5/22-6/1 Alaska Cruise (Radiance) & Land Tour, LOTS of Photos (L.J. & Bev Part II/I)

[WalleyeLJ]

As we reached the bottom of the pass and were just about back to Skagway proper, we kept an eye out for Dyea Road on our right. This road leads to an overlook that lets you get a nice view of Skagway and the ships in port – including the lovely Radiance. The rain was ever present, but really, a trip to coastal Alaska without any rain really wouldn’t be a true Alaska experience! I even got a fun shot of Bev wearing my rakish waterproof boonie hat (a GREAT investment)…

 

 

 

The view from the overlook (Radiance is all the way to the right)

 

 

 

 

 

A shot of the two Princess ships (Railroad Dock) and a Holland America ship (Broadway Dock)

 

 

 

 

 

Bev sporting my boonie rain hat…

 

 

 

 

 

We hopped back in the car, backtracked to the Klondike Highway, turned right and made our way into Skagway. I hit the gas station in town, topped of the car, dropped it off at Avis, and made our way into downtown to check things out with the hour or so we had left. Things were pretty much wrapped up for the day, but it was still fun to walk around and check out some of the unique buildings. The last planned stop of the day was to try and check out the Red Onion Saloon!

 

 

This “Welcome to Skagway” sign greats you as you reach sea level and enter town…

 

 

 

 

 

Downtown Skagway shops

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Arctic Brotherhood Building (the exterior is covered in pieces of driftwood) on Broadway is a favorite photo op and is a few blocks from the cruise docks…

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Our time almost up in Skagway (8pm all aboard), we made our way down and into the Red Onion Saloon. The Red Onion was opened in 1897 and quickly became one of the busiest and most successful bordellos in town. Today, it’s a highly successful bar and restaurant (and museum if you want to revisit the old days). We didn’t have time to check out the museum, but we did stop and have a soda, and I also picked up a logoed pint glass for my travel collection. I don’t drink beer, but I love collecting pint glasses during our travels. Bev was ready to head back to the ship, but I wanted to continue my ever present quest for t-shirts, so she headed for the Ore Dock and bounced in and out of the few gift shops and t-shirts stores that were open. While I didn’t find a shirt that appealed to me, I did come across and old White Pass train with the biggest snow blower attachment I have ever seen. It makes sense though as the railroad was the main land link to the rest of the world for many years. I can only imagine what it would look like in action! I realized I was quickly running out of time, so I put away the camera and started trotting towards Radiance. I made it on board with about 5 minutes or so to spare – there were only 8 other people still off the ship! Bev was a bit worried to say the least – she passed me on my way up to the room on her way back down to security to check to see if I was going to be left behind in Skagway. I’ve learned my lesson and now make sure I am always back on the ship at least 10 minutes before departure…

 

 

 

The AB House and the Red Onion Saloon really are just a few steps from each other

 

 

 

 

 

The front of the Red Onion

 

 

 

 

 

Fun times – a look inside the Red Onion!

 

 

 

 

 

The biggest snow blower I have EVER seen!

 

 

 

 

Our little towel buddy that greeted us before we turned in for the night. We were going to be up bright and early to head out with Patrick and Shannon for our fishing (and other) adventures in Icy Straight Point tomorrow!

 

 

 

Aardvark, Armadillo, or Anteater???

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[Kimahri]

So happy your surgery went well

I started reading your reviews last year in preparation for our trip this year. Thanks for all the information and beautiful pictures.

