Upon leaving Skagway, Radiance set sail for the northernmost point of our cruise, Hubbard Glacier. Pictured here is the face of Hubbard Glacier, an astonishing six miles wide. The glacier travels seventy-six miles from Mount Logan in the Yukon Territory before calving into the sea. Calving is glacier-speak for glacial ice’s loosening and breaking away from the glacier. Hubbard Glacier is the largest calving glacier in North America. Three hundred to four hundred feet of the glacier is below water, while four hundred to five hundred feet of the glacier is above water. The glacier may not appear so large here, but, according to Radiance’s captain, we were approximately three nautical miles from the glacier when we took this photo.

Becky looks at Hubbard Glacier from our balcony. Everyone should have been able to get a good view of the glacier because the ship pivoted in a full circle.

It looks cold here, so it’s no wonder that Becky’s wearing a coat. When we were 11.4 nautical miles from the glacier, the air temperature was 54ºF. Once we were just 3.3 nautical miles from the glacier, the air temperature had decreased to 48ºF. We enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate on the balcony as we listened to a glacier expert’s commentary.

Pictured here is Turner Glacier. Notice how much moraine is in the ice. Turner Glacier, like Hubbard, terminates into Disenchantment Bay.

Here’s the view we had from our bed while in Disenchantment Bay. The balcony was wonderful for this cruise because land flanked both sides of the ship most of the time and often provided gorgeous scenery such as this.

As the ship turned around in front of the glacier, it rubbed against these small icebergs. (I know referring to these small pieces of ice as icebergs is strange, but that’s how the captain referred to them.) As we were traveling through ice our friends and neighbors back home in Buford, Georgia, were running their air conditioners.

The rail in the photo supports rolling scaffolds when the crew does maintenance on the ship’s exterior.