Very Glacial Day

The Capt anchored fairly close to a glacier in Crocker Bay. From the ship it did not look that large. Up close and personal it was massive! The Shackleton put out all their equipment and we were ready to go. The weather was beautiful, with sunny skies and little wind. We had tickets for the zodiac and fast boat but since they were doing almost the exact same thing, we turned in the fast boat. 

The zodiac took us fairly close to the face of the glacier. There were a few birds as well as one seal. We have not seen a lot of wildlife this trip. We traveled past 2 small iceburgs then got the hot chocolate zodiac to serve us. One man, who cannot be called a gentleman, decided to get on his knees in the front of the zodiac with his special giant camera lense so was in everyone's pictures. Seems like there is always one person who spoils it for the rest. I told Mel to get a pic I had wanted because that ass.....person, was in my way. Whoops, I said it out loud! The lady next to him, not clear of they were together, said she would duck. At least it was somthing. Later the guy slid off the side of the zodiac to the floor. Served him right. Should have gone in the water!!!

Back onboard we just enjoyed the views and sunshine. The helicopters were going constantly. One couple from our table went. They were given a tour of the Shackleton first. It would have almost been worth doing the ride for that tour! They were able to buy logo merchandise in the store then took off. They landed on top of one of the cliffs around us and were served champagne and chocolates. Nice excursion. 

It was our tablemates 50th anniversary so all 6 of us went to Prego, the specialty restaurant. We had a great time. The food was good and we enjoy the company. We usually end up having breakfast and lunch with them also! It was a great sea day. Funny because sea days are usually inconsequential. We had 5 between Cambridge Bay and Pond Inlet. Three of them were taken up by Unexpected Adventures. Another we spent watching the ice and polar bears. It was not 5 days of relaxation, really special. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

(Backup) New York, New York!

Image
Sail in was at 6:30 and I was actually up to see it! They played our Northwest Passage theme song as we passed the Statue of Liberty, it was very emotional. There is nothing like sailing into NY harbor! We were off the ship at about 9:30. We called an Uber since the subway was quite far from the pier. It was my first, it was pretty efficient! We had him drop us at St Patrick's Cathedral. It has just been renovated so I wanted to see it. Last year it was covered with scaffolding. This year it was beautiful. We then walked up 5th Avenue toward the park. We stopped at the Cartier store. We both have Cartier glasses so wanted to check out the new models. Of course we looked at everything else also. The diamonds had an amazing sparkle. I found an emerald cut one that was what I had thought I wanted when we got married. This one was a bit larger though, at 4 kts. The gal asked if I wanted to try it on, why not. It was $375,000!!! She asked if we had been in since the renovation. I had fo...
Read more

Nome, AK

Image
    This was on the Main Street of Nome! We arrived in Nome around 9 am. We had a complimentary community visit at 10:30 so did not have to rush to get off the ship. It was a beautiful day, full sunshine. Apparently it had been pouring rain in this port during last year's cruise. We took the tender ashore and boarded a school bus, the only means of transportation they had to offer us. Our first stop was to pan for gold. They had gravel, water buckets and pans set up on tables for us. One pan had dried gravel in it so I put it in the sun and there was a fleck of gold shining back at me. I found 2 more tiny pieces then headed to the beach across the street. The guide has said they find a lot of sea glass there. We had 2 guides, one was a student home for the summer. She went with me. She was much better at spotting the glass but we both collected a fair amount. She told me that it is more plentiful further down the beach and that she has found pieces of floral porcelain and even...
Read more

Kodiak, AK

Image
                               We spent 3 days in Kodiak when we drove up to Alaska several years ago so did not plan to do much more than walk around. We arrived into town via tender at around 10. It was raining so not ideal weather for walking. First stop was a craft market at their very small convention center. There was not much that was very interesting. We headed to the center of town where we found a yarn shop. It had a better variety of yarn than I had ever seen! The woman working there said they have nothing else to do in Kodiak for 9 months out of the year so do very well. They also sell online.  By now it was raining harder so we hoped to just find a coffee shop to sit in to use our phones. Verizon still works! We ended up at the Alutiiq Museum, the native people of Kodiak. We sat and watched videos of elders talking about different foods they prepare, while looking at emails. We visited the ...
Read more