[WalleyeLJ]

As dawn broke on another day in Alaska, I found myself alone in my favorite spot at the back of deck 11. The day was shaping up a lot like the day before – cool, gray, and intermittent rain showers – so I was glad for the overhead cover. One good sign was that it was pretty much flat. Easy fishing and even better for wildlife spotting! I went back and got Bev and headed back to the Windjammer to have a big breakfast so that we had enough energy for our big day of fishing! We made our way down to Deck 2 to catch a tender to shore. Unlike all our Caribbean experiences with tenders, where they were locally owned and operated shuttle boats, in Alaska the cruise lines use some of their own lifeboats to fill that role. I never thought it would be cool to end up in a lifeboat – but they’re pretty cool when you try them out from a perfectly good ship! Since our charter was an all-day affair, the folks at Dreamfish Charters asked us to get on the first tender of the day if possible as our pick up was scheduled for 7:30am just outside the gate to the Icy Strait Point Cannery/visitor’s complex. We indeed made it onto the first tender of the morning – and we had the tender mostly to ourselves. We headed up on top to the second deck to take in the fresh air and the views as we made our way to shore. The trip took only 4 or 5 minutes, and we were heading up the gangway, through the complex and out to meet Margie and the van!

 

 

Misty Morning in Icy Strait…

 

 

 

 

 

Our lifeboat/tender sliding up to Deck 2

 

 

 

 

 

Bev, Shannon and Patrick checking things out as we head for shore

 

 

 

 

 

It almost looks as though Patrick is say “So THAT’s where our ride came from…”

 

 

 

 

On final approach to the ISP tender dock. One of the big whale watching boats for the cruise ship excursions all tied up and ready to go…

 

 

 

 

 

Fast and efficient – the tenders looking like giant water bugs (everything’s bigger in Alaska), and the next couple were a lot more full than ours was!

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

So happy your surgery went well

I started reading your reviews last year in preparation for our trip this year. Thanks for all the information and beautiful pictures.

 

 

Thanks Kimahri - I hope you had a great trip. The knee is still a little behind where I'd like it (my shoulder is almost fully healed and it was only 9 weeks ago compared to 6 months for the knee), but I did take my mountain bike out on one of our local greenways for my first ride since before the knee injury and made it 20 miles - so I was pretty happy! Need to get it fully ready fro Alaska 3,0 in 2015:D!

 

L.J.

[navybaby1113]

Loving your review so far! Thank you!

[elisemburton]

Can't wait to read the rest!

[WalleyeLJ]

The reason we had to exit the Icy Strait Point visitor’s area is that it is owned by the local Tlingit residents, and because of that, non-ship tours must meet their rides off property. It’s just a couple-three minute walk to the gate and the parking area. We got there a few minutes early and spent our time taking in our surroundings, including an eagle on a piling out in the bay, and the tenders running folks in from Radiance. Margie showed up in the van a few minutes later, right on time. We hopped in, and made our way the mile and a half or so into the town of Hoonah. The roadway follows the edge of the bay, so while the ride was short it was very scenic. We didn’t see any whales on our short ride into town, but I did forget to mention that while we were having breakfast in the Windjammer that we saw a humpback right in the bay. We saw one breach right near the ship on our 2012 trip as well, so it’s no wonder why it’s such a great place to go whale watching! The population of Hoonah is around 600-700, so the town is pretty small, but spread out along the shoreline so it looks like most folks at least have a million dollar view no matter how big or small the homes are. The nice thing is that since this is usually a single ship port, it has yet to be overly developed and colonized by the cruise ship company stores like several other Alaska ports of call. Margie parked the van in the parking area right above the small boat harbor, and we all climbed out and headed down to the dock to meet Capt. Larry (who is also Margie’s husband) and their boat “Mystress” as he motored up to meet us. A couple minutes later, we were all aboard and heading out for our first ever fishing experience in Alaska!

 

 

 

Our view from the edge of the parking area of the historic Cannery and Radiance

 

 

 

 

 

A close up of Radiance – it looks like she’s ready to come ashore herself!

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of fishing vessels tied up at the Hoonah (actual working fish processing) Cannery on the shores of Hoonah

 

 

 

 

 

Captain Larry in the “Mystress” on final approach to pick us up…

 

 

 

 

A quick 15 minute run later and we were ready to see what lurked in the cold waters of Icy Strait…

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Thanks navy, thanks elise! At least I finally made some headway this weekend!

 

L.J.

