Standing on the dock, in the early morning brume, I was feeling a tad discouraged about this 8 hour cruise through Glacier Bay up to the John Hopkins Inlet. It was definitely a relief though  when I noticed that the passenger count was far below the capacity that this high speed catamaran, colloquially named  the “Day Boat, ” could accommodate. At  least there would be less of a foray when patrons start jockeying for a berth on the railing. This chaotic scenario always occurs whenever the crew  announces a sighting of wildlife, which always leads to a rush of the madding crowd from one side of the ship to another, from the inside cabin to the outside deck , and up the stairs to the viewing deck from downstairs. Far be it for me to buck the trend and, so that I could lead the rush of the cattle call crowd, I secured my “indoor station” by a window and quite proximate to the exit for the viewing deck.

For the first couple of hours there was a myriad of photo ops of this dense fog ahead of us, the fog off to port side, the starboard side fog and the fog we left behind.

This gauzy scrim  gradually began to lift and ascended upward enough so that we had a better chance of spotting wildlife in the air, on the waters, along the shores and on the rocky slopes of the islands in the bay. Currently the glaciers are now about 65 miles northwest  of Bartlett Cove whereas 250 years ago Glacier Bay and Bartlett Cove were a massive river of ice so its was going to be quite a while before we reached the glacial area. 

It seemed like we were just tugboating along – I surmised it was the heavy fog— but I came to realize that there are definite noise restriction and speed zone areas designated so as to protect all wildlife, but especially to protect the harbor seal and whales. This definitely is not an attractive area for the jet skiers of the world to congregate and hold a convention. I am all in on respecting the wild land, air, and sea creatures that we share this earth with and grateful for the quieter ride that exist because of the myriad of boating restrictions. Think about it. Would you relish a six foot long 250 pound harbor seal undulating like caterpillar through your living room or otters webstroking in your swimming pool. Perhaps we need to think a whole lot more about our roaring motors churning through their living room. This definitely made for a most pleasant three hour journey to get to the first glaciers. A National Park Service Ranger kept us informed about what we would be seeing (or not seeing) along the way as we moved from the rainforest area of Glacier Bay to the guano and lichen-encrusted rocky islands of the bay.

As we ferried along the captain would maneuver close to shores of Strawberry Island, the Marble Islands, and Tlingit Point for better animal sightings. By count birds far outnumber any other wildlife sightings. Thousands of seabirds nest on cliffs and rocky shores within the bay. I don’t have the patience or acuity of vision (or very good binoculars) to be a successful “birder.” but spotting the puffins and the Arctic terns was a treat.  The Arctic tern is my hero and is famous for migration since it flies from its Arctic breeding grounds to the Antarctic and back again each year. They are the ultra ultra marathoners of the avian species. The shortest distance between these areas is 12,000 miles.  I surmised, just like our human snowbirds traveling south in the winter, these terns seek perpetual summer and  lots and lots daylight. The Tufted Puffins, often identified as “parrots of the sea” because of their bright coloring  were not behaving  like the adorable tufted  puffins I’ve seen in the penguin exhibits at aquariums waddling . They were far too busy foraging for their own food, swimming,  and steering them selves around with their web feet preparing for a dive for the fresh catch of the day. . Also spotted were Black-legged Kittiwake, Eagles, a  variety of Gulls, especially Glaucous-winged Gull , which is basically a large white headed gull. They were plentiful on the Marble Islands.  I took almost no photos because I do not possess one of those cameras with massive lenses especial designed for wildlife photography with their auto focus and zoom lenses and look like they weigh a ton. My 5 year old iPhone camera suffices but does’t do the job that these heavy behemoth expensive cameras do. I already have too many photos of unidentifiable minuscule blurred dots in the distance.

As far as spotting  the large mammalia, a brown bear was seen sauntering around a beach on Tlingit Point, an occasional whale spouting or breaching in the distance, sea lions on the rocks but no proximate heart stopping encounters with the ship. Perhaps these Glacier Bay inhabitants  too,  just like many humans , prefer to hunker down on a foggy rainy day and thus opted out of putting on a show for the tourists encroaching into their habitat.  I was especially enchanted by the “raft” of sea otters, churning through the water. I noticed their preferred swim stroke is by far the backstroke  (mine too) and I spotted them in large numbers hanging tight with each other traveling in tandem. I wonder if it’s like a pace line in cycling where you cycle into the slipstream of another cyclist and let them “pull” you along. This was an “otter version” of  the pace line. 

By now the fog had dispersed and though still totally overcast, we were motoring through the bergy bits and growlers (ice flows that aren’t behemoth enough to sink the Titanic) and soon we were seeing many tidewater glaciers crawling down the mountain crevices and ending at the sea, with the grandad being the John Hopkins Glacier at the end of the inlet. Though we were mooring around the John Hopkins Glacier and inlet for around 2.5 hours, at this time Glacier John was taking lunch and a siesta and was not calving.

Our  lunch was provided “glacier -side, ” which was a classic school kid bag lunch of a Wonder Bread sandwich, chips, and a candy bar!  Jupiter, the king of gods and the weather god, must have been in a more favorable mood for our return trip. It was under partly cloudy conditions, so the shore lines were more visible. This Sky Deity was in a imaginative space and fluffed up pillowy, sheetlike, fleecy, and diaphanous clouds to hug and drape the islands and thankfully not thunderheads or threatening clouds to churn and spin the waters around our trusty vessel.

One of the VERY amusing things noted  on our return was the huge Ruby Princess Cruise Ship along side and we all were laughing because those folks who paid for those high deck outside cabins were getting a great view of the fog!

It was quite a satisfying experience , definitely to be had before there are no more glaciers to ooh and awe about. . Additionally , I began to make the acquaintance of a number of couples who are “park baggers” like myself, hoping to visit all 63 National Parks in their lifetime. I am proud to say I have the most under my belt (52) of those I met but it was fun comparing favorites and numbers visited etc. After regrouping, I made my way to the dining room so as not to be the last in line again for a table and after be able to go to the Park Ranger presentation on this park.