Hubbard Glacier...We Came Close

Hubbard Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in North America. The glacier is approximately 7 miles wide at its foot and 76 miles long. The glacier advances at a rate of 80 feet per year. The ice at the terminal face is approximately 450 years old and is over 2000 feet thick in some locations.

Leaving Icy Strait Point, we sailed over 200 miles north over night to reach Hubbard Glacier. The Freestyle Daily said we would reach Hubbard Glacier at approximately 10 am and stay until around 11:30 am. 

Unfortunately this is the view we saw when we looked out our balcony door first thing in the morning. Hearing the Sun's fog horn blowing was kinda cool, but only seeing white was not fun.

We turned on our TV to the channel that showed the ship's front facing camera so we could see what was directly ahead. This channel also broadcast any announcements coming from the bridge. The view in front of the ship matched the one out our port side balcony...a wall of white. But...the cruise director announced that we would be arriving at Hubbard Glacier earlier than planned so we crossed our fingers that the fog would be lifting soon.

We went up to deck 12 hoping to get our first glimpse of the glacier and this was the view from the Observation Lounge. 

The public deck in front of the lounge was filled with other optimistic folks standing in the rain looking at...fog and a lot of ice.

Trying to escape the rain, we went down on Deck 6 where we (and several of our closest friends) could see and still stay dry.

A short time after making the announcement that we would get to the glacier early, the cruise director made a second announcement saying the captain decided there was too much fog and ice...and that was that. We turned around and sailed back south the 200 miles that we traveled to get there. Our glacier viewing day just became a sea day.

Here is as far as we went and since comparing my photo to some I found online I realized that we really WERE at the glacier. The largest tidewater glacier in North America was right in front of our eyes...we just couldn't see it.

Hubbard Glacier was right in front of us...but we couldn't see it.

An online photo...what our view should have been. 

The only part of Hubbard Glacier we would be seeing were the large ice chunks floating by that were probably once part of the glacier.

Not seeing Hubbard Glacier was a disappointment, but not devastating. I would have been much more upset if Hubbard had been the only glacier we were scheduled to see. The fog did lift just a bit as we sailed out of Yukatat Bay as you can see in these photos.

A close up of the ice berg in the previous photo.

I'm not sure what kind of water fowl this is, but we had the best time watching them try to take off. They went for a LONG distance flapping and splashing before they could ever get air born.

With a whole day and nothing planned, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the main dining room and then stopped by Dazzles Lounge. One of the cruise director's staff was giving a talk on his home country of Mexico. The lecture turned out to be a recitation of Wikipedia information and in a warm room following a big lunch everyone was nodding off. I got up and left my DH and our friends and went for a walk around the ship instead.

Dinner was in the main dining room and the evening entertainment was a show by the Sun production cast and show band called "Rock You Tonight". I honestly can't remember what we did afterward, but I will venture to guess we ended up at the buffet getting a late night snack before heading back to the cabin to get ready for our early arrival in Sitka the next morning. This critter was waiting for us in the cabin when we returned...