[SoonerFan75]

That is FANTASATIC! I hope you have a wonderful trip. Where are you going/what are you doing for your first Alaska adventure? I'm just sorry I get a good run of posts going and then get sidetracked for extended periods of time. I will keep forging ahead - and I'll get as much in as I can before June;)!

 

L.J.

 

We head out of Seattle on June 1st. At Juneau, we are going to do the glacier seaplane flight/Taku Lodge feast and then hope to get over to see Mendenhall glacier. Skagway is the next stop and we have the Yukon Rail & Bus trip booked with Chilkoot. Thinking about also doing the Skagway Town tour w/ Dyea Dave so we can get out to see Reid Falls. The next day will be the Glacier Bay cruising. Friday we will be at Ketchikan - it's a pretty brief port so the only thing booked is the Bears of the Fjords tour with Alaska Seaplane Tours....a little early in the season, but really hoping we get to see some bear. Final stop will be in Victoria (6 pm to midnight) and we have nothing planned yet. Probably end up doing a horse carriage tour, or something similiar....open to suggestions if you have any!

 

Again, thanks - i've really enjoyed your report!

[jormot]

I have a question for you. We have never been to Alaska before and are considering a R/T Seattle cruise in 2015 mostly because we want to visit Sitka. Seems like a very neat town. How "scenic" is the inside passage and if the itinerary is right and the price is right are we giving up to much to go R/T Seattle vs Vancouver? Thanks!!! And beautiful review. I loved reading about your adventure!

[WalleyeLJ]

Once Capt. Larry had the Mystress where he wanted, he came to the back of the boat and set up our rigs. We had short, stout rods with heavy duty line, and our bait rigs consisted of a 16 oz. sinker with a heavy duty three-way monofilament harness that left a circle hook with some chartreuse tubing over the hook eye, dressed with some partially frozen herring bodies. If anyone wants to see what the rig looks like let me know and I’ll post a pic. We were set up in about 290-300 feet of water, and halibut are bottom feeders, so it takes a little while to get down to them. Capt. Larry told us once we made contact with the bottom, you want to take up the slack so that we could lift the rig up a foot or two and then drop it back down in free fall to the bottom so it would sort of “thump” when it hit. Capt. Larry said halibut often swim over prey and then thump them with their bodies or tails to stun their snack before feeding. He said the theory was that it would attract other halibut to our bait, curious to see what the ruckus was all about.

 

Just a few minutes later, Bev hooked up first. Several minutes and 300 feet later, into the boat comes…an Arrowtooth Flounder. Capt. Larry called them “Uglies”, and said they were a trash fish – no meat value. Ugly was a good name for them, as was their given name. Flatfish aren’t exactly pretty to begin with, and these squirrelly eyed fish have one vicious mouth full of razor sharp teeth – like arrowheads. So, back in the water he (or she) went. Patrick and Bev vied back and forth for who had the most fish, but while Patrick caught a couple of halibut (1 small and 1 keeper) along with a mess of Arrowtooth’s, Bev just kept catching those “uglies”. Shannon and I took a little long to get on the halibut board, but I got one, and she ended up leading us all for the day with 3. We weren’t too far off shore, so we were able to see eagles flying by on occasion as the moved from tree to tree, scoping out their next meal.

 

Before long, we realized we had a party crasher, and I had to stop fishing and pick up the camera! A curious Sea lion appeared off our stern, apparently hoping for a free snack, either a hand out from us, or to steal one of ours. He entertained us for a few minutes, but once he realized he wasn’t going to get any easy pickings, he moved on. Still, it was wild to have one come so close to us, especially since we didn’t get to see them on the buoy in Juneau. While it was still mostly cloudy, there were occasional brief breaks of sun, the water was very calm, and we began to see Humpbacks appear all around us. A couple fairly close, some off in the distance – out in the middle of the strait and in near shore. While the fishing was fairly steady, the bonus whale watching was a great way to fill the time between catches!

 

 

 

Patrick is ready to rumble with the leviathans of Icy Strait!

