Hubbard Glacier
Day 7
19th June
Thursday means we
only have four weeks until we arrive in Adelaide, what a scary thought. So we have a few countdowns going on now, Day
65 of 91 and 4 weeks until we arrive in Adelaide hard to believe we have been
travelling for 65 days now!! Not sure why the Thursday has decided to turn itself around maybe as it is nearly on its way to 'down under' half way to upside down world ha ha!!
I
am up on deck before I collect coffee, hot and cold water for everybody to take
back to the room. We are supposed to be
able to see the glacier any minute so better go back to the room and tell the
troops to get ready!!
Beautiful,
scenery leading up to the glacier
Captain
has just announced that it is perfect conditions for visiting the glacier,
beautiful blue skies. On a previous
cruise they did not visit the glacier due to fog, we would have been gutted if
we didn’t visit the glacier as this is the highlight of the cruise, thankfully
blue skies for us :0)
So
it doesn’t really get dark and the moon is still out during the day, this is
one strange place, it certainly isn't doing anything for my sleep pattern that is for
sure!
Absolutely
nothing behind us! Phew we lost that cruise ship along the way that was following us ha ha!!
Stunning
The first glimpse of
the two glacier’s in the distance, that is it back to the room to collect Colin
and Amy with the drinks, quick slurp and then back on deck!!
Amazing with the
greenery and then the snow-capped mountains, this is absolutely stunning
This
is one of the two glaciers that we are sailing along beside this is Turner
Glacier. It looks dirty from the silt
and rain, this is nothing startling at all.
This glacier doesn’t have much movement at the sea front either
But
then we went round on the deck and saw this beautiful massive glacier!! Now this is the baby we came to see!!! Hubbard Glacier measures 76 miles from its
source to sea, stretching from Mount Logan in the Yukon to Disenchantment Bay
we are now sailing in Russell Fjord when we are alongside the face of the
glacier. Hubbard Glacier is the longest
and most active tidewater glacier in Alaska, WOW!!!
As
we get closer to Hubbard Glacier
Beautiful
behind us too xx
In
front of us and surprisingly enough it is warmer now than when I was up on deck
an hour or so ago, it was very pleasant up on deck watching this beautiful
scenery!
Mission
Iceberg!!
We
are certainly very close to the glacier now as the ship is cutting through this
to get close! Please don't get stuck Captain we have connections to catch hee hee!!
Wow
this is amazing we are going through small pieces of ice but I am sure they are
huge
Closer
to Hubbard Glacier now, this is breath-taking!!!
A
real close up of the glacier, it is absolutely stunning! Nature is so beautiful in Alaska. After us seeing Mendenhall Glacier and now
seeing Hubbard Glacier this is what makes Alaska special and certainly
different from the Norwegian Fjords. We
have now fallen in love with Alaska and also the weather being sunny today has
helped us enjoy the experience too!
Sailing through
bigger pieces of ice now!
Ok so we are standing
admiring this wonderful view of the Hubbard Glacier when there is an almighty
noise of Thunder and then we see ice falling and breaking away from the Glacier
and splashing into the sea and causing splashes and ripples, absolutely
breath-taking!! When we started
approaching the Glacier we have had a woman who is a Dr of not sure what but
she is talking through the tannoy about glaciers and wildlife etc. The woman has told us what we have just seen
and heard is called ‘White Thunder’ when chunks of ice fall away from the
glacier and crash into the bay, making a sound like thunder! She has also told us that it takes
approximately 600 years for the ice to come to the front and break away into
the sea, Whoooh!!
I
tried to capture the White Thunder but it looks like a waterfall in front of
the glacier
The
glacier all the way down the Fjord
A
piece of ice that broke off a short time ago!
Beautiful colours of blue and white ice floating by the ship!
The
deck as you could imagine was so busy with people but this was our attempt of a
selfie with Hubbard Glacier
The
end of the glacier but that was a good distance down, go on Captain we could
squeeze down there and get a real close up view!!! Might not get back out again though!!
We
hear the thunder and then see the start of the ice falling and then …..
Amazing
seemingly White Thunder doesn’t happen very often but this has happened about 5
times now, spectacular!
The captain has
announced that crew have gone out to catch a piece of ice for one of the chef’s
to make an ice sculpture later. So here
are the crew out on their cool little speedboat that they have lowered down
from the muster station deck. Col would
love a ride on this cute little boat even more now!
I have been trying to capture the
White Thunder on camera, here it goes .......
The
Hubbard Glacier is so huge and we are so close that I can’t fit all the glacier
in one camera shot!
I
think they have found an ideal piece of ice for the chef! Tricky part looks like trying to catch it, capture
it and manoeuvre it closer to the ship!
Just
taking this shot then the White Thunder starts just at the edge of the right
hand side of the photo
Just
looks like a waterfall as it is falling down before it hits the sea!
The
dust settling after the storm!!
They
gave up on the last piece of ice as it wasn’t playing game so here is another
piece for them to try and manoeuvre onto the hoist to take on board!
The
girls admiring the view!
Look at this piece of
ice and then to show you how big this piece of ice is ……
Here
are the crew’s little speedboat compared to the piece of ice above we are
sailing in and around!
The
crew in front of Turner Glacier (the dirty one!)
Certainly getting good use of his binoculars this cruise
Time
for breakfast now so final shot in front of the glacier
White
Thunder again, that rumble was really loud!
