After sunset the National Geographic Sea Lion continued her passage north into Frederick Sound and then into Stephens Passage. At 4:30 this morning the Sea Lion crossed the terminal moraine of Sawyer Glacier located in Holkham Bay, which marks the entrance of the spectacular and majestic Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness area. Several thousand years ago a glacial sheet of ice carved these two fjords. When the ice retreated, approximately twelve thousand years ago, salt water filled the deep channels, creating a path of extraordinary scenery which leads to the face of a glacier that has receded into two faces. For the next twenty-three miles the Sea Lion kept a steady pace, making her way around corner after corner heading for our morning anchorage just off of the face of South Sawyer Glacier.
Once breakfast announcements were completed and Zodiacs had been lowered, the ship was divided into two groups. The first set of ice explorers headed a short distance towards the face of the Glacier. The tide was dropping and the first sound we noticed was the outwash river coming from the face of the Glacier, pouring water and carrying large quantities of ice down bay. All along the face small bits of ice were dropping, keeping everyone alert to the possibility of watching a good calving of ice. We were kept on our toes with more bits of ice, occasional Harbor seal faces popping up to check out the new visitors, and Arctic terns flying about having just completed their migration to their summer home! Then it began, with a section of the face of the glacier hitting the water and breaking up....followed by a shooter the size of a small apartment building rising slowly and beautifully out of the water! It rose and rose, sea water streaming off all sides...”Oh My Goodness, it’s a Shooter.”
More sections of the face of South Sawyer calved away into small bergie bits as the first round of Zodiacs began their journey back to the Sea Lion. Onboard were our fellow travelers anxiously awaiting our return. They heard the stories of the first round and were very excited about getting up to the face of South Sawyer to see what else she had to offer! All Zodiacs spent time cruising around the shooter, looking into the deep blue of the heavily compressed iceberg.
The tide had continued to drop and ice was still coming away from the face in small pieces...all along the face small bits were cascading into the sea. The face of South Sawyer was slowly, very slowly breaking away in sections. Right on cue, near an arch, there were small pieces, bigger pieces and then...A HUGE SECTION OF THE RIGHT FACE FELL AWAY into the sea followed by a fifteen foot rolling wave! Zodiacs faced into the rolling wave and road out a short series of waves. We backed away as brash ice followed. We yelled, cheered, witnessed, heard and felt the gift of being in an ice world. The air was filled with the sound of white thunder. We safely maneuvered our Zodiacs in front of South Sawyer Glacier, on our last day of exploring the world of Alaska in the north of the Northwest Coast.