 

 

 

 

 

Me with my first ever halibut! Not very big as far as halibut go, but it was a keeper and a trophy!!!

 

 

 

 

Bald Eagle taking flight!

 

 

 

 

 

Our Sea lion buddy making his way towards us

 

 

 

 

 

Our Sea lion looks like he’s ready for us to toss him a dog bone – or better yet a fish bone!

 

 

 

 

 

Ahoy there – the first Humpback of the day – the first of many!!!

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

We head out of Seattle on June 1st. At Juneau, we are going to do the glacier seaplane flight/Taku Lodge feast and then hope to get over to see Mendenhall glacier. Skagway is the next stop and we have the Yukon Rail & Bus trip booked with Chilkoot. Thinking about also doing the Skagway Town tour w/ Dyea Dave so we can get out to see Reid Falls. The next day will be the Glacier Bay cruising. Friday we will be at Ketchikan - it's a pretty brief port so the only thing booked is the Bears of the Fjords tour with Alaska Seaplane Tours....a little early in the season, but really hoping we get to see some bear. Final stop will be in Victoria (6 pm to midnight) and we have nothing planned yet. Probably end up doing a horse carriage tour, or something similiar....open to suggestions if you have any!

 

Again, thanks - i've really enjoyed your report!

 

Sooner Fan75,

 

Sounds like you've got a great trip planned! We haven't been into Glacier Bay or stopped at Victoria. Sitka's on the to do list as well:). It may be a bit early for bears as you mentioned, but when we did our trip into Misty Fjords Michelle had us keep an eye out for a Brown bear that had been seen in the area, and we found a huge bear claw in the rocks along the beach to back that up, and that was the end of May. Nothing like seeing a wild bear! Ketchikan is a great shopping port, and if you can make it to Creek Street it's a nice place to check out. Have agreat trip:D.

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

I have a question for you. We have never been to Alaska before and are considering a R/T Seattle cruise in 2015 mostly because we want to visit Sitka. Seems like a very neat town. How "scenic" is the inside passage and if the itinerary is right and the price is right are we giving up to much to go R/T Seattle vs Vancouver? Thanks!!! And beautiful review. I loved reading about your adventure!

 

jormot,

 

Thanks for checking out our adventure. There are many folks here on the board that have a lot more Alaska crusing experience under their belts than we do, but personally we LOVE the Inside Passage - as long as you actually go through it versus around it. I know that some of the Seattle trips take an outside loop into the open ocean around the lower part of the Inside Passage, not going in/out until approaching or just leaving the Ketchikan area. We haven't made it to Sitka yet, but as I just mention in my last post it's high on the list for Bev & I the next Alaskan cruise we take. We've seen several television shows featuring Sitka, and it looks like a great place to visit. We'd love to see some some photos and hear about your Sitka experience when you get back.

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Fishing continued on for a while longer, steady picking for each of us. In addition to the Arrowtooth’s and the occasional halibut, we also caught a number of rockfish of different sorts. Apparently there are a number of different types, but we didn’t keep any of them until Bev hooked the one and only Canary Rockfish of the day. It was a brilliant reddish orange. Capt. Larry said that they were as good or even better eating than halibut, so we added it to the keeper list for the day. Considering how many fish we caught overall, the halibut fishing itself was pretty slow. Capt. Larry said we were on the early side of the season, and that the fishing would get progressively better into June and July. He was proven right by the ridiculously great fishing for halibut we had in July 2012 at nearly the same location. As we fished, Margie was a great hostess, and brought out some homemade treats she had brought for us. First up were some homemade blueberry muffins (fantastic!), and then at lunch time we had ham & cheese croissant sandwiches, more homemade baked goods – chocolate peanut butter cookies(!!!), with soda, soft drinks and some Alaskan beers.

