This morning we bundled up and boarded the expedition landing craft to cruise among icebergs near the mouth of LeConte Bay. The giant ice sculptures had floated nine miles down the winding fjord from LeConte Glacier. Some icebergs had caves, or large round holes, or carried rocks in their sides. There was ice with textured stripes and ice with beautiful shades of bright blue; it was a natural art gallery that changed with every shift of light and temperature. Small brown seabirds called marbled murrelets (small puffin relatives), bobbed on the green water, and in an instant they disappeared beneath the surface.
National Geographic Sea Lion traveled north 25 miles for a visit to the interesting and charming town of Petersburg. In about 1890 a Norwegian man settled here, attracted by excellent halibut and salmon fishing grounds and the nearby glacier as a year-round source of ice for shipping fish to far-flung markets. Others followed, and the Norwegian influence remains strong in many shops, street names, flags, decorations, and at the Sons of Norway Hall. Many waterfront homes are built on stilts to keep them above the high tide line. There are halibut-shaped stepping-stones in one section of sidewalk, and outlines of fishing boats in another section. Walking in this small town is quite pleasant. Bald eagles are common near town, on spruce trees, street lamps, and on fishing boats.
Some people went flightseeing to get a birds-eye view of a glacier, while others went to an Alaskan bog, and saw some unusual bog plants like the insect-eating sundew. We also strolled the docks to look at the many different types of fishing boats, and we leaned over the docks to look at beautiful organisms living underwater: huge anemones, tube worms, young kelp, and schools of tiny salmon swimming near. Life is abundant here! The afternoon ended with warm, clear skies.
Tonight was our Dungeness crab feast! Dessert was served in the lounge, and after a presentation on the history of Alaska, our day was capped off with a sunset sighting of a single humpback whale. The jagged, snow-capped peaks of the mainland were in view on this perfectly clear evening. We stood on the bow and watched the whale surface and breathe several times until the sun went down and the sky faded into sunset’s colors.
