We are in southeastern Alaska glacier country, at last. Glaciers abound all along the eastern shores of Frederick and Steven Sounds. This area is south of Juneau by about 85 miles. Our plan is to visit at least three realizing New World has a fiberglass hull and chunks of ice and fiber glass not so good; on New World, we probably won’t get very close.

Le Conte glacier is one of the more stable glaciers in the area; losses incurred during the warm months are being redeposited by heavy snows in the winter. Just in Petersburg they had over seven feet of snow last winter, much more up on the snowpack at elevations of 10k+ feet.

With that as background, we spent four days in Petersburg and decided to sign on to a Le Conte glacier tour. An aluminum boat carrying 12 to 16 people that could travel in the open water of Frederick Sound at 30 - 35 kts. 35 versus New World’s 7 so you can see the wisdom of our tour taking decision.

The round trip is over 40 miles and once inside Le Conte Bay we started seeing ice bergs. No more 35 kts, now our driver was dodging these chucks of ice that occasionally hit the boat with a distinct bang, clunk or clang. And then there it was, the glacier face. Our driver/guide was very persistent in his attempts to get us close to the face, finally within 800 feet. Wow, you don’t get that with a cruise ship. This was ole hat for him and he could see the signs that more calving was about to happen. We waited, engines turned off drifting, listening to the ice cracking, a deep yet very sharp sound and then it happened. A huge portion of the face let go right before us. It’s difficult for me to describe the sound of the ice being ripped apart and falling until it hit the water. Picture a house sized section of ice hitting the water. Maybe like the sound of a small bomb followed by the splash. When someone does a cannonball into a pool the idea is to make as big a splash as possible. This splash went one hundred feet into the air. And then the wave.

We spent close to an hour at the glacier, this was an evening tour, we brought our Bourbon and water, cups, chips, and cheese. A highlight of the journey so far and yes, we spotted a Humpback on the return.