Saturday August 24, 2019
It was a chilly, windy, and rainy morning on the Millennium. We were 200 miles northwest of Juneau on our way to see Hubbard Glacier.
The shipboard naturalists gave running commentary as we approached the very impressive river of ice off the coast of Yakutat, Alaska.
We began to see small icebergs floating in the blue-green glacial water. A large steel excursion boat came alongside the ship and took on 50 hearty people who wanted to get closer to the glacier.
Because of the weather, the original plan was to spend a short time at the glacier. However as we got closer, the rain stopped and the sky cleared.
Hubbard Glacier is gigantic and very impressive. The face – where the ice meets the water – is more than six miles across and 400 feet tall. It takes 400 years for ice to travel the length of the glacier, so the ice we were looking at is 400 years old.
The Millennium made many 360 degree turns and we stayed watching the glacier for several hours. I took a gazillion photos!
The excursion boat gives an idea of the relative height of the ice. There’s supposed to be more ice under the water than above it.
Every few minutes we heard ice break off and fall into the bay. The glacier frequently “calves” off icebergs which can be the size of ten-story buildings. First we heard a loud sound, like thunder. Then we looked where we thought the sound was coming from. If we were lucky, we saw the ice fall in a cascade and splash into the water.
After many hours, the ship turned and cruised out to sea and away from the very impressive Hubbard Glacier. What an experience!!
