July 30th

Waking up to flowing waterfalls and raging rivers is a beautiful thing! Whittier is such a small little place but offers so much to the soul. Gary & I got up and prepared for our day on the MS Emerald Sea for a 5 ½ hour Glacier Tour around Prince William Sound. We boarded the boat and were seated at a table with John & Debbie from Gulf Port’ Mississippi. He is a police officer who worked during Katrina’s disaster and she is a home health nurse. They were pleasant to spend our day with. The cruise started with a buffet lunch of roast beef, Alaskan salmon, rice, salad, and sour dough bread all enjoyed while we took in the beauty of the bay. There was Ranger Don who was from the forest service who’s job it was to inform us of all that we were seeing. He told us about the town of Whittier, interesting facts about the weather here in PWS, and informed us of the marine life we would come across. His favorite subject though were the glaciers. He has spent his life studying glaciers and was more than excited to share all he knew about them. He apologized for his North Carolina drawl when he got started, he said he was sorry if we couldn’t understand him, but it’s the only language he knew…. Southern. Luckily’ I was able to interpret all that he said due to my dad being a true blue southerner.

The day was filled with beautiful sights of waterfalls falling into the sea, large groups of sea otters gathered together…. they call that “a raft of otters”, and seals lazily relaxing on icebergs. The glaciers were fascinating though! We were able to get within a 100 feet of them and they towered 1,700 feet above us. As a group of us stood on the bow of the boat in complete silence we could hear the moaning and creaking of the glacier. It was the most beautiful blue I’ve ever seen that marbled through the white mass of ice. The bright blue spots are called “blue lens’”. All of a sudden we heard a sharp C-R-A-C-K!! as if a tree were falling over to our left and as we turned we could see chunks of ice falling into the sea. I was stunned! I didn’t know it made such a sound when it was separating from the glacier. We heard more pieces falling that sounded more like a crack of lightning and then rolls of thunder. It was amazing. We moved on from the Blackstone Glacier to the Beloit Glacier where the inlet was so full of ice that you could hear it bump against the bow of the ship. The weather was a typical Alaskan dreary, cloudy, grey day. But as we approached the glacier there was drizzle which turned to snow along with a cold breeze that came off the ice that made it feel like it was in the 30’s. The breeze is actually caused by a pressure and temperature difference called a katabatic (sp?) pressure difference…there is a high pressure on top of the glacier and a low pressure on the bottom. Thus a sloping breeze from top to bottom…the wind going across the ice also lowers the temperature as much as 15 degrees. I’m sure dad could expound on this.

As we returned to port we were served coffee and dessert as Ranger Don pointed out different birds and eagles that were perched in the trees as we went by. As we approached another boat outside our window he said, “if anyone knows anything about the Deadliest Catch, there’s the Northwestern! I had to get a picture of it for you Dan… I don’t know which ship is your favorite but if it’s the Northwestern, here’s a picture. Of course the crew wasn’t on it and they were not followed by the filming boat so he explained to us that the boat is used for other types of fishing on the off season. We walked over to where it was docked after returning to Whittier and talked to the guy on the boat. He said they were set up to catch Cod right now, but they also bring in salmon.

All-in-all it was a very relaxing and interesting day. Last night a huge cruise ship pulled into port. It looks so big compared to this small bay. The lights on it were so bright that the whole town got lit up last night in the rain, around 10 pm! Cool to see.

Pictures: (1) The Northwestern in the Bering Sea (2) The Northwestern stock photo, loaded with crab traps (3) The Northwestern from Deadliest Catch (4) Northwestern in Whittier Harbor (5) a glacier 'blue lens' (6) harbor seals & icebergs (7) a "raft" of otters (8&9) Blackstone Glacier