Tracy Arm Fjord and Sawyer Glacier

It was the morning of Day 4 - September 1, 2014.  I know it's against the 'rules' but we slept with our balcony door open every night, the sound of the ocean and the cool breeze was totally relaxing.

You are probably saying "what the heck? I thought you hated cold"....well I do, but it really wasn't cold in our room.  Every morning we would be up before the sun and look out to see how close we were to getting into port.  This morning we were pleasantly surprised to see this floating by our room.  We were headed to Sawyer Glacier that is in Tracy Arm Fjord and THIS is a calved piece off that glacier.

We jumped up, got dressed and hit the Solstice Deck (16) with hot coffee and camera in hand.

Well now we all know I am the worst at taking and uploading photos by this shot to your right don't we  hahahaha, ahhhh I can't help but laugh at myself sometimes, people look at me stupid but I do it anyway.

So this insulated coffee mug was being offered on the deck as we pulled closer to the glacier.  Beverage Packages do not include "specialty cups" like the drink of the day cup and other branded cups, but I loved it so I got it.  Not only was it filled with amazing hot coffee but the really sweet bar server added Bailey's !!! 

THANKS again Milo !

Look at what we saw !!!!!!
Truly amazing.  One thing I did before I left home (and if I have told you prior I apologize......I'm forgetful in my old age) was to ask around about digital camera's.  I had a Canon that my daughters gave me for Mother's Day a few years ago and the zoom is getting stuck.  Knowing that this was a bucket list voyage I wanted to get great shots.

I ended up with a Nikon, small enough to fit inside my purse, large enough for amazing zoom and clarity.  So check around with people before you go and ask them tons of questions, go hold, try, touch and feel cameras before you buy one to make sure!

Ok, so onto fun facts I learned from the Officer giving us narration from the Bridge.

A Fjord is a  narrow waterway surrounded by sharp cliffs, it is a "nordic" term.
The water at the end of the Fjord is about 600 feet deep, and of course everyone wants to see a piece break off and splash into the water with a thunderous sound right?  I did too, but we were able to witnessed one small calving event, it was so smooth and peaceful (remember it was amazingly quiet in here) that it made me really appreciate the power & beauty that is nature.

The ice interferes with the sonar of the whales, so it is a great place for all the mommy harbor seals to have their pups in the summer.  It is named after the Secretary of the Navy - Benjamin Franklin Tracy.  The Fjord is over 30 miles long and one/fifth of the area is covered in ice.  It is about 45 miles south of Juneau. 

Now, I think this is cool (*I borrowed the above photo from flicker.com) this shows you just how far up into the fjord our cruise ship had to go to see this amazing glacier.

 The one thing that I found a down side to was no speaker in the room.  So you couldn't hear announcements unless you were outside on deck, in a hall or in a common area. 



Love this shot  Dan got from Deck 16, we kept running back and forth from the deck to our room as the Bridge informed us that if you wanted to remain in your stateroom they were going to swing the ship around so all rooms had a view of Sawyer Glacier.



And this is a view from our stateroom just look at the color of that water !





WAIT, hold on a minute we are running back up to the deck .................

                                                        

Here you go, from the deck.............................................

The one amazing thing I found was that the color of the ice was this fantastic blue that I have never....ever....seen before.  I can not imagine it ever being reproduced.  You know they say the best things come from nature?  True to this blue.

When snow falls and doesn't melt, and then more snow falls and doesn't melt, etc. etc. etc the underlying snow forms into ice.  When the pressure from layers of snow builds up for thousands of years the air is forced out and the glacier's ice tuns blue.

Glaciers store about 75% if the world's fresh water.

Ice that calves off the glacier can be as small as your hand or as large as a 3 story building.

I wasn't teasing about that blue now was I ??

This from the top deck aft (rear) looking at from where we came.

These are chunks that fell off.

Again from our stateroom.

All bundled up with coffee in hand ready to head back up on deck.....

More ice chunks from the glacier.

I thought Dan did a great job capturing this boat that shows you just how massive the glaciers are.  The true power of nature. 











With our viewing complete we head back out towards Juneau, about 45 miles to go.....