Live review with pics, HAL Oosterdam Vancouver 5/24 - Seward 5/31/2015

[cl.klink]

Thanks everyone for nice comments. Sorry have not answered each one (time and Internet access limited!).

 

Goodnight!

 

- Joel

 

 

 

 

 

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[Krazy Kruizers]

Loving your review and pictures.

Your weather looks wonderful.

[Himself]

Great pictures in Ketchikan. Have a good day in Juneau.

[pepsigirl64]

:D A Gorgeous day in Ketchikan, Thanks for sharing.

[Tights]

Thank you for sharing, feel like I am with you

Happy travels

[BSR]

Enjoyed your review and pictures! I'm looking forward to our sailing in September.☺

Edited May 28, 2015 by BSR

[St Pete Cruiser]

Thanks for sharing great pics of the Oosterdam. Have friends on the Ruby Princess which has been in port with you...they also forwarded pics of the O'dam as they know I will be on it June 28. I'm glad you are enjoying it as I hope to do as well.

[cl.klink]

Thanks for sharing great pics of the Oosterdam. Have friends on the Ruby Princess which has been in port with you...they also forwarded pics of the O'dam as they know I will be on it June 28. I'm glad you are enjoying it as I hope to do as well.

 

 

The excursion I went on yesterday had passengers from a Ruby with us! The ship was behind us in viewing distance all evening / night long!

- Joel

[erewhon]

Thanks for sharing your super photos.

[cl.klink]

Very dramatic day.

 

Set out on our only HAL-booked excursion for this trip, leaving as soon as the ship's gangway opened. Booked Tracy Arm fjord cruise, a whopping 7-8 hour excursion (we're in Juneau 13 hours altogether). Sailing down the channel of water bordering Juneau, Gastineau Channel, we then entered the larger water way of "Stephens Passage," heading south. Sailed alongside the temperate rainforest of the Tsongass, already touched in Ketchikan. The forest (though by different name) actually extends to my native Oregon, I'm told.

 

On the way, two firsts (though more to come).

 

 

 

 

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[cl.klink]

First first, I saw a humpback whale in the wild. Couldn't get a picture in time, but saw the spout, then the serpent like shiny smoothness of its back gracefully sliding up over the surface, ending with its tail extending up in the air before knifing cleanly back into still water. Felt like a celebrity sighting. Until you see it live, feels like a story more than something real.

 

Second, I saw my first iceberg. Stunningly blue and seeming more like terra firms then solidified water, it too seemed as if from a movie set. Birds perched on it are waiting for bugs caught in the ice for 100s of years, and when the melt makes the critters accessible, the birds will eat them. This I was able to photograph.

 

 

After 60-90 minutes of sailing, entered the Tracy Arm area.

 

 

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[cl.klink]

Entering Tracy Arm fjord is entering another world. This is a glacier sculpted area. The whole region was glacier sculpted. The process pulverized everything but granite. What's left is just rock. A long time till trees can grow and still the topsoil is fairly thin in a his whole area of the world. All the more so here, where the glacier for the Tracey arm has been retreating for just centuries. Before that, a mile or two of ice was crushing down, before melting away in last mini ice age a few thousand years ago. As we sailed in, fewer trees therefore, with water from ok melting snows pouring down rock walls like a spilt drink down kitchen cabinets. The place feels like a completely new way to have geology on the planet.

 

Weather turned cold and rainy and for first time I needed my rain gear, gloves, winter hat and ear muffs. In an hour it was sunny and warm though.

 

 

 

 

 

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[cl.klink]

More and more floating ice debris, testimony to a glacier nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

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[cl.klink]

Then, my first glacier. Sawyer glacier was still one face in the 1800s before more retreat left two separate faces. This is the north part of Sawyer glacier. About 800 years ago this was snow. Time and gravity pressure from more snow pushed almost all oxygen out. The blue is because other wavelengths of light are absorbed. There was a car size chunk of ice calving with a loud crack as we arrived, as if to welcome us. Caught the splash in 1st 2 photos below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[cl.klink]

Then off to south Sawyer glacier. This is 3/4 mile wide. There is a 20 passenger or so boat in some of the photos to the left, helping to put it in perspective. Seals were sun bathing on the floating ice and bergs. Seals like it here; orcas can't hunt them well here because the turbid water makes it hard to see or use echolocation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[cl.klink]

And then, it happened. I caught a massive calving on video (link to follow later), complete with tsunami rocking the whole bay. The ice that fell was the size of a 4 story building. Thrilling. The planet is a dynamic changing place and this event, indeed the whole area, let me experience a bit of that process up close and personal.

 

I left Tracy Arm fjord a changed human. I have seen a hump back whale surface and flash its tail. I have seen an iceberg. I have seen a glacier. I have seen a building-sized chunk of the planet recycle itself in a massive calving. I have seen glacier carved granite fjords.

 

I could not say these things before today.

 

- Joel

 

 

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[bjarrett7]

Thank you for your magical review! I don't have as many cruises under my belt but I also sailed Celebrity first. Totally agree with the wow factor vs serene. Would love to hear more of your thoughts about that...

Glad you are enjoying your cruise and Alaska! We will be cruising to Alaska for the first time in August so I am savoring every word of your review!!!

[luvteaching]

Good morning,

 

Thank you for posting the pictures from the Tracy Arm excursion. We did it 2 years ago and I totally share your feelings. Wasn't it incredible to up that close and personal with the glacier? We had a misty day but loved every minute of it. The difference for us is that we were in Tracy Arm the day before on the Oosterdam and then went in the small boat. What a contrast and totally awe inspiring.

 

Karen

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks to your wonderful pictures, I feel like I am right there experiencing the ship rock when there is a massive calving.

[hcij2015]

Wonderful photos.

Thanx so much for sharing.

[Vict0riann]

I am enjoying your cruise very much, and it's making me very anxious to be leaving on ours in 2 weeks! (on the Volendam out of Vancouver.) Your photographs are amazing.

 

Are you finding it very buggy?

[Himself]

Great pictures!

[mykindaparty]

Saving my place....[emoji572]️[emoji305][emoji568][emoji224][emoji225][emoji227][emoji3]

[cl.klink]

Internet was down all of yesterday and poor cell coverage in Skagway. It just came back on. Will update soon but right now on deck enjoying Glacier Bay!

 

- Joel

 

 

 

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[cl.klink]

Delayed report for Thursday 5/28/2015.

 

Again unseasonably warm and sunny, started day in mid 50s and was sunny and clear, temp v well into 70s later. Walked into town after another room service breakfast. (BTW room service has been excellent and better than we experienced on Celebrity x 3.) Shopped for souvenirs and learned more about this town. Served a key role in 1898 gold rush as a port of access with train and trails leading to the Yukon from here. Was a boom town with the largess of profit from services, both illicit and proper, to the gold rush fortune hunters. Now is a place of <1000 permanent residents, and is mainly for tourism. Still is anchor point to a national park that focuses on the beautiful land and the gold rush historical era.

 

Very visitable tiny town, can walk it end to end in not much time. There is a quaintness to it, though tourist traps abound. Below is a pic of Broadway street in late 1890s and below that I tried to take pic from same angle today, with some of same buildings present.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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