06 May 2008, Glacier Bay.

The morning was bright and clear and it looked like a great day for glacier viewing. We sailed into the bay around 06.30 to be off Bartlett Cove at 07.00 hrs. This is the ranger station and the Rangers come out with their boat and board the ship via the pilot ladder. Apart from two Rangers we also had two members of the local Indian tribe and a bird watcher coming on board. For the rest they loaded a whole pile of luggage on board, consisting of books, DVD’s and other items for sale to the guests. The same boat comes back at 16.00 hrs, to collect the Rangers when we return to the mouth of the Bay.

Even before heading up the bay, I saw that this was going to be a very special day. The snow reached all the way down to the water line. They have had a very severe winter in Alaska with a lot more snow than normal and that snow was still there. I have now been coming to Alaska to 26 years and have seen a lot of beautiful days but never that the snow was still covering everything all the way down to the tide water line. It looked magnificent. With the Rangers safely on board we headed up the bay to cover a distance of about 50 miles to get to the glaciers. The first part went rather slow as we had about five miles of current going against us in the narrow passage abeam of Strawberry Island, but when the bay widened we made good speed. The Veendam was the first ship of the season to go up to Glacier Bay and thus also for the Rangers who were very eager to see what had changed during the winter months.

Overview of Glacier Bay. Courtesy -from somewhere on the Web-

The Rangers provide a full program in Glacier Bay and all regular ships activities are suspended during that period. It starts upon boarding with a meet and greet with the captain when the program for the day is discussed as the Ranger bridge narration is run in sync with my schedule of going up and down the bay. For the guests it starts with a “Meet the Ranger” chat in the crows nest which is also their home base for selling merchandise and answering guest’s questions. During the day we have one ranger on the bridge for the narration and one in the ship for Q&A.

While we are sailing up the bay, there is a presentation by the members of Huna tribe about how their ancestors lived in and near Glacier Bay and there is a get together with the children on board as part of the Club Hal program. The narration on the outside decks starts around 09.30 when the ship reaches the upper bay, near Russell Island. Quite often we see mountain goats here and there are always the chance of bears. Here we start to slow the ship down as the first bits of floating ice tend to show up. These pieces of ice, really too small to be called icebergs, come down from the Glaciers and melt while floating down the bay. Near Russell Island most of it is melted away.

Also this is where the bay splits into two parts, Tarr Inlet and John Hopkins Inlet. We go to the right first to visit Tarr inlet with the Marjorie and Grand Pacific Glacier. We floated in front of Majorie Glacier for an hour and saw indeed some calving. From there we moved to the entrance of John Hopkins inlet. We can not go inside the bay as the pupping season for the seals going on but then John Hopkins glacier is best view from a distance anyway as it climbs all the way up to the Fairweather mountain range. The glacial ice was completely covered with snow and it looked spectacular. From there we did a sail by, by Lamplough glacier which is a blue ice glacier and then it was time for the Ranger lecture in the main lounge. Before the guests knew, it was 4 pm. and time to say good bye to Glacier Bay. To top things off we had porpoises and Whales playing around the ship near the entrance. As said, it was a magnificent day.

John Hopkins Glacier, covered by snow. Courtesy 3rd officer Symen van der Veen

Tomorrow we are in our last port of call, Ketchikan. Final stop to please the shoppers. We are again the only cruise ship in port, so I will park the Veendam straight across from the visitor centre. It is supposed to be dry and that is very special for Ketchikan where it rains normally 332 days out of the year.

The first Bridge team to enter Glacierbay in 2008. Courtesy Ships Photographer.

The boys (and girl) from the bridge who navigated the ship safely towards it’s destination: left to right
4/O Rens de Kouter, 3/0 Steven Macbeth, A/O Simon Mitchinson, A/O Nathan Ferris, 2/O Jan Westerbeek, 4/0 Rebecca Hillier, Capt. Albert J. Schoonderbeek, Chief Officer Marcel van Zwol, 3/O symen van der Veen, 2/O Sr Steve Nevey, S/O JohnCabalde, E/O Joe Parks.