Day 6 (Friday, May 26, 2006)
6:30 AM: Breakfast delivered as we prepare to enter Tracy Arm, which is a 30-mile long fjord with the North and South Sawyer glaciers at its far end. We have a lovely view from our verandah, and are often as close as 50-yards to the shore. The ship's naturalist is on the PA system periodically alerting us to whales, geological formations, etc. She says that people are often worried about how close we get to the shore, but assures us that she's currently looking at the "depth under the keel" meter on the bridge which shows us in 1200 feet of water. Fjords are very deep, with very straight sides.
We spend the morning shooting one spectacular picture after another. We are told that this is the first cruise of the season which has been able to get all the way up the fjord to the glaciers. Earlier cruises were blocked by ice, which has just melted sufficiently for us to cruise the whole length of the fjord.
The day is spectacular: sunny with clear blue sky. The naturalist says that we are experiencing the best weather she has ever seen for this portion of the cruise. Alaska is often misty and rainy, so we're delighted with the weather!
As we cruise up Tracy Arm, we encounter "bergie bits" which are small icebergs. We notice that many of them are a beautiful blue color, and the naturalist explains that these bergie bits have broken off glaciers. Glacial ice is highly compacted by the weight of the ice and snow above it in the glacier, and all of the air is forced out of the ice. This airless ice appears blue, and will turn white as it begins to melt and air is reintroduced into the structure.
The temp is in the 40's and the ship's motion means there's a breeze, so we dress in layers. Dick had on an undershirt, silk turtleneck, pullover sweater, fleece jacket and nylon shell, plus stocking cap and gloves. Here's a picture of Dick taken in a very "artsy" fashion as a reflection in the verandah door:
Noon: We leave Tracy Arm and head toward Juneau.
Pulling into Juneau:
2:30 PM: Arrive in Juneau, and head ashore. When leaving the ship, the bar code on your room key is scanned, and your picture jumps up on the computer screen so that security can verify your identity. (Same thing happens when you re-board, plus you must go through a metal detector as you re-board.) We have booked a shore excursion to the Mendenhall glacier and glacier gardens, and find a grayline bus waiting for us at the pier.
Mendenhall Glacier:
Glacier Gardens: (Those are dead trees planted upside down in the ground. Their root systems are filled with moss and planted with flowers. A real variation on the hanging basket!)
We have discovered that people boarding a bus tend to fill it from the front toward the rear. They never get back far enough to discover that the last 2 or 3 rows of seats have additional legroom, just like in the exit rows of airplanes. We always headed for the back of the bus, and never had to fight anyone for these great seats!
The spectacular weather continues, with the bank time/temp clock showing 78 degrees. People are asking the bus driver to turn the air conditioning up. Juneau residents thank us for bringing sun and warmth--it's the warmest day so far this year.
When we arrive in Juneau, we discover that our Tracfone cell phones work just fine, so we make some calls. This turns out to be a money-saving surprise. The phone in the room makes satellite calls at any time, but they're $16/minute. The ship also has the ability to make most cell phones work, but calls made this way will be billed an international call surcharge by the provider. Our prepaid Tracfones work just as if we were making a long distance call at home, subtracting two units for every minute used, with no additional charges possible because they're prepaid. Cool!
6 PM: We're back in time for dinner on the ship. Being terrible nightowls, we're sleeping when the ship pulls out of Juneau at 11 PM.
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