Endicott Arm cruising and Dawes Glacier

Today starts two days of cruising.  First we cruise into Endicott Arm, a fjord near Juneau.  It is approximately 30 miles long with one fifth of it's area covered by ice.  Dawes Glacier is a 15 mile long glacier that ends/empties into the head of Endicott Arm.

 Day started out well, weather was decent again and this is what I saw when I opened the curtains this morning



a lovely waterfall

 there are barely discernible little terns on this grouping


That says "there be ice ahead!"  We were still about 2 hours away from the head of the fjord and Dawes glacier - this should be good.  But alas, it was not to be, the further we progressed up the fjord the more and more ice we were seeing.  Once we got to the narrowest part of the fjord, we found our way blocked by lots more ice.  As we are not an icebreaker it was deemed wise not to progress any further for fear of damage to the boat or getting stuck.  We had a marine pilot on board and it was his and the Captain's decision not to proceed.  The reason there was so much free ice is partially because of the great weather we have been having, resulting in a lot more "calving" of the leading edge of the glacier.  Now, I do believe this was already know before we even started up the channel, because this did not all happen overnight.  But, we were promised a trip to the glacier, and that is what we were given.  Our other option would have been to go the other way into Tracy Arm, but as this is a Marine Protected Area, only 3 ships a day are allowed in, so we were out of luck.

 This is as far as we could go - that is a wall of ice chunks blocking the way - we were still about 3 km away.


But we did see lots and lots of "bergy bits"














 this one was about a 1/4 mile away, and it was only when I zoomed in that I realized there was actually an eagle sitting on one end of it - kind of helps to determine the scale and size of these little chunks of ice




 the grey patterning in the middle is glacial soil and debris

 this one I call "Raven on a bed"
 and this one looks like a "flying penquin"
 the grey patterning in the middle is glacial soil and debris




 there s a seagull sitting on the top of this one






 this one was right next to the ship with the waves washing over it
 some had this beautiful blue translucency 












Lots of scenery to look at coming and going in Endicott Arm



















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