Glacier Bay, Alaska
It seemed impossible to imagine how the experiences of our previous days might be bettered—or even matched. But today, in Glacier Bay, they were.
Early morning found us deep within the Johns Hopkins inlet, close to the glacial face, gliding slowly through brash ice rustling against the hull of theSea Lion. The surrounding, almost vertical, walls of the fjord, shrouded in moody mist, echoed with the sharp cracking of the calving snout of the glacier up ahead. Kittiwakes and mew gulls picked delicate morsels of plankton and tiny fish from the surface. As we watched, oblivious to an early autumnal chill, a pillar of striated blue ice, as tall as a 25-story building, trembled, eased outward, separated from its brethren to collapse into a boiling implosion. The radiating wave front that resulted from this glacial spectacle raced towards us. The boom and its echoes rang in our ears.
We moved on to visit two other glaciers at the northern extremity of the bay; the pale blue Margerie and the neighboring, silt-laden, Grand Pacific. Once more, we were privileged to witness a massive calving event. The roof of a deep ice cave that perforated the center of the Margerie reached critical strain and collapsed. Nearby, we watched a vast colony of wheeling kittiwakes being harassed by parasitic jaegers. We spotted a few of the scarce, horned puffins—for many a birder aboard, another added to their life list.
For our afternoon’s foredeck viewing pleasure, the sun emerged just as we circled South Marble Island. This small group of rocky outcrops provides home to colonies of several species of seabird and a croaking, bellowing, squabbling and aromatic chorus of male Steller’s sea lions. A lone sea otter dabbled, oblivious to our cries of excitement. Finally, as we completed our circumnavigation, the most spectacular rainbow anyone aboard could remember, bathed the scene with a magical light. It described a complete and multi-spectrum arc to frame the island, appearing to continue beneath the surface of the water. We were lured below by Renee, our Hotel Manager, to sample some fine wines accompanied by savory delicacies. All concurred that, yes, we had again maintained our record, we were sharing a most fortunate and enchanted voyage.
