Day 5 - sail by Hubbard Glacier

We had a quick walk around Skagway, once we were back & off the ferry. Not a furkini in sight...thank goodness!

Brilliantly sunny & warm. 

Back to the ship & on the balcony to warm up. And watch all the helicopters take off and land. Actually, Sarah was in charge of that. I was busy updating the blog. We all have our responsibilities.

We shoved off a little after 5:30pm & turned around...therefore, losing our sunny balcony. But what we lost in warmth, we gained in scenery. Sun drenched mountains, hills, valleys & waterfalls. Fair exchange.

Our diningroom faces the same (port side) direction as the cabin, so we continued to enjoy the scenery until after sunset.

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When Gina & I did the kayaking & “viewing” of the glacier near Juneau, it set up my expectations for the viewing of the Hubbard Glacier. That is, we’d get within viewing distance...maybe 1 or 2 miles & continue on our way.

Nope. The glacier is down a long channel/fjord. Before this, there are the high mountains. So we snaked our way around the mountains and then we caught our first glimpse of the glacier. We kept on going. Then we started seeing bits of bergs (berg bits or berglets...no kidding!). 

I should mention, Sarah & I were by this time at the top of the ship. Securing our positions. I kept darting from side to side to get pictures of the mountains, glaciers and the every larger bits now sizable chunks, of ice.

And still we kept getting closer. Ahead I saw a solid patch of berglets & said to Sarah...okay, she’ll turn around now. Nope. We slowed right down, but kept on.

The berglets were becoming bergs & still we pressed on. The glacier getting larger & larger. Now we started estimating its height above the water. Calculating the height of the ship (based on the number of decks above the water line (14, we thought), height of deck (10’?). We came up with a round number of 150’. We think the glacier wall was about 200’ above the water. 

All this time, as we were silently approaching the glacier, we were the only ship around. We had the place to ourselves. 

Hubbard Glacier

Still we continued on. Until we rounded the last point. THERE was the glacier. The entire wall. On display. One estimate, put us within 200 yards/metres from the glacier. It was absolutely awe inspiring. We had the perfect conditions of clear weather, calm water and only little bergs and berglets.

Diningroom with a view (photo credit: Sarah Nadherny)

Our captain announced earlier in the crew areas that the crew should get out on deck to see the glacier. It was a wonderful thing for her to do & great to see them all availing themselves of the opportunity. For all of our voyage, the crew has been as excited as the passengers. We helped the sommeliers of our diningroom take selfies...with the Hubbard Glacier over their shoulders. 

In my round the world trip in 2014, never were the crew given the opportunity to get out and mingle with the passengers to sight see. That one gesture has likely inspired life long loyalty from her crew. The only reason I found out about it, was by chatting with a crew member I hadn’t seen before.

The ship stayed parallel with the glacier for what seemed like ages, before we slowly started to turn on a dime and moved on. There in the distance was another ship (Radiance of the Seas) at the mouth of the fjord, slowly coming in. We were looking forward to seeing that ship against the mountains and glacier to get a sense of perspective. 

We followed the coast south, staying with the mountains. Everytime we thought we’d seen the tallest mountain...there was one in the distance which was of even greater height.

Another amazing day in the books...capped off with a curry dinner!