Summer Recap pt. 5

Day five of the cruise brought us to, what I personally consider, the best attraction of the trip: The Tracy Arm Fjord (http://www.alaska-cruise-advisor.com/tracy-arm.html). We'd cut the previous night short in anticipation of getting up early and finding a nice spot on the ninth deck for viewing this very unique location. The weather up to this point had been fantastic and thankfully held just through our time there.


We were on deck around 7 AM or just before since the Windjammer cafe hadn't quite opened for business yet. It was cold though! And quiet. Think library, not calm before the storm. The sun had been up and shining brightly since 4AM, no clouds were in sight. Everyone spoke more or less in hushed tones and gestures. We were all mesmerized by the view! Bevin will most certainly post pictures here since my words won't do the scenery justice. And she took some fantastic shots! The land in this particular place is truly untamed. I had to keep reminding myself that there were no people on the other sides of the surrounding mountains, just more wilderness than anyone knew what to do with. She and I were in awe of the idea that more than likely no one- Native Indian, Russian explorer, French-Canadian fur trapper, Daniel Boone- no one had set foot on these shores or explored these forests! Any mark they might have left behind to prove otherwise was long gone. There was no trash along the shoreline, no houses on the hillside, no bridges to sail under. Just rocky oceanic mountain ranges and icebergs everywhere!

We were able to spot a pack of seals laying on one particularly large, flat hunk of ice about 150 yards away. They regarded us with casual curiosity. You can't help but think of the Titanic, looking down and seeing jagged blocks of ice, many larger than 18-wheelers, floating in the opal waters of the fjord. The water in this place is loaded with glacial silt, which gives it a milky blue hue. This made the reflections from the rock walls vibrant! The silt makes it impossible for fish to live here; I suppose the seals take refuge in the cloudy waters from anything large enough to eat them and they in turn head out to cleaner water for food when hungry. Makes sense to me!

At the end of the fjord is the Sawyer glacier, a majestic wall of blue ice largely responsible for the landscape around us. This wall is enormous! I don't know the actual dimensions but imagine some of the largest buildings you know, slap several of them together, and watch as they slowly grind their way toward you. Yes, it's that big! We were told that on a good day you can actually watch the ice crumble off of the edges and hear the sounds, though we weren't able to do either from deck nine. Special pilots had flown in the night before to navigate the ship safely to this point, and they were doing a wonderful job making sure everyone could see the most of this glacier! As we came to a dead stop, they rotated the ship around- in place!- three or four times to make sure everyone on board had a chance to see it, either from the deck, observation lounges or the comfort of their cabins.  God's magnificence is reflected in this place, we can't wait to go back!

The rest of that day and all of day six had us steaming our way back through the interior passage toward Victoria.  But the exposure to the cold air in the fjord had an unpleasant affect on Bevin and me.  We tried staying warm out on the deck by drinking hot chocolate and coffee and eating steamy grits from the cafe.  But we were still breathing in cold air, and every time we went into the ship to get more drink and food, the air was, of course, warm. I believe it was this constant warm/cold air switch that landed us (especially me) with Alaskan sized head colds, the effects of which lasted well past the end of our trip!  And guess what, we hadn't thought to pack any medications that would help ease the SUFFERING that came with said cold.  Sure we had ibuprofen and antacids, but nothing to clear out the copious amounts of head fluid and mucus that hit us both, right in the noses!  So by the time we left the deck and headed back to our cabin for a mid-morning nap, the damage was done. My CPAP machine could force air into my nasal passages, but I couldn't force air back through there, which meant I had to sleep without it.  Which meant that poor Bevin, doing the best she could in the miserable circumstance, had to try to sleep with my snoring.  Needless to say, sleep didn't come well at all for either of us. 

The ship's commissary sold cold medicine at an extortionary price.  I think we figured it was close to three dollars a pill, for five pills.  My sweet wife came through for me though!   The mother of the family we dined with in the main hall was a registered nurse.  When she asked Bevin how we were and what we planned on doing when we docked in Victoria, my Bevin explained our condition to her.  True to form, this nice lady provided much needed medication for us.  Thank God for nurses, especially this one!  It's because of her, we were able to enjoy our day in Canada, which I'll write about hopefully tomorrow!