Glacier Bay

I guess that you don't get to be a Cruise Director on a ship this size without being astute and observant. Doing the warm up for last night's show Alex, our Cruise Director, told us that every country has a phrase that's guaranteed to invoke a passionate response from their citizens. "I'll show you", he said. "Aussie, aussie aussie", he yelled, and one rather silly person sitting on my left yelled back "Oi Oi Oi". "There's the Australian", said Alex. "Beer and hockey", he yelled, and a roar went up from the balcony. "There's the Canadians", said Alex. "Free buffet", he yelled, and a huge roar erupted from the floor. "There's the Americans".

Today was spent cruising up and down Glacier Bay. No landfall at all, but it took most of the day to slowly cruise up to the end of the bay and back. Glacier Bay was where geologists who believed the new and radical theory that glaciers were responsible for carving out many of the world's valleys came in the 19th century to investigate their theory. Captain George Vancouver was the first to document the area in 1795 when a glacier, the mighty Grand Pacific Glacier, covered all but 8km of the bay. By the time the geologists arrived in 1879, the glacier had retreated 65km back up the bay. Nowadays you have to travel 105km up the bay, ironically all the way up to the Canadian border to get to a big tidewater glacier (a glacier that flows into the sea), and it won't be log until the cruise ships are going back into Canadian waters to see them (I hope that won't cause a new border grab like it once did).

They say that there are hundreds of glaciers in the park, some of which are now very small, but the queen of the glaciers for those visiting by boat is the Margerie Glacier, and it was the focus of the day. We picked up a couple of National Park guides, and headed the 100km up the bay to see it, spending about an hour looking at it and listening to the guide's explanation, before turning the ship around so that the people with cabins on the other side could have their turn, and slowly cruising back.

Saw the odd whale, lots of birds and a bit of calving (no, not that sort, it's called calving when bits of glaciers fall off into the sea), but nothing huge. They served pea and ham soup out on deck during the morning to keep you warm, which seems to be a dutch tradition.

After we turned around, we went inside and thawed out while watching the Lamplugh and Reid Glaciers go by, and having a bite of lunch.

About dinner time we dropped our guides off, headed out off our sheltered passage, and into the Pacific Ocean bound for Anchorage, and for the first time we experienced some swell. As we head northward again, the period of daylight will get even longer. Currently the sun is setting about 11pm, and rising again around 4am.

Tonight it was another show in the showroom, followed by dinner - the second of the formal evenings - and a visit to the Abba Dance Party to finish off the night. Honestly I can't believe how pervasive Abba is all around the world. We've already had two Abba numbers in the shows, and tonight a whole party is devoted to them. There have been bigger groups - you know, groups like the Beatles and the Bay City Rollers - but I'd wager a lot that if you could add up all of the songs being played around the world at dances, parties, shows, bars, on musac tapes, in shops, and on soundtracks, Abba would be soooo far ahead of anybody else.

Watched the sunset about 11pm cast it's pink light on the distant mountains.