At Sea Tuesday 16 July, Cruising Tracy Arm

We were up at 7.30 with breakfast arriving in our room. Because I missed my usual smoked salmon delights, we got some extras from the Neptune Room and then headed up to the Bookstore again. We wanted to collect our CD’s from the Booth Brothers, give them a few souvenirs for the kids and hopefully get a picture with Michael!! Ronnie Booth was so lovely: the guys had all signed the 7 CD’s that we had to pay for (including the free one Jim gave us) and then Ronnie said they wanted to give them to us because we’d made such an effort to come all this way to see them! How amazing. Michael wasn’t there. We shopped at a couple of the other tables and then went down to a lecture on Yellow Emeralds so we could go in the draw to win one! Very interesting gems ... we didn’t win! L

Lunch was a bit of this and a bit of that; Graham had a burger and chips and I had very disappointing sushi, mainly because the yanks like their sweet stuff and most of it was made with fruit!! Again we picked up a couple of extra savoury bits from the Neptune.

Early afternoon we started the final section heading for Tracey Arm. Words cannot describe this beautiful landmark. As we headed in (huge ship, small channel) it grew more and more beautiful until we reached the breathtaking glacier. We did a 360 right at the glacier; the guide said she had only been this far up the channel and this close to the glacier on about 12 occasions over the past 5 years – it’s rare to be able to come this far! God certainly blessed us here. The pictures can’t do it justice but I’ll put in a couple anyway. Much of the time heading up Tracy Arm we spent on Observation Deck. Then when the ship arrived close up to the glacier and did its slow 360, we waited till we knew the back of the ship would be pointing towards the glacier: this meant that it was time to go down to our stateroom. From then on, all the way back down Tracy Arm, we had the spectacular scenery framed by our windows and door. I had the battery out of the camera to charge but every ten minutes had to put it back in again to take yet another picture.

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We didn’t go to the concert tonight but caught our breath for a couple of hours. Dinner was again delicious; interestingly, the drink waiters don’t come to our section of the dining room – by arrangement with the promoters. They have to pay a levy because the ship is missing out on alcohol bucks! We’re getting to know our table mates quickly – Duane and Jenny from Montana and Carolyn and Boyd from Boise, Idaho: lovely people, just a little older than us. While we were finishing dinner, Jenny spotted some whales spouting (we’re sitting right on the window), so the cameras were out on Lower Promenade Deck.