Alaskan Adventure: Day 70. Our group set sail at 11:00am on the “Limousine of Valdez” piloted by Captain Fred. The day began overcast but gradually cleared and became sunny but not much warmer. We got back to dock around 8:00pm. It was really cold standing out on deck taking pictures but there was so much beauty to see!

Valdez Harbor

Waiting to board the Lu-Lu Belle

The graceful Lu-Lu Belle

Valdez Harbor from the back of the Lu-Lu Belle

Was it the Sea Gulls laughing or Bernadette and Joe?

Tug boats in Port Valdez.

Setting out we saw the huge oil storage tanks on the opposite side of Valdez Bay

View heading out toward Prince Edward Sound

Inquisitive Sea Otters

More Sea Otters

Beautiful Scenery

Bald Eagle and lots of waterfalls

I think this is a Pigeon Guillemot (same family as Puffins)

The Captain pointed out the tower marking the location that the Exxon Valdez ran aground and broke open spilling oil into Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989. That is an iceberg to the right of the tower. Both are very big but we were very far away.

Bunches of colorful Puffins

Captain Fred maneuvered the front of the boat into a shallow cave for us to get very close to this Puffin

Another Sea Otter

So many Sea Lions!

Sea Lions were pretty vocal about our boat being in their space

Lots of Sea Lions with Pups

More Sea Lions

Humpback Whales. The Lu-Lu Belle boat came up on two sleeping whales.

Humpback Whale Blowhole

Humpback Whale Fluke

Lots of Whale Tails

We started seeing little icebergs floating around as we neared the mouth of Columbia Bay

Majestic mountains behind entrance to Columbia Bay

Icebergs covered Columbia Glacier Bay.

The chunks of colorful ice got bigger and bigger

Some of the largest icebergs are resting on the bottom instead of floating.

The face of Colombia Glacier is 8 miles away. The field of icebergs was too dense to get any closer.

Columbia Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in Alaska. It is retreating very rapidly. Captain Fred attributes the rapid rate to the 1964 earthquake settling areas that allowed meltwater to flow underneath the ice.

The face of Columbia Glacier. Doesn’t seem terribly impressive but the ice face varies between 200′ to 300′ high. (a 20-30 story building).

Because we couldn’t get close to the main branch of Columbia Glacier we visited this west branch of the Columbia Glacier which is not calving as much so more approachable

Glacier Tourists

We saw whale spouts off in the distance as we were returning from the glaciers

Beautiful ice sculptures

The Lady in the rock (face profile).

This post ends with several videos of the boat moving into Columbia Bay; navigating slowly between the biggest icebergs and bumping aside the smaller ones with ‘clunks’. The videos may seem boring but it was pretty wild being on the boat and wondering how he would miss the next one straight ahead. A bit of the ‘Titanic’ movie came to mind more than once.

Favorite Bible verse for today: Romans 11: 33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him, that it would be paid back to him? For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.