We woke before sunrise to prepare for a morning in Tracey Arm. While Bill exercised, I sat above in the observation lounge. One surfacing Orca made our early-morning start worthwhile and many white-sided dolphins kept us entertained off and on all morning. The entrance to the fiord was a non-event because there was a fog bank hugging the water and we crept in seeing nothing. The clouds soon lifted a bit and we found ourselves surrounded by steep walls carved out by the retreating glaciers from the last ice age. We entered glacial water filled with many little “burger bits” – mini icebergs left from the summer calving. They glow bright blue in the low light - each one a unique sun-sculptured shape. An on-board narration kept us informed now and then though the National Parks allow only 2-minute announcements in three places in the fiord to protect the environmental integrity. Our ship is smaller than the three other cruise boats travelling in tandem with us. None of them could fit in the fiord. We travelled up the inlet for two hours until it narrowed then made a 360-degree turn and returned for our two-hour trip to Juneau.
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