 

As the fishing slowed and the whales continued to show more of themselves, Capt. Larry offered to turn our fishing trip into a whale watching trip if we wanted since the halibut were slow going. We left that up to Patrick and Shannon, who were all for it. They didn’t have a whale watching trip scheduled during the cruise, so this ended up being a great opportunity for them to end up with one after all since we had booked a full day. When you aren’t use to it, bottom fishing is hard on the arms, so this was a nice break for all us. While Point Adolphus was the place to go for whale watching in Icy Strait (another 8 miles or so northwest of us), we had such a good show going on around us that a couple of the dedicated whale watching trips spent a good amount of time around us!

 

 

 

One of the “unknown” rockfish – interesting looking critters eh?

 

 

 

 

 

The first of several great whale tail shows of the day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big triple decker boat from the ISP Cannery dock packed with folks off of Radiance checking out the whale show…

 

 

 

 

 

Bev proudly holding her glow in the dark Canary Rockfish

 

 

 

 

 

Smoochin’ - looks like love at first sight!

 

 

 

 

 

Next up – time to meet the new kid on the block!

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

So, as through we didn’t have enough good fortune with all the various whales around us near and far, we had the good luck to have another mother and calf swim upon us and entertain us for quite some time. While it would be nice to think they just wanted to spend some time with us, it was really the big floating kelp bed that they were interested in. Both mom and baby had a grand old time rolling around in the big mass of kelp (spa treatment maybe?!?), showing both their pectoral fins and even their bellies as they lounged around upside down for a bit! No breaching today, but a great time getting to see the two up close for such a long time, along with all the others…

 

 

 

Here’s comes Mama Humpback and her little one…

 

 

 

 

 

Who knew whales liked to float upside down?!?!

 

 

 

 

 

Prepare to dive!

 

 

 

 

 

Big things near and far – they’re everywhere in Alaska!

 

 

 

 

 

Never get tired of seeing whale spouts – here’s another lone wolf traveling along the shoreline… We didn’t have the fortune to witness bubble net feeding, but I know some folks did on the run down to Point Adolphus

 

 

 

 

One last look at Mama’s tail before she sounds one last time, and we start back to Hoonah…

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

After several hours of fishing, and then several more whale watching (including and extra hour beyond what we were supposed to get), Capt. Larry pointed the Mystress towards Hoonah and we made our way back into port. We had a terrific time with Patrick and Shannon!!! I was so glad that he reached out on our pre cruise thread to see if we wanted to split the charter since neither couple could go out on their own without playing double per person. Margie and Larry were great hosts as well – nice boat, fun to talk to, and of course the food treats were awesome! Unfortunately they’ve moved back to the Lower 48, but if you run into them down there, we can highly recommend them! While the weather had been a bit cool with the occasional scattered shower, in reality it was quite nice most of the day – the best part being the calm seas! Once we got going, it allowed me to still take some photos on the way back to Hoonah…

 

 

 

Shannon & Patrick were all smiles after a great day on the water, and so were Bev & I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The two sides of the weather were on full display as we headed back. On the far/Glacier Bay side of the Strait, where the sun wasn’t out it was at least dry and pretty clear. In comparison, on our side, there were storm clouds brewing up on the mountains of Chichagof Island, either rain showers, snow showers or both. In any case, I increased my shutter speed to get the silhouette effect of the tree line on the near hillside with the looming stormy weather beyond. Believe it or not, it’s actually a color photo – not black & white like it might first appear. In any case, it’s one of my favorite photos of the trip, and each time I see it in my office it brings me back north…

 

 

My Alaska!

 

 

 

 

 

There’s Radiance – waiting for us to return and take us to our next adventure!

 

 

 

 

 

A local trawler heading out in search of a catch of fresh Alaskan seafood

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Icy Strait Point Cannery and Pier complex to our port/left as we enter the bay…

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[aquajon]

excellent photos,,, how close were the whales you saw while out on your fishing charter? and which lens combo were you using?

[WalleyeLJ]

excellent photos,,, how close were the whales you saw while out on your fishing charter? and which lens combo were you using?

