It was cool but certainly not anything to get riled up about. Especially if you have seen random blue chunks of ice floating past you before. And I had. We had taken a cruise through the fjords of Patagonia to see the San Rafael Glacier. And since everyone else in my room was still sleeping, I also went back to bed. But sleep was not to be found again. B was kind enough to bring me coffee, so I got up and back out to the balcony. By now, the rest of the family was up and out there also, so we had coffee together, on four separate balconies, all in a row, just waiting for the fog to reveal the glacier.
From the far left our balconies were ours (not shown), then Chris and Pam (shown but she is out of the picture), next was Bre and Max (hands can be seen) and then Pat and Sarah (you can see Pat). And then the Bridge, from where the captain was making his announcements.
Now, this was a fun piece of ice floating past...
At this point, we all got dressed and headed over to Nana and Grampa's room because the captain was maneuvering the boat into position for their side of the ship to be facing the glacier. We opened their balcony up and listened as the glacier calved massive icebergs into the water at a rate of about 1 every 2-3 minutes. It is incredible to watch the ice fall and then hear the crash seconds later. And it is also interesting to note how loud it really is!
The glacier itself is about 122 km long (90 miles) and, contrary to so many other glaciers in the world, it is still advancing. And calving - which just means that pieces of ice fall off the front of the glacier and into the water, creating icebergs large and small. Interesting to note, it takes almost 400 years for the ice to make it from the back to the front of the glacier, so the ice falling into the water in the video above and the photo below is over 400 years old.
You can only stare at a stationary object for so long (it's like watching grass grow), so we all headed back to our rooms for a little more rest because we still had about an hour left before we could navigate our colossal ship back out into the open waters. And if you remember the fate of the Titanic, you do not want your captain to move too quickly in iceberg-infested waters.
My final view on the way out.
Somewhere just outside of Anchorage.
Help keep the bears away...No Fish Guts.
Moose!
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