Gulf of Alaska

Zodiac trip in Icy Bay today! Weather is again variable and fast changing, when we awoke around 05:30 dawn was breaking and we could see the coast line an hour later and we were in fog and could see nothing. It had mostly cleared by breakfast only the tops of the mountain cliffs were shrouded. Since breakfast we have been slowly cruising further into the bay and we can see the ice floating towards us. We are anchored below Mount Wrangell - 15000 or so feet. We are further in than I have marked on the map, we are about where the bay splits into 2 forks.
At 9:30, our scheduled time for the zodiac, any remains mist had cleared and it was a bright day particularly with the sun reflecting off the snow and ice.
Apparently what we see today, a large bay with 3 glaciers draining into it, has existed for less than 100 years. Originally it was a single glacier but over this time the glacier has retreated. The pilot/guide did say that this was normal activity for this type of glacier and not totally down to global warming. In the pictures the distances are deceptive, it took 10 minutes or so at high speed to get get to the edge of the ice field. After that it was much slower meandering through the various chunks of ice to get closer to the glaciers, keeping clear of the largest icebergs as apparently they can break up or flip without warning. Even so we were not able to get very close as the increasing volume and size of the ice blocks did not leave any navigable paths even for boats as small as the zodiacs we are using. We had more than our allotted hour before heading back to the ship, with one last stop to fish out a chunk of glacial ice from the sea.
Update - the ship has just been struck by an iceberg.
14:00 and leaving Icy Bay, within 15 minutes we are in thick fog again and the ship is sounding it’s fog horn.
(Will I ever be forgiven ? Today at breakfast the 4 Germans at the next table ordered a bottle of Prosecco. Then all the Philippino waiting staff, some dozen or so, appeared one with his guitar and they proceeded to sing Happy Birthday (in English) to the birthday celebrating man in the corner. Must have been the Philippine version of Happy Birthday as the rendering included a couple of high tempo verses. Then one of the waitresses presented him with a birthday cake. The stare I got for not having organised the same for last week. Karen did point out the Prosecco was a cheaper brand to the one the ship gave her.)Read more