{"id":25490,"date":"2026-07-07T02:25:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T06:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=25490"},"modified":"2026-07-07T02:27:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T06:27:24","slug":"glaciers-and-bays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2026\/07\/07\/glaciers-and-bays\/","title":{"rendered":"Glaciers and Bays"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: 60\u00b000’22.3″N 139\u00b031’32.6″W<\/a><\/h6>\n

From Juneau Captain Ward turned the ship back towards the ocean for a couple of \u201cdays at sea\u201d. Days at sea is cruise-speak for periods that do not include tying up and allowing the punters time on dry land. Having cut my milk teeth on trans-Atlantic crossings, when every day is a day at sea, these are my favourite times aboard ship. Having opted out of pricey internet access, our ability to communicate with the rest of the world was limited to times when we had clear line of sight to a cell tower.<\/p>\n

In the Alaskan archipelago, that happens whenever the ship moors up and there are trinkets to buy. The rest of the time, assuming you forgot your satphone, you\u2019re offline. For those of us who spent their formative years without smartphones, this is seemingly less of a burden than for the present generation. The ship had an internal network that provided, among other services, a daily newspaper in four editions, US, British, German, and Australian. Each about eight pages long, half of which covered sports, it meant that you could get a global news round up before your latte went cold.<\/p>\n

Discovery<\/h6>\n

\"HMS<\/a>The principal objectives for our two sea days were Glacier Bay and the Hubbard Glacier. George Vancouver<\/a> visited Glacier Bay in 1794 aboard the Discovery<\/a>. Captain George would have seen peak glacier. At the time of his visit, the whole of the bay was choked with ice. Ever since then the glaciers have been in retreat. 100 years later, John Muir<\/a> (later of Sierra Club fame) found the ice had retreated almost all the way up the bay, a distance of 48 miles. Today 80% of Glacier Bay\u2019s visitors arrive on cruise ships. A few deep-pocketed guests pay a small fortune to board a small power boat for up-close viewing. If they play their cards just right, they might see the Margerie Glacier calving into the bay without getting swamped or crushed by ice.<\/p>\n

Three National Park Service rangers boarded the ship in the early hours of the morning and made presentations and guided us throughout the day. Among other things we learned iceberg terminology<\/a>. A growler is an iceberg less than a metre tall and less that five metres long. A bergy bit is 1 \u2013 4 metres high and 5 \u2013 14 metres long. Then you go up in order from small, medium, large and very large bergs. All the rangers commented on how much ice was in the water.<\/p>\n

Calvin and Jimmy<\/h6>\n

The day had been misty, damp and cool. Seeing the glacier from the bow of the ship was never guaranteed. But as we poked along through the bergy bits and growlers, the skies brightened and the fog lifted just enough for a good, albeit long distance view of the glacier. With a decent pair of binoculars (ones that cost about as much as a powerboat excursion) you can get close enough to get a good sense of what a tidewater glacier is all about.<\/p>\n

The deeply fissured and dense blue wall of frozen water pushes tonnes of rocks and dirt ahead of itself before breaking up in the salty waters of the bay. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve<\/a> covers an area of 3,223,384 acres (13,044.57 km2<\/sup>) and was established in 1925 by Calvin Coolidge. The park was expanded by 523,000 acres by Jimmy Carter in 1978. There are no roads to the park and if you\u2019re not on a cruise ship, you\u2019ll need to charter a boat or an airplane to see it.<\/p>\n

A lone sailboat hung out in the bay and made us wonder if we weren’t crazy enough for the adventure they were having. As we left, the little monohull fell in behind the Queen’s wake, no doubt to miss the bergy bits.<\/p>\n

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