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Tuesday 23rd August – Juneau
Weather: Low-lying cloud, rain to start with but clearing up a little later
Sea Conditions: extremely flat
We had booked the Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watching Photo Safari this morning. Juneau was a tender port for Grand Princess so our meet time was 8.10am in the theatre. Once we had all been gathered together, we were escorted to the tenders to go to shore – less than 5 minutes ride away. Also in port were Norwegian Jewel and Coral Princess that we’d followed from Ketchikan plus Celebrity Millennium. Two more ships were also due in later that morning.
There were 14 people (a good mix of Brits, Aussies, Czechs and Americans) in our group and our guide, Adriane, said we were going to do the whale watching first. There was a little bit of rain in the air, but the boat had huge flip up windows so even if it was raining, we didn’t have to get wet. She was hopeful of the weather brightening up later in the day. It was a 10 minute ride over to Auke Bay to board our boat – Mariner. Captain Fred was in charge and Adriane spent time with everyone to make sure they had their camera set up correctly to capture the whales, taking into account the murky weather conditions. ISO 1000 (as a starting point), continuous shooting mode and either Sports Mode or Tv (Shutter Priority Mode) with a shutter speed of 1/1000.
We were off – Mariner was powered by 3 x 250 horsepower outboard engines – more powerful than a F1 car! She was fast. We zoomed out to a place were a humpback whale had just turned tail … meaning s/he would be down under for 15 mins or so. Right on cue, we spotted her. Adriane was really good and for the first couple of sightings, told us when she was going to show his or her tail so we could try and capture that iconic tale shot. We hung around for a bit, and saw the whale another couple of times before moving on to another whale location. All the whale watching boats were in radio contact but you just had to spot one boat rushing away to know whales had been spotted elsewhere. Our boat was fast so we were pretty much the first ones to get there.
They saved the best til last. We saw the humpback whale before heading back just off the starboard side of the ship, a little way off. When she resurfaced, s/he was right next to our boat and went right underneath us. Thankfully she didn’t show us tail as it may have flipped the boat over.
On the way back to the dock, Fred took us by a harbour buoy where there were 5 or 6 Stellar Seals all lazing about on top.
Back to the shore and we transferred onto the bus to take us the 10 mins or so to the Mendenhall Glacier. We stopped a little way off and hiked a short trail towards the Glacier through the temperate rainforest. Everywhere was covered in moss & lichen – a really good indicator of a clean air environment. We past markers indicating where the Glacier was in years gone by – the earliest indicator was 1916 – 100 years ago. We still had a good 15 minute hike to reach the Glacier viewpoint. The Naturalist on board said the Glacier was retreating at a net rate of 500 yards a year – moving forward at 200 yards and melting at 700 yards.
The blues on the glacier were amazing – some really deep blue parts and all shades in between to white. The naturalist had said the bluer the glacier indicates that the more air had been squeezed out of the ice as it compressed over the years. As the glaciers breaks up, the colour of the ice returns to white as the air gets back into the ice.
All too quick, the tour was over and we were dropped off back in Juneau. We had a quick wander around the town and found an old saloon (Front Street Cafe) to grab a bite to eat for lunch. I had a fish sandwich, Callum a Pulled Pork Sandwich and Jon a bowl of Cod, Shrimp and Bacon. It was all far better than we expected and really tasty.
Next stop was a trip up the Mount Roberts Tramway – a cable car taking us to the top of the hill overlooking the harbour. By now Amsterdam (Holland American) was in port and Norwegian Gem had taken Norwegian Jewel’s place. The cloud was coming in, but we still had great view of the ships in port. We walked one of the nature trails up the top and saw the rescued Bald Eagle.
Eventually it was time to head back to the ship and sort ourselves out ready for dinner. Grand Princess was in port until 11pm this evening – but we would be asleep before she left. Just a very short hop over to Icy Strait Point.
Main Dining Room this evening and there would be a bit of a wait for a table for three so we decided to share – we were joined by two Texan Couples who were real characters (in a nice way). Callum reminded one of the them of her 12 year old son. Same appetite, same mannerisms … All of us had mushroom soup then Callum had the southern fried chicken whilst Jon and I had the Scallops. Chocolate pudding for both Jon and I whilst Callum asked for a tiny portion of Orange Sorbet … and ended up with two large scoops.
Callum was now really tired so we headed back to the cabin and he fell asleep straight away. If only he would do this at home!
