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Thursday 25th August
Weather: Beautiful sunny morning – completely clouding over in the afternoon (fog horn sounding!)
Sea Conditions: extremely flat first thing, bit more sway in the afternoon
The plan was to cruise in Tracy Arm this morning, but there was too much ice within the Arm for the captain to risk it. Instead we headed to the other side of the mountains to Tracy Arm and cruised along Endicott Arm – known as Little Yosemite – to see the Dawes Glacier.
It was an early start for everyone … we passed through the entrance to Endicott Arm at 5am – before sunrise and the estimated time of arrival at the Glacier was 7.30am. We watched from our balcony for a while – it was cold! When donned the layers and coats and then headed up on deck (stood above the bridge) for 7am and it was still quite quiet. The space filled up pretty soon although the sun was right above the Glacier so not brilliant for taking photos.
Lots of bergy-bits (Growlers) floating in the water with some larger ones as we approached the Glacier. We rounded the corner and Dawes Glacier came into view … well sort of as it was difficult to see with the sun. As the sun rose, it was a little easier to see and the blueness of the Glacier came out. We saw some little bits of the Glacier come away … then the ship started to spin around and just as it went out of our line of vision, a huge chunk of the glacier calved. We heard the crack … then saw the spray and the result wave travel along the length of the Glacier. Very cool (just a shame we didn’t see it happen!). The view behind of the passage to Dawes Glacier was a pretty impressive view too as the sun was shining down the valley. Steep slopes on either side dotted with Spruce Trees led straight into the water. Waterfalls were dotted along the valley. Nothing spectacular as the snow at the tops were almost melted.
As the ship spun around to Starboard, we headed back to our cabin to get an unobstructed view of the Glacier. With the ship obscuring the sun, we did get to see more of the blueness of the glacier … but no deep blues that we’d seen at Mendenhall (but that may have been because of the brightness of the sun).
All too soon, the ship span to port so we got the dramatic views of the valley leading up to the Glacier. The ship then slowly headed away from the Glacier but we still got some great views of Dawes sailing out as the ship turned starboard.
Stunning scenery but next stop was breakfast – it was now after 9am and Callum reminded us he hadn’t eaten for 14 hours!! Main Dining Room was closed so Callum was delighted when we said we’d go to the buffet. The plates were huge (big oval serving platters!) but we were all very restrained and reminded Callum he could always go back for seconds.
Callum was pestering to play golf again so Jon took him up and thrashed him 7-0 on the putting green whilst I watched the scenery go by. Jon then thrashed us all at Monopoly. They have a games cupboard in Leaves (the tea bar) with board games and cards you can borrow. US Style Monopoly with Broadway being the equivalent of Mayfair. Jon managed to get three sets and put houses and hotels on the lot so bankrupted Callum and I very quickly.
This was followed by a sandwich from the International Cafe before heading back to the cabin to chill for an hour or so before Kids Club for Callum and Blind Wine Tasting with Arnie in Vines. We were now travelling through Fredericks Sounds and there were loads of Humpback Whales in this area – we spotted loads plus a pod of poipose.
Callum was dropped off at Kids Club in time for their Naturalist Talk on the animals of the Glaciers. Jon and I headed towards Vines for the wine tasting. Joanne and Tom (on our table for the first wine tasting) were with us along with their friends Diana and John. Another two couples from California and a chap from South Carolina joined us. It was brilliant fun and Arnie was very knowledgeable on the Old World Wines. Arnie had gone to the trouble of getting samples of the different aromas in jars for us to smell – coffee, olives, strawberries, tobacco, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, chocolate, juniper berries, blueberries.
Afterwards we stayed to chat a bit to Diana, John, Joanne and Tom – they were surprisingly knowledageble about UK (& European) politics. They wanted to know if we’d heard of Donald Trump – they weren’t big fans but were interested to know how it was being portrayed overseas.
We had an hour or so to wait for Callum to finish the activities he wanted to do in Kids Club, so we grabbed a drink at the bar by Kids Club and caught the end of the Movie being shown on the Sea Screen. The wind had picked up a little and you could feel the ship swaying gently from side to side for the first time in three days. We then noticed the very low lying cloud (fog) and pretty soon the ship was enveloped in it. You could barely see the sea from Deck 15 … and the fog horn sounded loudly every 2 minutes or so. You knew it was thick when you could see the wisps of fog between where we were sat at the sea screen. The open deck area cleared pretty quickly!
Callum collected from Kids Club and was starving … a slice of pizza from the poolside grill would hopefully tide him over until we ate in the Crown Grill this evening.
Callum and Jon disappeared off to play table tennis for an hour or so late afternoon (not sure exactly what they were doing but Callum arrived back at the cabin in a really sweaty state!). I caught up with the Blog and tried (unsuccessfully) to update it online – sorry Mum & Ray – internet is very slow and keeps dropping off!
All changed ready for dinner and Franco welcomed us to Crown Grill. Franco is tiny (Callum is taller than him!) and he is the Head Waiter for Crown Grill. He knew where Reading was as a mate of his owns/runs an Italian Restaurant there. He’s a Man City supporter too!
Crown Grill is larger than you think once you are inside. Waiters and waitresses (as everywhere on board) and extremely friendly and welcoming. Jon and Callum chose scallops for starters and I had the Lobster Cake. Callum skipped soup but Jon and I both had the Shrimp and Proscuitto Bisque and it was lovely. Callum was adamant he wanted the Mussel Pot for main course whilst Jon opted for the Fillet Mignon and I the New York Strip. Jon made the better choice as mine was quite fatty (cooked perfectly – but wrong cut of meat for me). We had a bowl of Frites, Asparagus and Sauteed Mushrooms to share.
We weren’t sure if we could fit puddings in. I chose the Chefs Platter – a small sample of the four puddings on offer whilst Jon had the hot fudge cake and Callum the peanut butter bar. The Hot fudge cake was amazing. Not usually Jon’s thing, but it soon disappeared. The other two samples I tried were the Lemon Meringue and a S’Mores cake. All tasty but the fudge cake was the only one I finished that night.
We were all starting to feel quite tired now (having been up at 5am) so we headed back to the cabin. We were losing an hour tonight.
