Tracy Arm—Endicott Arm
For some of us, the day began at about 1:30am with Steve’s soft announcement that Northern Lights were shining brightly. However, by morning, the light had changed to a sublime blend of sky and ice blue as the Captain patiently guided the Sea Lion through an armada of floating ice on our way to the Sawyer Glaciers located at the far end of the dramatic fjord called Tracy Arm. In the end, the ice formed an impenetrable barrier, so we went to plan B and reversed our course to head for Endicott Arm.
On the way, we had an array of animal encounters. First were the mountain goats—way, way up on the slopes of Tracy Arm. These were difficult to see, but with the spotting scope and good binoculars we saw that there were billys, nannys and kids grazing in the alpine meadows. Heading up Endicott Arm, we made the improbable discovery of a very young humpback far away from his pod, who was clearly born to perform. His best tricks were a half breach and a series of fluke slaps performed over and over again. His show was interrupted by the appearance of a young bear along the shoreline, joined by a cub that fell off some rocks into the fjord. After a few anxious minutes we saw the cub manage to scramble out of the water and disappear into the woods. Although we couldn’t see him, we could hear his plaintive cries of complaint. About the same time the whale did a thunderous breach just off our bow that was loud enough to scare off the bear on the beach.
At the head of Endicott arm we found a wonderland of blue glacial ice and soaring granite walls. We embarked on marvelous Zodiac ride up towards the face of the Dawes Glacier, where some of us were lucky enough to see an immense block of ice calve off creating a splash at least 250 feet high. We also saw some of the animals that make their summer homes on or near the ice, including harbor seals, harbor porpoises, Arctic terns, and even a Herring gull that would ordinarily be found far away from anything icy. Kayakers had the unique experience of launching directly off the ship from a very clever device called a “jet dock."
This was another one of those classic Lindblad days, when we end up doing something far different, but maybe even better, than what we expected to do in the morning. And that is what expedition travel is all about.
For some of us, the day began at about 1:30am with Steve’s soft announcement that Northern Lights were shining brightly. However, by morning, the light had changed to a sublime blend of sky and ice blue as the Captain patiently guided the Sea Lion through an armada of floating ice on our way to the Sawyer Glaciers located at the far end of the dramatic fjord called Tracy Arm. In the end, the ice formed an impenetrable barrier, so we went to plan B and reversed our course to head for Endicott Arm.
On the way, we had an array of animal encounters. First were the mountain goats—way, way up on the slopes of Tracy Arm. These were difficult to see, but with the spotting scope and good binoculars we saw that there were billys, nannys and kids grazing in the alpine meadows. Heading up Endicott Arm, we made the improbable discovery of a very young humpback far away from his pod, who was clearly born to perform. His best tricks were a half breach and a series of fluke slaps performed over and over again. His show was interrupted by the appearance of a young bear along the shoreline, joined by a cub that fell off some rocks into the fjord. After a few anxious minutes we saw the cub manage to scramble out of the water and disappear into the woods. Although we couldn’t see him, we could hear his plaintive cries of complaint. About the same time the whale did a thunderous breach just off our bow that was loud enough to scare off the bear on the beach.
At the head of Endicott arm we found a wonderland of blue glacial ice and soaring granite walls. We embarked on marvelous Zodiac ride up towards the face of the Dawes Glacier, where some of us were lucky enough to see an immense block of ice calve off creating a splash at least 250 feet high. We also saw some of the animals that make their summer homes on or near the ice, including harbor seals, harbor porpoises, Arctic terns, and even a Herring gull that would ordinarily be found far away from anything icy. Kayakers had the unique experience of launching directly off the ship from a very clever device called a “jet dock."
This was another one of those classic Lindblad days, when we end up doing something far different, but maybe even better, than what we expected to do in the morning. And that is what expedition travel is all about.
