The epic days keep rolling in, one after another. After a sleep disturbed with a few bumps in the night, we woke up to the view above right outside the ship. This is Le Conte Glacier, another of Alaska’s tidewater glaciers, and we spent nearly the whole day in its vicinity. Again the scale is deceptive: the glacier’s front is a half mile wide, and the river of ice extends 21 miles back to the ice field that feeds it. Because the landscape narrows in a sort of funnel down to the water’s edge, this is a particularly fast-moving glacier, from 30 up to 90 feet per day. This means that it calves frequently, sometimes breaking off huge chunks. Indeed, we witnessed several big collapses during our visit, and the bay was filled with icebergs, growlers, and brash ice that came from the glacier. Perhaps inspired by the scenery, Susannah decided to get some exercise by walking laps of the upper deck.

The large ship can only get so close with all that ice in the water, so naturally the first thing one wants to do in such a situation is get closer. Not too close though — those falling chunks of ice would hurt if they fell on top of you, and they can send huge waves radiating outwards, ready to swamp any craft that ventures too close. We ventured out in one of the skiffs, piloted by Rachel, who deftly threaded her way between the larger chunks of ice to get close up views. We weren’t the only ones coming in for a view: during our outing, we also witnessed a tour group in a fishing boat outfitted as an icebreaker, a seaplane buzzing the glacier overhead, and another group mounted on jet skis. (The latter didn’t seem like a particularly good choice, given the size of the bergs blocking the way!) The bay was also home to a number of harbor seals, some of whom had recently born pups. We stayed a respectful distance away to avoid disturbing them, but still got some pictures.

When we had made our closest approach to the glacier, Rachel surprised us with hot cocoa enhanced with a splash of creme de menthe. She also pulled up a chunk of ice that had originated the heart of the glacier, as evidenced by its extreme clarity and unusual weight. We decided to adopt “Bergy,” and brought him back to our room where he sits very comfortably in our shower.

After the morning’s outing, the ship repositioned itself to the outer bay while we ate lunch. The water in this area was clear of smaller bits of ice, but still had plenty of big bergs floating about. This was our chance to explore in kayaks and get closer to these beautiful monsters. Not too close though — as with the glacier itself, the ice is treacherous and can flip unpredictably at any moment. This was illustrated in dramatic fashion right in front of our eyes: we had just finished a photo op moment with the beautiful arched berg below, when it fell to pieces with a bass rumble and the remaining sections flipped over into an entirely new configuration, sending a wave of water in our direction. What drama!

Speaking of drama, the day’s activities were not yet at an end. Here in the bay dotted with icebergs, our ship held an official Polar Plunge for any and all willing participants. A few crew members led the way, taking a brief time out between their official duties. By chance we happened to be the first guests to take to the icy waters, witnessed and cheered on by all the warm and dry spectators on the decks above. Was it cold? Yes it was! But the ship was offering hot drinks to people as they came out of the water, and hot tub sure felt nice afterwards. We are particularly proud of Susannah for overcoming her usual aversion to water (especially cold water) in favor of following the spirit of adventure.

One other event we didn’t mention above: after lunch but before the kayak tour, we were offered a chance to visit the engine room of the Wilderness Legacy. The chief engineer showed us some photographs of the machinery we would see, issued everyone with a pair of disposable earplugs, and ushered us into the depths of the hull. It is truly remarkable the amount of machinery of all different kinds that is packed into an extremely small compartment. Motors, generators, boilers, chillers, bow thrusters, and electric switchboxes plus backups for the most important systems all share space with the humans who tend to them. Not to mention, they had some of the largest spanner wrenches we have ever seen.

An epic day ended with an epic dinner: 75 pounds of Dungeness crab was served in the dining room, and we ate it all. The shells were collected in huge bowls, segregated from all the rest of the food scraps. Because crab is native to these waters, the remains could be thrown overboard as feed for the creatures of the deep.

Where other cruises might have some sort of nightclub entertainment after dinner, Uncruise (the operator of our excursion) offers informational talks on a different topic each night, given by the guide crew. Today’s talk was delivered by Rachel (of the cocoa-crème-de-menthe fame) on kelp forests, and included a number of interesting nuggets about these giant algae of the sea. Did you know that you can buy a hot sauce made from kelp? Mmm, we’re thinking of some tasty souvenirs! Also, kelp covers 25% of the world’s coastlines and there’s even a theory that kelp may have played an integral part in the peopling of the Americas. We don’t have any pictures of kelp handy so here’s a pretty sunset. There’s probably kelp down in that water somewhere.