My started early when I woke up at 4am and watched the pilot boat come speeding across the Straights. The pilots (2 because we'll be sailing 24/7 in pilot required waters) boarded the ship and we resumed our speed until 3 hours later we reached the area of the Park ranger station where another small boat approached us with 2 Park Rangers, 2 Tlingit cultural representatives, and 2 National Geographic of Alaska representatives. They boarded and set up their temporary visitor center in the Crow's Nest. Ranger Deb provided the scenic commentary, the Nat Geo folks sold souvenir items with part of the proceeds going to support the National Park. The main Tlingit representative gave information about the Tlingit peoples and had 'show and tell' items. But most importantly, they brought their National Park stamp so we could obtain an impression from it for our National Parks Passport book.
On the slow cruise into the bay we had the opportunity to see wild mountain goats, Stellar sea lions, sea otters a few seals (it was seal birthing time, so we didn't see as much of those as I've seen on a prior trip which was later in the season), and multiple glaciers. The weather was sprinkly, but the rain stopped as we reached Margarite Glacier, which is the most active and healthy Glacier. We hovered in front of it for an hour before setting a course to leave. The other ranger gave a short slide presentation on the National Park system in general and Glacier Bay National Park. The Tlingit representative then gave an oral history of his people, and all too soon they reboarded their launch and were gone leaving us to continue our sail to Ketchikan.
I led the 4pm interdenominational Sunday service in which around 30 people participated. It was the final Gala night so my wife and I ate in the main dining room because it was lobster night. Afterwards, we watched the comedy show of John Joseph ( a New York style comedian). Personally I liked the previous night's Savannah Jack performance much more.
Since I was up so early, I elected to go to bed early while my wife watched Patriot Games.
Tomorrow we are scheduled to arrive in Ketchikan at noon for a brief 5 hour stop. So we should have some nice daylight cruising through the passageways leading to Ketchikan.
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