 

Hey aquajon,

 

The whales were as close as 150 feet a couple of times, but hung out on their own most of the time between 200-400 feet or so (the mother and calf). The others were a few hundred more feet to a 1/4 mile, but were pretty much saw a whale (or spout) every few minutes if not constantly most of the day. Most of the photos were taken with a Canon 100-400mm IS lens, but on occasion, I would need to go wider with an 18-200mm.

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

As we made our way past Radiance we got another chance to check out Hoonah from the water, as well as see more activity in general, from more fishing trawlers heading out to a kayaking excursion making its way back to the Cannery. Once we got back to the dock where we were picked up in the morning, Capt. Larry tied off the Mystress and it was picture time! As he was pulling alongside the dock, I was able to get some shots of a Bald Eagle sitting atop on the dock pilings. After a few photos, we made to the Hoonah fishing processing facility and made arrangements to get our Halibut (and the Glow in the Dark Canary Rockfish!) back home. Then it was into the minivan and back to ISP. We checked in at the security gate, made our way through the complex, checking out the gift shops in the Cannery building for a few minutes, and then caught that last tender back to the ship. No one can say I didn’t use every minute I could in Alaska!!!

 

 

 

Kayakers that had finished checking out Hoonah from the waterside, heading back to Icy Strait Point…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bird (BIG bird) on a wire…

 

 

 

 

 

A couple shots with our catches of the day – many thanks to Capt. Larry & Margie for a great day of fishing AND whale watching!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A look at the Hoonah waterfront – pretty much everyone has a great view!

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Last post for our day of adventure at and around Icy Strait Point. There are a number of things to do right in ISP, or from it (like the whale watching & kayaking). There are also some cultural events that are held in the complex that we’d like to see some day. Most of those are held at the Huna Tlingit Heritage Theater – including the dance performances. It’s good to have a reason to come back! After our tender ride back, we went back to the room, where Bev elected to just rest for a bit, while I decided to take advantage of the Thermal Suite in the spa for a little while. I was great to rest the weary bones and muscles on the heated tile loungers and watch Alaska float by out the window. I would probably not have a big interest in the Thermal Suite in the Caribbean, but even though was toasty warm on the ship, it just felt good to be able to go in there and relax for a bit during the week. In all we used it three or four times. If you have an interest it, I would definitely recommend it.

 

A quick shower after that and we were off to dinner. After dinner, we spent a little while in the casino to try our hand at the only game we feel comfortable with – blackjack! Thanks to a nice little run, we doubled what we had each brought with us ($50 into $100 – big gamblers we are not!), and then retired back to the room, exhausted but happy. Tomorrow morning we were arriving at Hubbard Glacier. On the northbound Radiance trips, that’s a 6am-10am “stop”/visit, and I was determined to get a good spot to hopefully see some epic glacier calving!!!

 

 

 

The Huna Tlingit Heritage Theater, along with some totem pole detail shots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A look back as we were leaving at the postcard shot for ISP…

 

 

 

 

 

Our towel buddy we found waiting for us when we got back to the room. Not in keeping with the Alaskan theme, but very cute!

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[Cruise_More_Often]

Gorgeous photos. It's fun following your Radiance cruise. Our cruise on her was in 2012 but southbound. We loved Hoonah/Icy Straight Point (did our whale watch there with Misty Bay Lodge).

 

I'm looking forward to your Hubbard pictures. Hope your wonderful weather continued.

