Alexandra Van Nostrand, Assistant Expedition Leader, July 2021
View all info
Daily Expedition
Reports
02 Jul 2021
Petersburg and LeConte Bay
Aboard the
National Geographic Venture
Alaska
We pulled into the quaint fishing village of Petersburg to low lying clouds hugging the mountains. While some chose to hike the beautiful landscape, including walks through the famous Southeast Alaska muskegs, others chose Zodiac tours of the area. Still others enjoyed a leisurely bike ride around the town. Visitors to Petersburg were treated to the beginning of wildflower season, with lupine, daisies, and forget-me-nots scattered along the trails.
After a morning of biking and appreciating muskeg plants on our adventures, we hopped back onboard to cruise to LeConte Bay where we were greeted by icebergs. The partially cloudy sky was a perfect backdrop to fully appreciate the beautiful blue hues of the ice. We toured not only the bergs in the water, but also made a surprise landing for photo opportunities with icebergs that had been stranded during low tide.
Svea grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts, with woods and a reservoir behind her house and a “when it gets dark” curfew. Hours were spent exploring the woods and fishing in the reservoir. This love of nature inspired her to pursue degrees in Fish and Wildlife Biology and a Masters in Environmental Education.
Alexandra is happiest when chasing waterfalls, exploring wilderness, or reveling in a good story. With a background in experiential learning, logistics and global fieldwork, she loves to marvel in the vastness of the polar regions and is thrilled to adventure on the world’s oceans after many years hoofing over various continents.
The spectacular first day of our voyage was spent in the Fords Terror-Tracy Arm Wilderness. Beginning with pre-breakfast humpback whales that entertained and offered aerobic workout opportunities (by sporadically popping up at varying time intervals around
National Geographic Venture
).
The remainder of our morning was an awe-inspiring cruise up Tracy Arm Fjord, interspersed with a visit of killer whales. Post-lunch offered opportunities for us to explore via a water level view of icebergs, harbor seals, an occasional mountain goat, and South Sawyer Glacier in our Zodiacs.
Last night at approximately midnight, we crossed the boundary to Glacier Bay National Park. By six in the morning,
National Geographic Quest
slowly sailed near Russel Cut, a place which is well known to be a good place to look for wildlife. At around six thirty, we spotted three wolf pups on the beach. Wolves are not uncommon in this wild and vast protected area, but they can be hard to find. We were very lucky to have decent views of two black pups and a gray one. As we were still watching the wolf pups, two brown bears were seen on a nearby meadow. At that point we had three wolves and two brown bears within view!
Moments later, the two bears started chasing each other, running towards the beach. At that time, a fourth bear was spotted not too far from there. We had quite an unusual concentration of wildlife sightings, and all of that happened before breakfast.
Later on, we sailed to contemplate the face of Margerie and Grand Pacific Glaciers. Shortly after we arrived, Margerie Glacier calved two times. It is mesmerizing to see the large pieces of ice falling, but the thunder-like sound they produce during the impact is what seems to trigger most reactions from the patient observers.
We sailed towards John’s Hopkins Glacier. The magnitude of this ice mass was quite impressive. The ice that floated right in front of the glacier’s face was literally covered in harbor seals. We stayed in front of the glacier for long enough to see it calving several times. As we left John’s Hopkins inlet, we had a brief encounter with a small group of killer whales. We could see at least one male and a few females in a disperse group. Since they were heading the wrong way, we waited to see three surface intervals, and then we had to leave them behind.
Our next stop was Gloomy Knob, a mountain which has exposed rock, and is an excellent habitat for mountain goats. We were lucky to find four goats resting very close to the water. Everyone had an opportunity to get really good looks at goats in their natural habitats.
To end the day, after a wonderful wildlife viewing on South Marble Island,
National Geographic Quest
pulled alongside the dock in Bartlett Cove, the headquarters of Glacier Bay National Park. Here we stretched our legs, and visited the temperate rainforest before we went to sleep.
Parting is such sweet sorrow. Today is our last day together, and somehow Alaska knew because she gave us one last great day of sunshine and memories. We capitalized on that by having one last wild Alaskan adventure.
The quest today was to South Sawyer Glacier where we saw some amazing calving. It was estimated that some of the calving that occurred on today’s viewing were pieces of ice as large as 20 story buildings. Many of the Zodiacs viewed mountain goats close by, as they were gathered near the base of a waterfall. While viewing the glacier activity our guests were even visited by a band of friendly Vikings offering hot cocoa.
After the viewing we watched the kids onboard graduate from Global Explorers that simply rode on the ship, to Global Explorers that captained and drove the Zodiacs themselves. The Global Explorers leader stated that all explorers successfully completed their Zodiac training and are now able to captain a Lindblad-National Geographic Zodiac while on their next voyage.
While the kids were working on their captain’s licenses, the dive team was preparing for their final dive of the trip. Shay and I worked together to get the gear collected and organized. We two divers and our surface support team hopped into a Zodiac and drove to a rocky spit in Williams Cove. Looking out at the shoreline there was some skepticism about whether this would be a good dive platform with lots of undersea creatures. Little did we know luck was on our side. As we descended into the murky depths of this fjord, we found the little underwater rocky spit teeming with life. We found starfish that had arms almost as long as the five-foot divers. We made history today in the Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic dive log as the first two people to dive in Williams Cove.
The ship was jealous of the divers’ fun, so they took matters into their own hands and had a polar plunge event for all guests, staff, and crew. And after dinner, we were greeted by a pod of orcas having fun in the last rays of sunshine for this beautiful day. The ship set sail into the beautiful sunset for the last time on this voyage. It was a wonderful and memorable time and we look forward to seeing everyone again on one of our many adventures.
