The Hubbard Glacier

On our way up to the Hubbard Glacier in Alaska, we had to travel outside the Inside Passage to Yakutat Bay. I could tell that we were no longer in those protected waters with a little rocking and rolling on the ship, but it wasn't bad. The captain announced that we would be traveling through a particularly narrow area and there was a good chance of seeing some whales. I made my way out and up to the front of the 12th deck to watch and sure enough, we saw three or four whales.

As we entered Yakutat Bay in the morning and made our way up to the glacier, the water changed drastically. It became like a sheet of glass and soon we were seeing chunks of ice floating in the water. It was cold, a bit windy and had that typical Southeast Alaska misty rain for our trip up the Bay, but we stuck it out on deck so we could see it all. The waiters on board were coming around with trays of drinks. Not fruity cocktails with umbrellas, but thermal mugs of hot chocolate into which they could add a shot of Baileys Irish Cream. The first ice we spotted in the water was some bigger icebergs. Most were a beautiful light blue color. The naturalist on board explained that this comes from the ice crystals which make up the glacier absorbing all the colors from the light except blue. These icebergs were also very opaque meaning that they had not been compressed very much when they were part of the glacier.

Coming closer to the glacier, we started seeing many more small bits of ice floating in the water. These became more abundant the closer we got. I did spy one larger piece that was incredibly clear and dark in color. This had apparently been greatly compressed in the glacier. We were told that the ice we were seeing was probably between 200 and 400 years old.

It was very misty and then to the right of our ship, another ship the Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas appeared out of the mist. That was an eerie sight. To the left was the Turner Glacier and shortly after it came into view, it stopped raining and the sun was shining way up on the glacier. Every once in a while we would hear a crack that sounded like gunfire in the silence around us. We soon found out that the sound we were hearing were chunks of the massive glacier calving off.

Then straight ahead was the Hubbard Glacier. We were told that it is six miles across it's base. It was massive. We got as close as was safe and could certainly see multiple calvings. We could see huge slabs of ice breaking off and violently splashing into the bay. Right after seeing this begin, we heard the gunshot sound that accompanied it.

I have mostly cruised in warmer waters, and this was amazing to me seeing all the ice in the water. The surface was very calm and rippled ice and all with any disturbance.

The captain sent out one of the lifeboats and the crew was able to snag a fairly large piece of the ice which was brought on board and put in an aft swimming pool for all to see and touch.

As we headed back out of the bay, I reluctantly returned inside the ship to dry off and warm up. I couldn't believe how much time I had spent out on deck to see this glacier, but it is truly one of the most awesome things I have ever seen. The captain then pointed the ship toward Alaska's capitol, Juneau.