The morning dawned humid and foggy, semi-warm (for Alaska), and since we had signed up for the second zodiac cruise, we didn’t have much to do except hang out and relax while the first group went out. We had paused for the morning a few miles off Laconte Glacier and we got the chance to zodiac out among the icebergs that have calved off the glacier. It was really cool to see the ice so up close and personal – and we totally pulled a huge chunk of ice from the water – which (get this:) was ICE COLD. that ice chunk sat in the lounge for 2 days before it melted. Good thing we had a contest to see who could guess the time it would melt by.
The ice we saw was absolutely beautiful. I mean, kind of stunning — just so BLUE, even in the foggy, kind of damp weather. We didn’t even get half close to the glacier, as I saw later, but some of the bergs were really large, and probably unstable. We were careful to keep a distance from those.
After the cruise, I took advantage of the wellness opportunity onboard and got a massage (Darcy rocks, by the way). Oh MAN was I sore from the kayaking/hiking.
We docked in Petersburg around 1. PB is a small fishing town in Frederick Strait and it has a large harbour with fishing boats and float planes. I was signed up for the second plane trip, so I wandered through the town for just a short while, grabbed a coffee and checked out some of the local art coops/shops before going back to the dock.
We drove a short distance to the float plane dock, coming down just as the first group was getting back. It was literally only about 5 minutes between getting to the plane and taking off (I kind of wish all air travel was like that!). The take off was smooth, not bumpy until we hit a minor bit of turbulence as we hit a low cloud, and we flew right out into the Strait and toward the glacier. I took the front seat, right next to the pilot (and really wanted to ask if I could steer… but didn’t – you fellow passengers should thank me for that. Just ask David how well I drove the zodiac…). The weather was still foggy, but we were flying low enough – about 1000 feet – that we didn’t worry too much about it, and it thinned quite a bit nearer to the ice.
Our pilot took us on about 4 passes of the glacier, flying up it for a minute before turning back down to the mouth and up its other arm. The ice looked so jagged, and I asked how deep he thought some of the crevices were – he said some were probably hundreds of feet deep. We were only about 300 feet up at that point, and from my view it looked so small still… you know if we’d been on it, we would have looked like ants from the plane. Next, we took a few passes past the nearby rocky mountain to see if we could spot the mountain goats that the first group had seen. After 3 passes, we did finally see three small white specks with horns. The other amazing thing that we saw was the amount of harbour seals on the icebergs, just lounging out there.
On our way back into PB, we passed over a meadow where we saw three bears: a mama and her two black bear cubs. They were super adorable!! (<someone adorable,="" are="" bears="" but="" comment="" cute!!)
When we got back to the ship, a group of hikers was just about to leave for the opposite island for a long hike, so I jumped at the chance to tackle another adventure and boarded a zodiac with Darcy’s aerobic group hike. We took a fairly circuitous route around the island, passing through meadows and woods, all along a thin boardwalk. The hardest part was walking along then boardwalk where it stepped up steeply into the mountain trail. At times, I felt like I might fall … never did, though, because some thoughtful person or group stapled fishing nets to the boards to provide some traction. Brilliant idea.
Dinner was a crab fest on the ship. We had these huge Dungennes crabs, and it was so funny to watch people try to get the meat out of the legs. They were delicious, but rich as always and I could only eat two. A whale biologist, Dr Andy Szabo, had joined us for dinner, and afterward, he talked to us about whales… duh. I admit I snuck away for a bit and danced on the bow in the rain. It was great fun. But Dr Szabo was very knowledgeable and passionate about his subject, as all of our guest speakers and naturalists have been, and he actually heads the Alaska Whale Foundation. I’ve been really impressed this entire trip with the education and interest and passion that so many of the Lindblad staff has. (Thank you:))