Endicott Arm to Dawes Glacier

Today's schedule had us spending the morning sailing down Tracy Arm Fjord to see the South Sawyer Glacier...but that's not exactly how things went.

The Sun was scheduled to enter Tracy Arm around 5:30 am. We weren't up quite that early, but not long after. Norwegian provides coffee makers in the cabins and this was the perfect day to make use of it. I had brought along an insulated travel mug and enjoyed hot coffee all morning long. Bob (who is not a coffee drinker) just picked up hot chocolate packets from the buffet and used the coffee maker to heat the water. (He was not pleased that I forgot to remove the grounds from the coffee maker and proceeded to make his hot chocolate with weak "coffee water". Time for a re-do.)

The weather was cold, drizzly and overcast and I was so grateful that we had our balcony. I was in and out frequently and it was so nice to have a covered spot...with chairs...where we could watch the scenery. We were bundled up, but if we got chilly, we just popped inside and watched the scenery go by from inside the cabin until we warmed up.

One discovery I made on this cruise was that even with my phone in airplane mode, my Google Maps app would still show the location of our ship using GPS. I would check my phone and then refer to a large map (that I saved from our Princess Alaska cruise) to get a more precise idea of where we were. The map was hanging from our cabin wall with magnets...a discovery I made on a previous cruise! 

But anyway...using Google Maps I had already figured out we were doing a detour down Endicott Arm rather than Tracy Arm (even before this was announced by the cruise director.) This did not come as a surprise since I knew that ice often prevented ships from entering Tracy Arm...but still a disappointment.

Nevertheless, the scenery was spectacular!

The interesting shaped icebergs floating by were all shades of white and blue...and a landing spot for eagles! At one point we saw a whale, but on a moving ship it is hard to get photos unless you are very quick!

We passed by one glacier high up in the mountains and at the end of Endicott Arm we reached Dawes Glacier. Having not seen South Sawyer Glacier I am not able to compare, but in my opinion this glacier was pretty impressive. Unfortunately the lighting was not the best for photos.

Two small ships were also in Endicott Arm with us...the National Geographic Sea Lion and also the Alaskan Dream. I would love to see Alaska on a small cruise ship...but knowing I could take several cruises on a large ship for the same price is enough to keep me from following through with the dream.

The silt from the glacial runoff made the waters a milky greenish-blue color.

Sailing up Endicott Arm was only part of the day's plan...from there we were headed to Juneau where we would spend the afternoon and evening. 

Some photos of the beautiful scenery as we traveled towards Juneau...