

739 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

758 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

I wanted to see the Tlinget Native Dancers show at the clan community house, which was at 12:15, so we skipped the visitor center and headed back to town. It started drizzling a little along the way, so I pulled the outer shell of my jacket on. We arrived at the community house just in time for the show. I took a few shots, but my camera doesn’t do well with action shots or dim light.

 

771 Tlinget Native Dancers by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

791 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

792 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

798 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

In all honesty, after seeing it, I kind of wished we'd done something else with our time. It was interesting and beautiful, but it felt more like a stage production then what I was expecting. Also, my mom is a genealogist and historian, and as a child we traveled all over the US stopping at most of the major historical sites. After seeing many many native dance performances, I think we would have preferred doing something different, maybe something more unique to Sitka.

 

If you've never been to a native dance performance, you will probably enjoy it.

[NoobCruise]

We headed back to the ship after that. We had planned on going to Redhots Reindeer hot dog cart to try some reindeer sausage for lunch, but I have a really bad back and all the walking and constant standing during whale watching and all day in glacier bay was taking its toll, so we headed back to the ship a little early, around 1 pm.

 

It was really drizzling some rain for our walk back. We passed this truck on our way back to the tender boats and I couldn’t resist a shot of these cute guys.

 

 

802 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

803 tendering back to the ship by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

806 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

We ate some lunch, then went back to our cabin and hung out on our balcony for sail away. We were actually about a half hour late setting sail. The cruise director made an announcement that we were late because there were about 30 passengers (a bus load) that weren’t back yet. It must have been a ship excursion because we waited.

 

It was rainy as we set sail, and as we sailed out, the fog quickly closed in. I personally love fog. It makes an average area seem mystical, even more so for a beautiful island-studded bay.

 

 

810 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

816 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

817 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

822 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

824 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

830 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

 

[NoobCruise]

It wasn't long until we were enshrouded in fog. Every so often, we could hear a fog horn blow, adding to the mystery. To me, there's something about fog that creates a quiet intimacy, a hushed ambiance. I love it.

 

845 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

At this point, we started considering our excursion for Ketchikan. We were booked for the Mountaintop Flight Seeing and Crab Feed. DH admitted he was re-thinking that excursion. As much as he loves crab, he figured we'd have more fun on a longer flight seeing tour. The flight part of the Mountaintop Flight Seeing and Crab Feed is only 25 minutes long. We discussed running down to the Neptune Lounge to see if we could switch to a Misty Fjords flight, which was more like 2 1/2 to 3 hours long.

 

However, we also considered the weather. Our Tracy Arm excursion had been cancelled and we figured with the weather, the flight seeing tours in Ketchikan would be cancelled too. We guessed that if the Mountaintop tour was cancelled, they would probably put us on the Wilderness Exploration boats that took you out to the crab feed. We decided not to bother changing the flight part and went to dinner.

[Rebel54]

Don't stop! I'm loving it :) Almost as good as being there.

[NoobCruise]

In Alaska, never assume your weather in one port or at night will have ANYTHING to do with weather in the next port or the next morning. We should have taken the time to change our excursion to the Misty Fjord Flight Seeing because as we walked out on our balcony, we both said "Aw man! Should have booked Misty Fjord!" It was a beautiful sunny day! We arrived in port at 7am and we wore jeans and short sleeved tshirt with fleece jacket, but shed the jacket very early!

 

846 We woke to a beautiful day in Ketchikan by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

The few puffy clouds out were a little inland. The coast line was all clear.

 

847 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

850 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

We boarded a van to head to the "airport".

 

853 We boarded buses to the "airport" by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

856 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

[NoobCruise]

We are ready to go! Have to laugh at my photos! You can see from the start of the cruise to the end I'm getting more and more tired because we were just so busy! But we enjoyed ourselves every moment!

 

861 ready to get on our plane by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

863 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

864 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

The planes are so small they have to make sure the weight is evenly distributed for safety, so they ask your weight, then assign seats accordingly. DH got to be co-pilot!

 

866 DH makes a good co-pilot by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

867 (2) by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

We LOVED the flight! IT was such a beautiful day and the scenery was breath-taking! I REALLY wish we had skipped the crab feed and 25 minute flight and done the Misty Fjord excursion which was 2 1/2 to 3 hrs.

 

Take off time! (that's the Zuiderdam setting sail as we took off)

 

881 taking off by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

Here's another tip: If you do a float plane tour on a sunny day, don't wear white or light colors because they cause a lot of glare and reflection off the windows and that messes up photos. I had my white fleece jacket on in the beginning, but quickly shed it for my black tshirt, which helped a lot, except the woman behind me had on white for the whole flight. I had a lot of photos that would have been terrific except for the window reflections, so I'm not even going to post them. Here's a few that weren't so bad:

 

891 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

893 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

894 (2) by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

908 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

921 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

[NoobCruise]

929 window glare by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

934 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

Looking back at port:

 

937 Port of Ketchikan by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

942 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

951 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr

 

952 by Rescue-Diver, on Flickr