We set the clock to get up early to visit Hubbard Glacier. I wanted breakfast first but Richo wanted to get some Glacier photos. The scenery was majestic. 200 foot high cliffs of ice breaking off big chunks that fall into the sea and cause mini tidal waves. This process is called calving when a baby ice berg falls off the mother glacier. The ship travels through these baby bergs to about .5 nautical miles of the face. The water is clean and blue and about 2,000 feet deep in places. The wilderness lecturer has been here dozens of times and said this is the best weather he has ever encountered. You are lucky to strike 1 day a month like this is summer and here we are with beautiful blue skies and snowy white ice bergs float all around us.
They make a thundering crack and then a chunk falls off somewhere but you never know where and with a face this wide I was lucky enough to get a shot of one make its entrance into the ocean.
Sometimes baby seals sit on these floating ice chunks and killer whales form a team to bump the ice from underneath, dislodging the seal and delivering into the mouth of another waiting whale. I am so glad I didn't witness this terrible spectacle. These whales also bubble feed by circling a school of fish emitting bubbles to form a veil from below them and effectively herding them into a circle before charging through them and eating them.
The little bergs are clear and some have rocks lodged on them where they have a braided the rock surface as they travel forward.
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