Ice Berg, Dead Ahead!

On Tuesday, we left The Gulf Of Alaska and headed towards Glacier Bay. In the morning, a small National Park Service boat transferred park rangers and a native Tlingit culture interpreter to the Statendam.

Margerie Glacier

Holland America’s ms Westerdam

National Geographic’s Sea Lion

Hazel & The Glacier

Jeff & A Mew Gull

As we neared the Margerie tide water glacier, the sea water took on a tropical teal look. We spotted Holland America’s ms Westerdam on it’s way out of the bay. National Geographic’s Sea Lion was in the bay at the same time us. The weather was cold and misting as we floated amongst mini icebergs. We saw the glacier calve several times. Although the chunks of ice that fell into the water were relatively small, they created thunderous claps that echoed across the otherwise silent bay. We spent close to two hours in front of the glacier.

Before leaving the glacier area, our cruise director and over 30 brave individuals took part in the Polar Bear Plunge. Participants dove into the heated outdoor pool where they stayed for two minutes. At that point they had to jump out of the pool, clad in only their swimsuits and stand in the bitter cold glacier-cooled air. Hazel and I were not crazy enough to take part in this ritual and just looked on as spectators.

As our ship headed out of Glacier Bay, Hazel and I went down to The Mix, one of the bars on board, to play Pub Trivia. This was a brain-stimulating event that we attended several times during our trip. We almost won.

Later that evening while killing some time in the library area, we witnessed a full breach of small grey whale, less than 100 feet from the ship. It was amazing to see this so close to the ship. Unfortunately, this happened so quickly I was not able to get a good photo of it.

Comedian and impressionist, Jeff Burghart provided the evenings entertainment. His ADHD-fueled antics included spot-on immitations of our ships captain and Jack Nicholson.

After The comedy show, we headed up to the Crow’s Nest. This large top-floor bar and meeting spot provides pabormic views of the front and sides of the ship. Here we played a game of “Name That Tune” and then started to watch karaoke.