The guests of National Geographic Quest greeted the morning sun from the narrow waters of Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness. Shear granite and gneiss walls rise to heights of two thousand feet on either side of us as we traveled towards South Sawyer Glacier. While a nearly cloudless sky allowed us to be bathed in sunlight, we were still dressed in all our layers to drive the long run to view the glacier in our Zodiac expedition boats. Recently pupped seals came to examine our boats as we stopped to photograph the electric teal ice. We bounced from waterfall to waterfall in route to the viewing area when a mother mountain goat and her kid wondered out from a creek to lick the salt from exposed tidewater rocks. We were later able to float in the shadow of this massive chunk of ice for nearly forty-five minutes before returning to the warmth of National Geographic Quest.
After a warm lunch, Photo Instructor Nathan Kelley gave an eye-opening lecture on expedition photography. Our guests were thrilled to have an impromptu cocktail party on our aft Sundeck with breathtaking views of the passing valleys within the fjord. The hotel department out did themselves with the delicious cocktails. No one could have predicted that, while we were enjoying ourselves, someone would spot a tall black fin in the distance behind us. We closed out our day following a pod of killer whales back into the fjord, before turning around and pointing the bow south.
