An exciting cruise from Seward!

One of the main things we wanted to do in Seward was cruise the Kenai Fjords. We had two choices for the day we wanted to go, but only one company had a Kenai Fjords Park Ranger on board that day, so that’s the company we chose.

 

This was our view as we sailed out of the harbour.

 

 

 

As we sailed along the ranger pointed out a mountain goat in the shade of an alder tree on the side of a sea cliff.   I looked but all I could see was a green patch, I zoomed in and clicked and there it was.

Further along as we sailed past Bear Glacier, the ranger told us that the icebergs we could see (bottom right corner of the photograph) were probably at least 100ft high.

We cruised around these unusually shaped rocks, sadly I’ve forgotten the name of them.

The highlight of our cruise was when whales were spotted, as we saw not one but two humpback whales!

 

I just managed to catch the tail of one as it dived in the ocean before the Aialik Glacier.    It was so exciting, especially as it was only mid May and we really thought it was too early in the year to see them.

Our boat threaded its way through tiny icebergs to the foot of the Holgate Glacier where it falls into the ocean.    The Holgate Glacier is part of the huge Harding Icefield.

 

As the boat slowly approached, the chill flowing down from the glacier went right through us and despite wearing numerous layers we were absolutely frozen.

I don’t know why but I always imagined that glaciers were quiet, they’re not.   They creak and groan and rumble and squeak occassionally emitting a huge roar as a section falls into the ocean.   I was glad we weren’t any closer.

 A close up view of the top of the glacier.

It was bitterly cold out on deck, but we didn’t want to go inside, after all who knows if we’ll ever do this again.   As we turned to leave a crew member caught a ‘small’ iceberg, I don’t think I’d’ve liked to try and haul it in.

The iceberg wasn’t actually that ‘small’ when it landed on deck, a piece was chopped off and used for ice in drinks, but I have to say after all his hard work we were so cold the only thing we wanted was hot chocolate!

We’d had fabulous weather all day, but as we turned back to Seward the weather closed in, so we stayed inside, only venturing out again as we sailed past this rock.

It turned out to be a resting place for lots of seals.

As we arrived back into the harbour a sea otter cruised by nibbling on something tasty.

Our cruise was fabulous and, as it turned out, we’d picked the best day of the week for it. 

Have fun, we are!