Melanie Tucker (Rare Finds Travel) had told us that if we wanted to cruise in Southeast Alaska, the Uncruise line was the way to go. She was so right. We loved this cruise from start to finish. The Wilderness Adventurer was about 170 feet – just the right size for getting into the smaller coves. There were 58 guests on our trip, and about 25 crew members. Here’s what the boat looked like. At the stern there was a floating dock from which it was easy to launch skiffs, kayaks and stand-up paddle boards. The concept was to be off the boat being active as much as possible.
We left Juneau Saturday night and woke up in a cove (as we did most mornings). Dave got up early to ride a spin bike, and when the 7 am yoga class started on the deck he joined it. I was in the back of the class so witnessed what happened next. It was raining and the deck was too wet to get on the mats, so we were mostly doing standup routines and a lot of stretching and relaxation. The only yoga Dave had ever done before was P90X, so this was too tame for him. In the middle of the class Dave started dropping to the floor to do vigorous pushups, startling almost everyone there. Paul, the yoga instructor, was unperturbed. “If your body…is telling you…to drop down and do pushups….so be it,” he said in his slow, kind of sleepy voice. Paul, who also doubled as the ship’s masseuse, was on several of our hikes later in the cruise and was a good guy.
That morning was the worst of the weather for the whole trip. You signed up for activities the night before, and we had chosen kayaking. It was pretty rainy, as you can see from this photo of our kayak raft-up.
Still, it was nice paddling around the cove among the seals and a few icebergs. We had gotten really good waterproof and rather jaunty jackets in Juneau (see Dave above in the neon orange), but my butt got a little wet even though there were cockpit skirts on the kayaks. At lunchtime I bought from the ship’s store some absolutely waterproof lightweight pants, and after that I was good to go anywhere in Alaska — head to toe waterproof. The ship provided us with rubber boots.
After lunch we cruised through Tracy Arm. This is dramatic scenery, with steep cliffs that the glaciers had carved through brilliant turquoise water.
Mountain goat:
The crew said they had never seen these fjords with so many waterfalls. It had been a bit rainy, as I’ve mentioned once or twice in this blog.
We stopped at the face of South Sawyer Glacier. The day before, we had been hiking on top of the Mendenhall Glacier, but this time we were getting the water perspective.
Small groups went out in skiffs to inspect it more closely, which meant no closer than ¼ mile, because the glaciers are dangerous. Huge chunks of ice “calve” off the face, which naturally causes massive swells. We waited our turn to go on a skiff and from the boat witnessed several pieces calving off. (Everyone would cheer.)
Where the ice is deep blue, it’s a face that has recently become exposed.
Here are a few photos that I’ve borrowed from those that were posted by the crew. The rest are mine.
When it was our turn we loaded onto a skiff and headed toward the face. Here we are en route, wearing our serious foul weather gear (thanks, Dad):
We were fairly close when an enormous piece of the glacier crashed off. Below is a photo of it seconds later as it’s hitting the water:
This was a huge crash, and once we finished oohing and aahing we realized what was going to come next: a set of massive swells. Here is Christina, one of the guides, signaling to the skiff driver to back up even faster than he already was doing.
I had my good camera out and quickly started packing it back into the dry bag, thinking that at a minimum we were going to take on some serious water. But we were fine. Later we heard from another skiff that when each swell reached us, our skiff dropped completely out of sight before bobbing back up. We’ve got some GoPro footage of the swells, but I haven’t figured out how to edit it down to a small enough size to upload it here.
Here’s Christina a little happier, saying she was relieved and had been a little worried.
On the way back to the boat we nabbed a small iceberg.
Back on the boat, the iceberg we salvaged was put to good use by Heather, the bartender. This was my polar cocktail.
And here’s what the cozy bar looked like. Cheers!
