We darted down the Endicott Arm Fjord (as much as a cruise ship can dart) just after 6am, arriving at Dawes Glacier around 7am. The crack of dawn these days in Alaska is about 3:30, so this was at least several hours later! One of us does early mornings, and the other need a reason to rise. ;) This was reason enough. The fjord is wide enough for a cruise ship, but not heavily traveled. There was a much smaller boat behind us, taking advantage of our iceberg-clear wake.
Something I didn't know about glacial silt is that it doesn't settle, but is suspended within the water, giving the water the milky depression glass look. I'm sure there's more science behind it, but the bottom line is that the water is beautiful, and has this cloudy quality that is hard to describe. It makes you think the water is shallow since you can see the silt. Of course, if a cruise ship is coming through, it can't be that shallow! In addition to beautiful water, there were icebergs and plenty of harbor seal pups along the way. The ship made many icebergs flip all the way over, dumping many a harbor seal in to the water!
At the end of the arm was Dawes Glacier. I have had many opportunities to teach about glaciers in the course of 21 years. Many of the demonstrations or experiments included rubbing ice cubes on gravel. As you can imagine, that did not increase much understanding. The book I'm currently reading (Tip of the Iceberg) discusses how John Muir hypothesized that glacier carving existed, and used changing maps to support his thinking. That coupled with seeing the paths of these glaciers is helping me have a whole new understanding. I'd love to tell you when this glacier surged, and how far it has receded, but Wikipedia is quiet, and TripAdvisor does not seem reliable for this kind of info. ;) I think it can be assumed that the fjord was once a glacier, and that the water that exists there now is from the receding glacier path. Something else I learned was the the noise that the glaciers make is not always due to calving. Some of the noise is escaped oxygen, escaping sort of like a bubble as the pressure releases to the surface.
After viewing the glacier and fjord for a couple of hours, we had breakfast, and then I took a very lengthy nap. First, I was tired! And second, I was patched up for our later whale watching tour, and while the patch works (motion sickness), it makes me incredibly tired.
We pulled in to Juneau about noon, and we had a whale watching tour scheduled for 2pm. It was beautiful in Juneau today -- sparkling water, and almost 70 degrees. We took a whale watching tour that was a Citizen Science tour. What that means is that the tour company works with scientists who are researching specific phenomena, and provide data to them.
Our first science check was pulling up a crab pot. They are tracking an invasive species - the European Green Crab. It first showed up in San Francisco in the 1980s, and has made it as far as British Columbia. So far, there has not been a presence detected in Alaska, but they check daily. We hauled up a crab pot, and found nothing but sculpin and starfish. The lady I was hauling the crab pot up with had never seen a starfish before in person. It was stuck to the outside of the pot, and the guide asked her to pick it up. She had no idea how to handle it; turns out we know stuff being Coasties!
Onward to the whale watching. It was a beautiful day, and the whales were out, and showing their tales! Remember that great science at Medina Elementary called "Voyage of the Mimi"? Okay, maybe you all didn't love it, but I did! And just like those videos, we identified whales based on their flukes! It was amazing, and we saw these three whales up close and personal. Our captain was great -- giving us great views, and keeping a safe distance, but these whales were playing around! Got amazing shots, but also just got to experience these awesome creatures. They were all around, and the sounds of their breathing was magical (and at times startling!).
Well, the iLounge on the ship is right above tonight's live music. I think it's karaoke; mom thinks the band is just warming up. Either way, it's NOT Carrie Underwood down there! We have to be up early for our train out of Skagway, so we are happily going to call it a night. More adventures tomorrow!
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