After traveling from various parts of the world to Juneau and boarding the National Geographic Sea Lion, we awoke this morning to a gentle brightening of the morning sky. Calm seas and scattered clouds as foreground and upper frame with a mid-level scene of rugged forest covered mountains. We were cruising slowly off the entrance to the Tracy Arm/Endicott Arm Wilderness are of the Tongass National Forest.
Our morning wake-up call and introduction to the day was slightly earlier than anticipated because whale spouts were spotted a short distance ahead of the ship just inside the entrance to Tracy Arm. In very little time people began appearing on the bow of the ship, cameras and binoculars at the ready. Soon seven or eight humpback whales were counted. These whales were feeding in very shallow waters at the terminal moraine shallows of the fjords. Additionally, a number of species of birds including a variety of gulls, scoters, and murrelets were using the churning tidal waters as an area for feeding. With this wildlife activity and the landscape of forested mountains and the hanging glacier of Sumdum, it was a spectacular way to start the day.
During the morning we traveled up the winding fjord of Tracy Arm. All around was spectacular scenery rising a couple of thousand feet above the ship. Along the way the bridge officers slowed to pull the ship slowly up to the rock walls of the fjord where waterfalls plunged over the near vertical rock walls of the fjord. Cameras were always at hand as the scenery continually shifted and changed.
By lunch time the ship had progressed further into the narrow fjord of Tracy Arm. Floating ice became more and more abundant in the calm waters. On a couple of the highest points above our heads a few white dots with 4 legs were spotted. At this time of year Mountain Goats are perched on the snow free ridges and cliffs where lush green vegetation can be found for food.
Our activity for the afternoon was to have our first small boat ride to experience the ice and view the tidewater face of South Sawyer Glacier. As we slowly progressed from the ship further into the fjord the rugged broken face and front of the glacier came into view. Even with a light rain it was spectacular to get the experience of being surrounded by glacier ice and to see, occasionally the booming sound and crash of ice coming off the vertical glacier face.
Our first day on the National Geographic Sea Lion and in the wilderness landscape of Southeast Alaska and been a true special expedition. It had been the first time this season that the ship had been able to enter Tracy Arm and to travel to the end of the fjord to see the landscape and the river of ice of the tidewater South Sawyer Glacier.
