Monday – Yakutat Bay & Hubbard Glacier

The weather was a little better today as moved north a bit from Glacier Bay to Yakutat Bay. Yakutat Bay is the home Hubbard Glacier. Mighty impressive. No bright sun but the odd patch of blue sky. The face of Hubbard is 300+ feet high at the water line plus another 200 or so feet below the water. That’s a lot of ice. And we able to get very close – just 200-300 feet from the glacier as the ice in the bay wasn’t bad enough to deter getting close. We saw only one other cruise ship during our 90 minute stay near the glacier. A Carnaval ship was approaching as we left. While at the glacier, the ship did two complete 360º turns.

Approaching Hubbard Glacier from Inside Explorer’s Lounge

At Hubbard Glacier from An Outside Deck

More from Inside

And a Panorama or Two (click to enlarge)

Which is better – Glacier Bay or Hubbard Glacier? Well the weather was better here and Hubbard looked more like a glacier than the ones we saw in Glacier Bay. Still, it’s all mighty impressive. Here’s some opinion on the subject with some more good pictures in sunlight.

By the time we left Hubbard Glacier, it was time for lunch, reading, snacks, and an afternoon lecture on the indigenous people of Alaska. The weather cleared up nicely as we sailed. It was warm enough to sit on our balcony and read. The lecture was interesting and well attended.

Cocktails as usual in the Living Room Bar and dinner in the World Cafe buffet. We are now sailing north toward Valdez where we will dock tomorrow for some land time. See you then! (And thanks to everyone for the comments – all are read and appreciated.)