Texas Gypsies: Lulu Belle Cruise out of Valdez, AK

Friday, August 4, 2017

WOW, this is going to be a big post. We took a 9 hour cruise on the Lulu Belle, a custom designed 75 foot yacht, adorned with teak and mahogany set off with beautiful oriental rugs.

She looks small compared to the boat she is docked next to.

As we headed out of Valdez harbor, you could see the mountains all around. We haven't been able to see them for a couple of days now. What a beautiful morning!

We weren't very far out when we saw this romp of sea otters. They are so cute floating on their backs.

This mountain and its waterfalls is stunning. More in a minute.

As we got closer to the side of the mountain, we saw this eagle perched in a tree. They are so majestic.

This is a closeup of the biggest waterfall in the mountain picture above.

This mountain had some rugged areas and yet had both evergreens and deciduous resulting in the various shades of green.

Captain Fred gave us a fishing lesson. He taught us how the commercial fishermen fish with nets.

Above the fishing boat has its net all piled and ready to start releasing it into the water.

The little boat takes the end of the net and holds it in place as the big boat releases the net and makes a large circle heading back to the little boat.

As the big boat reaches the little boat the end of the net is transferred from the little boat to the big boat. As the big boat then starts to reel the net in, the little boat pulls the big boat sideways to keep it from ending up in the middle of the net.

The net is mostly in the big boat now and yet you still don't see any fish.

Look how much net is on the back of the boat and you are just starting to see fish.

Just about to bring the last of the net into the boat.

All the white stuff are jellyfish. Many fall off back into the ocean and the rest will fall off when the net is spread out in the ocean again.

This is the best picture we have of the boat deck after the fish are dumped into the boat. They cover the whole deck. That man can hardly move around. They had a good haul. They now prepare to do it all over again.

See the net neatly stacked at the back of the boat ready to do the process all over again.

Fun, we are watching Dall's porpoises as they swim along side our boat.

They were very fast and it was hard to get a picture of them. I made a video, but blogger will not accept videos at this time.

Below this one jumped out of the water and you can see it just going under the water.

First ice

We are getting closer to our turn towards the Columbia Glacier. I asked what that white line was. I was told it is ice that has calved off the glacier. They said that much ice was not there yesterday.

Here's one of the bigger pieces we started passing.

Captain Fred decided before we headed for the glacier we needed to go look for whales, sea lions and puffins.

The ocean is such a beautiful turquoise color. Also notice this rock island has trees going out of the top of it. The only water the trees get is rain. God is awesome!

Notice the cave. Captain Fred takes this beautiful 75 ft yacht into the cave. He handled his boat like a glove on his hand. Very talented man!

Above and below are only a small part of the sea lions we got to see. I learned that sea lions have large front flippers and ears and that seals do not have either.

A little further down the way, we began to see puffins. They like to nest in the cracks and crevices of the rocky edges.

Tic enlarged this part of the above picture so you could get a better look at these cute little birds. They have orange feet. See the puffin hiding in the rocks just above this one?

We are starting to head for the Columbia Glacier now. Below Tic zoomed in on the mountains.

Look at the size of this calf (ice chunk broken off from the glacier). We can't even see the glacier yet. Also, note the large dark rock. The rock evidently broke off and is being carried out to sea.

On a few of the larger pieces of ice (small icebergs) we are seeing sea otters sunning themselves. They didn't like the intrusion and most dove into the water.

This is the first branch of Columbia Glacier. What does that mean "first branch"? This glacier is so huge it has 2 branches. See the map below.

Here we are still 9 miles from the main part of the Columbia Glacier.

Above and below are just pictures of mini icebergs and the surrounding mountains as we get closer. Aren't the reflections stunning?

Here we are 3 miles from the glacier. Much of the glacier in this picture looks like dirt when it is actually ice below the rock that the glacier has picked up as it moves down the mountain.

More remarkable mini-icebergs. We are still headed closer to the terminus/nose of the glacier.

1 mile and we saw this collapse. This shows how the dark area of the glacier is actually ice. See how blue it is underneath?

1/4 mile from the terminus/nose of the glacier. Columbia is one of the most rapidly changing glaciers in the world. The Columbia is a large tidewater glacier, flowing directly into the sea.

Neither of us can remember how tall/thick Captain Fred told us this part of the glacier was, but it's TALL. Later I have a picture trying to show some perspective.

As you can tell the wall of ice was staggering in size and kept me spell-bound.

The ice field looks so different in different areas of the glacier.

In places the ice wall was relatively smooth and in other places it was really jagged.

This chunk of ice intrigued me. One end was white and the rest was blue like ice that had thawed and refrozen.

This section of the wall has that refrozen look also. The blue color is so pure.

There has been a lot of calving, ice breaking away. Look how thick the ice chunks are.

More of this massive wall of ice both above and below. I can't get enough of gazing at it.

We are still about 1/4 mile from the edge. Hopefully this picture showing the people on the boat gives a little perspective as to the height of that ice wall.

We are starting to leave. Captain Fred has to navigate very carefully and slowly so he doesn't damage his boat.

Hope you are not tired of looking at this glacier. We each had a camera today and together we took about 400 pictures. Trying to select just a few for the blog was impossible, so you get lots of pictures.