[WalleyeLJ]

The excitement for Alaska hadn’t waned a bit on Day 9, which found me waking up at 4am without any effort. I was exhausted, yet unable to sleep – I wanted to make sure we had a good spot for the show this morning. So, I quietly got dressed, gathered up my camera gear, and made my way to Deck 5, and headed for the heli-deck on the bow. As I climbed up the steps and onto the heli-deck, the wind whipped into me, making walking forward a bit of a challenge. The great thing was that I was the FIRST person of the day up there, so I made my way to the very tip of the bow and settled in for the approach. The early morning light was a deep bluish gray, and Radiance was cranking what seemed to be full steam ahead at 20+ knots. It was right around 32 degrees as the intermittent precipitation alternated between a cold rain and sleet, which made a crackling sound as it bounced off my waterproof rain shell. Fortunately, I had several layers on, including my wind block fleece and my water & windproof rain jacket, rain pants, and wind block gloves. Still – my face was exposed, and that wind-chill was WAY less than 32 degrees – so my early morning cup of coffee went quickly before it went from hot to frozen! Eventually a few more brave souls joined me up on deck, among them Kim & Dennis from our CC group. It was about time for me to go and get Bev, so I asked them to watch my spot and my camera gear so I could move a bit faster, and not bring the now nearly frozen gear back into the warm ship. She was pretty sleepy when I keyed back into the room, but a few encouraging words, and she was dressed and we made our way back on deck. We were in Yakutat Bay now, so the excitement built as we continued motoring along until little bergy bits and small icebergs began to appear and we made our way into Disenchantment Bay – and within sight of Hubbard Glacier itself…

 

 

 

Three of the cooler looking icebergs we passed in Disenchantment Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The middle section of Hubbard on the horizon!

 

 

 

 

 

The right edge of Hubbard and the mainland, the side the captain brought the side in along as we closed in on the face of Hubbard… Check out all the ice in the water! This didn’t stop our approach, so I can’t imagine how much ice is in the water when ships can’t get close or in at all…

 

 

 

 

 

A shot straight down from the bow at the massive collection ice that Radiance was now slowly plowing through. It was both cool and creepy to hear and even feel the clanging of the bigger pieces ringing the hull of the ship and Radiance motored ahead…I trust that the Captain knew how much of a pounding the 12 in steel hull could take, but I couldn’t help wondering exactly how cold that water was going to feel if one of those ice cubes ended up being just a BIT too big…

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

Gorgeous photos. It's fun following your Radiance cruise. Our cruise on her was in 2012 but southbound. We loved Hoonah/Icy Straight Point (did our whale watch there with Misty Bay Lodge).

 

I'm looking forward to your Hubbard pictures. Hope your wonderful weather continued.

 

Cruise_More_Often,

 

When did you sail in 2012? We were on the July 6th southbound on Radiance in 2012. That was actually the first review I did here on CC which led to going back to recount this adventure.

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

While Hubbard dominates your view, there is glacier frontage in about 160 degree arc when you get close enough, with the glacier facing wrapping around towards your left/9 o’clock position as you approach Hubbard straight on. The glaciers to the left side are two relatively “small” glacier arms known as Hunter Glacier and Haenke Glacier. These two glaciers differ from the face of Hubbard in that they have A LOT of moraine content imbedded in their faces from scrubbing down the two narrow valleys from which they fall towards the ocean. As a result, they have a lot less blue or white from exposed ice, but rather a ton of blacks, browns and grays, which made for a different look. Rotating your view in the bay from right to left, you come to the edge of Hubbard. Above left, you’ll see Valerie Glacier is an alpine glacier that runs into Hubbard itself along the left edge. That creates a lot of moraine content on the left edge of Hubbard, but that quickly fades away moving towards center, where the towering face of Hubbard greets you with an endless variety of whites, grays and blues. It being our first up close glacier encounter, it was a breathtaking experience…

 

 

 

The moraine filled glaciers along the left wide of Disenchantment Bay…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving left towards center and onto the face of Hubbard

 

 

 

 

 

Forging our way to the face of Hubbard. Check out the brighter white spot on the right side of the face of Hubbard. A huge section had just calved into the bay, leaving the crushed ice debris on the sloping face which effectively blocked the brilliant shades of blue found across so much of the glacier face…

 

 

 

 

 

Inching us in even closer to the monstrous wall of ice – up to 350 feet high!!!

 

 

 

 

 

A close up look of the face of the glacier, including a cool looking ice cave. That opening is roughly 40+ feet high, and 50 feet wide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.