Cruising the Hubbard Glacier

Thursday July 11th

Today was a cruising day and the highlight was the early morning visit to the Hubbard Glacier. This is the view on all the promotional material you see about Alaskan cruises.

The day was chilly but very sunny and once again we told that we were having exceptional weather.

 Here I am hanging onto to the railing as the ship approaches the huge Hubbard Glacier.

 Hubbard Glacier

 Turner Glacier

 Chunk of blue ice from the face of the Hubbard

 Close up of the Hubbard face.

This glacier starts 76 miles inland and it takes 450 years for the ice to travle from the top to the terminal face. It is 7 miles wide at the largest part, 600 feet tall with 350 feet showing above the water. It is the largest glacier in North America. It is advancing by 80 feet a year. This is one of the glaciers that advances during warming and recedes during cooling.

Also was a plus that we were the only cruise ship in the bay on this occasion which is also unusual so we got really close. While we were there we could see and hear large pieces of ice breaking off. It is simmer and the ice goes through a thawing process.

Sea of ice 

As we got closer we were cruising through a sea of ice varying in size.

Everyday when you go to the casual restaurant on Deck 10 my favourite steward Mr Washy Washy is there it greet everyone with hand sanitizer. He is the most amusing character on the ship and probably the most photographed. He loved having his photo taken with me.

Today was good day to take some photos around the ship. Breakfast was casual but there was a virtual feast Brunch between 10 – 1.00 Everything you could imagine was there to eat and it even included a chocolate fountain.

 Cunningly concealed toaster in a bread house.

Vegetable Flowers as decoration on the lunch buffet.

There is some wonderful art all around this ship.

 Nature Morte by Pavlos is made of poster paper.

Not sure who did this but these are near the entrance to the Ocenview Cafe where Mr Washy Washy stands.

So this is it, the end of the cruise.Six  days of exceptional weather that has everyone on the staff remarking about. It has more than lived up to our expectations.

Now Mary is packing and bag weighing again. Tomorrow morning 6am start to catch a scenic train from Seward to Anchorage and then a flight back to Vancouver for a night's stop over before flying off to London.