Early morning misty light found National Geographic Sea Bird making her way up Tracy Arm toward South Sawyer Glacier. Snow-capped mountains surrounded us as the ship maneuvered through icebergs and bergy bits calved from the glacier at the head of the fjord.
After a scrumptious breakfast, we boarded our expedition landing crafts to venture further into Tracy Arm and get a closer look at the source of all the floating ice around us. Curious harbor seals eyed us from their floating ice perches. Mountain goats gazed at us from the stony walls surrounding the fjord. South Sawyer Glacier treated us to several large calving events with walls of ice falling from the glacier face into the sea with a resounding thunderclap.
After lunch, all the water toys came out. Some of us chose to kayak; others explored by expedition landing craft; still others tested the ice-cold waters on stand-up paddleboards!
Our day was best summed up in a poem composed by guest Jenna Pearson:
It’s a rare dream
to see what I’ve seen
to stand still and be
near heaven’s
shadow of imperfect
beauty that I
will forever hold
dear to my heart.
