Thursday, July 19 - Cruising to Tracy Arm Fjord

Cruise Day 3

Again I am awake to photograph the old rosy blush and the sunrise but sneak in a few more zzz’s before finally getting up. Not much dark time, sun sets 9.53pm and rises 4.20am. The sun turns to fog and we see the ships lower radar turn on because you can’t see out the front and the fog horn sounds. Sun comes back and then hides behind the fog again but it should clear by noon.  We had an extra hour sleep last night, we put our clocks back one hour.

Brekkie is at the Lido this morning, affectionately called the trough although my fruit was lovely and I didn’t have to queue.  I am saving myself for lunch today - I have spied the taco bowls and will need to have room to put one of those away.  Yep, they are as good as they look, especially at 3pm.

I wander down to the infirmary so they can give any advice on my shin, it seems the spray on plastic skin is not rated well here, she recommends just antiseptic cream and keeping it covered.  It’s cooler today so I cover it well and then I can put my jeans on.

We have such a lot of beautiful scenery to look at today, from first thing we are weaving up the Tracy Arm in awe at the sheer cliffs on both sides.  Get very excited at our first sighting of an iceberg but see many many more and keep a good eye out for whales or other marine life, bears and bald eagles.

Ohh exciting, first icebergs!!

There is another cruise liner up the Tracy Arm already and we pass each other around the island in the middle.

He went one way around the island and we went the other

Sheer rock faces and not much growing close to the glacier

Our ship stops to let passengers who have bought the excursion to the glacier on a tour boat off.  We missed out on that tour, but I don’t mind now as our ship sails right up to the glacier and parks there for some time so that everyone can get their photo op.  The Sawyer Glacier at the top of Tracy Arm Fjord is pretty spectacular and we see a chunk calve off and smash into the sea.  This glacier is retreating by 400 feet each year so I’m glad we are here now.  

Spectacular Sawyer Glacier

The sea is a beautiful colour

The sun is warm but the breeze is freezing, we are happy to be wearing our down jackets but that didn’t take care of the frozen ears.  The sun stayed out all afternoon so we thawed out on the loungers for a while.  Kim is out on our balcony now with his binoculars checking for bears, whales and bald eagles.  I wore out one camera battery and half of the spare too, when I download them I see there are 227 photos – phew a marathon effort!

Our cruise so far!

We have our usual HH and nibbles behind glass tonight and watch as we weave out way back down the Fjord.  It could be the Marlborough Sounds in some places.

The show tonight is The Brits – a tribute to the British invasion from The Beatles, The Who, Herman’s Hermits and The Rolling Stones so we aim to hit one of the shows either 7.45pm before dinner or the 9.45pm after dinner.  In between is a tribute to Michael Jackson so we might not get dinner tonight.

Dinner is next on the list after the Show which had good music and again at Alvaro’s Table.  He does look after us and again the staff entertain us although tonight Chris is not helping them out dancing and wearing the Sombrero!

We go to check out the Punchliner Comedy Club but the next show is not for another 45 minutes at 10.30pm so we all decide we are too tired out to wait.

I did see a bear today - a polar bear!!