Amy doesn’t like the sound!
The
crew in front of Hubbard Glacier after dropping off the ice and now to get back
round the other side and get the boat back on the ship
We
have started moving out of the Bay now but isn’t that a stunning piece of ice
floating by!!
We
decided to have breakfast outside today with this beautiful view behind Amy but
the camera focused on Amy and not the view but see next photo
Amy
in the corner of the photo eating her pancake!!
Got to be the best view we have ever had for breakfast!!
Glacier backdrop
And round
the other side of the ship’s view
The
view out of our cabin window when we went back to the room
Further
away from the glacier but still can’t get it all in as we now can’t see past
the hill on the right to see the glacier all the way down the Fjord
The
beautiful day, it was forecast for 12 degrees C.
The sun and beautiful scenery has kept us out and about on deck so we are now heading to play golf as we haven't played golf this cruise!
First shot of the game!
The
glacier behind Colin, stunning views!
Best
views for crazy golf!
The
glacier behind us. The clouds have come down on the glacier and is making the
glacier and mountains look
mysterious!
The
golfers!!
Good
game everybody!
Col playing Rambo
after our serene morning and then Rambo shoot 'em up!!
The air hockey wasn’t working so we headed down to Guest Services to
report it as we needed to use up our credit.
When Amy and I were in the queue Colin heard a couple ask a member of
staff how to get back to Vancouver from Seward as they didn’t realise until today that the
cruise didn’t take them back to Vancouver, wow that
is impressive where have they been for the past week when the whole cruise
directory, the after show information for the next day and check out procedure
has said about arriving in Seward did they think we would magic ourselves back
to Vancouver!!
Amy wants to play a
racing game but her legs aren’t long enough and that is where I came into the
scenario I was the peddles and Amy on steering!
The teamwork didn’t work as we didn’t qualify for the next race!! Good fun though!
Out on deck they had 3 BBQ’s
and this ..........
cake out by the pool. The cake
was massive and amazing!
The Make a Wish Polar Bear Plunge was going away to start
Make
a Wish Polar Bear Plunge was where you could place a bid of $25, they were
after 50 people to bid $25 and if the money was raised then the Captain and 3
senior officers would jump in the pool with their uniforms on!!
They
raised $1,075 so all 4 of the guys went in and then they made ....
Amy
the Entertainments Director jump in too!
Amy’s little quip at the end of the shows when she is telling us about
the ports etc she says ‘I am Amy and you are awesome’ but she didn’t say that
today after being in the pool!! Funny,
our Amy still thinks she is great!
Next
the chef comes out and starts to carve the ice into a shape???
25
minutes later he has carved a baby polar bear, amazing!!
Colin
is really chuffed with himself dispensing his ice cream!! He is considering selling ice cream now as a
career, not sure that will pay the bills Col!!
Amy toddles off the
kid’s club for the last afternoon session and Colin and I have packed our
suitcases so as a little treat we go to the Champagne Bar and have a little
drinky! It’s lovely sitting looking out
to sea sipping champagne cocktail. We
saw about 10 or so on two separate occasions of the black and white dolphins
swimming close by, so lovely to see! We
had already seen some from our room too, beautiful! They were so quick I couldn’t capture them on
camera! Sorry!!
Last
turn in the arcade to use up our credit!
Back
on the racing game again but Amy came 8th in the race this time!! Must have been the practice earlier it wouldn't have anything to do with the different speed control!!!
The
waiter comes over and makes a mouse which you put your finger in the fold of
the napkin and pretend it is alive and jumps, Amy can’t really do it when he
shows her but when he made the mouse jump to her the first time boy did she
JUMP!!
This
cruise we are not allowed to take our suitcases off by ourselves so all
suitcases need to be outside your room by 11pm as tomorrow morning we dock at
5am in Seward!!!
We didn’t go to the
show as it was another comedian Robert Wagner and we thought we would have an
earlyish night!
I was busy doing the
blog with the troops asleep when I noticed that it was so bright shining
through the curtains, wow the sun is away to set so I put my jeans and jacket
over my PJ’s but when I stepped out of the room this was what I was met with .............
wowcha,
an obstacle course!!
As I waded through
the suitcases and went up on deck, I wasn’t disappointed!! Sunset was supposed to be at 10.43pm
The sun is setting
over our cruise too as tomorrow we dock in Seward for our final
disembarkation. We spend the day in
Seward and then we take the train through the Rockies to Anchorage!! Wow sounds amazing, we are all really looking
forward to the train journey and sometimes you can see wildlife too!!
Up
on deck there are only 2 other people enjoying this view, the clouds are just
beautiful in this light too, we are 3 very lucky people watching this show of
nature!
The
sun looks enormous when I zoom onto it!!
The
two strips of white that has appeared are aeroplanes heading somewhere!!
So I popped into the coffee lounge for a hot water to warm myself up as it was perishing on deck with the cold, cold wind going through me but it was so peaceful it was a lovely end to a magical day. By the time I get back to the cabin the sun has completely gone so in theory it should be dark but this is how light it is still for overnight! Couldn’t get a proper angle as the troops are still sleeping and didn’t notice I was gone they were both in the land of nod!!!
Now it is my turn to go to sleep, night night everyone another exciting eventful day tomorrow or should I say later on today now!!!
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