Friday, July 11: Sawyer Glacier

Today was Glacier Day.  During the night the Captain headed for Dawes' Glacier but encountered so many "bergy bits" that it slowed us down to the point we'd get there too late in the day.  (Which would explain the random "clunk" noises I heard during the night.)  He changed course and went for Sawyer Glacier instead.  You can see the U-turn on the map below.

We woke to far cooler air, water with little floating bits of ice in the water, and spectacular crevasses carved out by previous glacial action.  Waterfalls starting hundreds of feet above our heads were all around us.

Below, Ron enjoys a good book and views of Sawyer Glacier from the lounge.  You can see why we like small ships.  Everyone gets a window seat.

Here's a view of us from the deck with a better picture of the glacier.  Sawyer Glacier is 200 feet high (it looked higher) and eight miles long.  As our skiffs went out, they were almost invisible when they got close to the glacier; even then, they stayed 1/2 mile out because the chunks of ice breaking off at random ("calving") can cause enough turbulence to upset a small skiff.

I went out on one of the skiffs for a better view.  It did get cold out there!  Below is a picture of one of the spectacular waterfalls behind our ship.  The color of the water had changed; it was murkier due to the glacial silt content, and thus not a good place for fish.