I say trying because as you will see - it's not that easy.
Tracy Arm is a fjord south of Juneau that cuts east into the mainland. We had to travel back south on Stephens Passage for about 40-miles heading for Holkham Bay which is the outlet of Tracy Arm. Tracy Arm was cut through the rock by the Sawyer Glacier.
On our way south we passed this smaller cruise ship in Stephens Passage.
As we rounded the point leading to Holkham Bay we passed a small anchorage where several fishing boats and sail boats were at anchor. Notice that a small ice berg is drifting into the anchorage. Again - these shots were taken with the Meade binocular cam. The cam takes good pictures but this is a long way off so they are a little fuzzy.
As we moved deeper into the bay we began to see ice from the glacier.
The Tracy Arm and its bay are much colder than the Stephens Passage.
The scenery was fully breathtaking.
Even the smaller unnamed glaciers were impressive.
As we moved deeper up the Tracy Arm fjord the walls began to close in on the ship.
The Captain had to move the ship from side to side in the channel to avoid icebergs. Remember - 7/8th of the iceberg is below water so the ship was very cautious as we move upstream.
And it was cold. The cool air rushing off the glacier combined with the speed of the ship made a really cold wind chill!
We moved closer to the glaciers winding our way deeper into the fjord.
By now the bergs were getting more frequent and the walls of the fjord were more imposing.
We passed a spot where a glacier had carved a perfect U-shape in the stone.
But... unfortunately that is as close as we got to the glacier. The ice was thicker and thicker as we moved upstream. The ship is very valuable and no one wanted damage that propeller stranding us deep in Tracy Arm - so we understood when the Captain said enough-is-enough and turned the ship to head back out to our next destination.
We made this last shot of the Tracy Arm from the comfort of the Los Rambales restaurant.
On to Skagway