Parting is such sweet sorrow. Today is our last day together, and somehow Alaska knew because she gave us one last great day of sunshine and memories. We capitalized on that by having one last wild Alaskan adventure.
The quest today was to South Sawyer Glacier where we saw some amazing calving. It was estimated that some of the calving that occurred on today’s viewing were pieces of ice as large as 20 story buildings. Many of the Zodiacs viewed mountain goats close by, as they were gathered near the base of a waterfall. While viewing the glacier activity our guests were even visited by a band of friendly Vikings offering hot cocoa.
After the viewing we watched the kids onboard graduate from Global Explorers that simply rode on the ship, to Global Explorers that captained and drove the Zodiacs themselves. The Global Explorers leader stated that all explorers successfully completed their Zodiac training and are now able to captain a Lindblad-National Geographic Zodiac while on their next voyage.
While the kids were working on their captain’s licenses, the dive team was preparing for their final dive of the trip. Shay and I worked together to get the gear collected and organized. We two divers and our surface support team hopped into a Zodiac and drove to a rocky spit in Williams Cove. Looking out at the shoreline there was some skepticism about whether this would be a good dive platform with lots of undersea creatures. Little did we know luck was on our side. As we descended into the murky depths of this fjord, we found the little underwater rocky spit teeming with life. We found starfish that had arms almost as long as the five-foot divers. We made history today in the Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic dive log as the first two people to dive in Williams Cove.
The ship was jealous of the divers’ fun, so they took matters into their own hands and had a polar plunge event for all guests, staff, and crew. And after dinner, we were greeted by a pod of orcas having fun in the last rays of sunshine for this beautiful day. The ship set sail into the beautiful sunset for the last time on this voyage. It was a wonderful and memorable time and we look forward to seeing everyone again on one of our many adventures.
