6:00am: After a night of broken sleep, being woken fairly regularly by the thumping of the auto-pilot, we awoke in Port Frederick Bay, near Hoonah, on Chichagof Island.
8:00am: After breakfast, it was time to gather on the aft deck for our trip ashore. Last night, we'd had to choose our activities for today, and we'd elected to walk first and kayak afterward. The activities all started at 8:00am, far too early to be out of bed ....
9:00am: Well, we've been wandering around the forest for nearly an hour now, and we're still within 100m of where we started. This is virgin bush - no neatly marked walking tracks - and we've been walking in a circle looking for a way through to somewhere different. After another half hour or so, we give up. It's time to head back to the ship.
10:15am: We're in a two-man sea kayak for the first time. These things are incredibly stable so there's no danger of being dumped in the freezing water. Just as well really, because we'd last only a couple of minutes before hypothermia got us. It looked easy when watching the first group, but the wind's picked up a little and it's a bit choppy, so it's suprisingly hard work. We're told we have to stay very close to our guide, Caroline, and being our first outing we're do as we're told.
11:45am: Back on board, it's time to dry out and grab a cup of coffee before lunch. The morning hasn't been too strenuous, so we reckon we'll have no trouble handling the level of activity for the rest of the week.
12:30pm: Time for lunch, and it's as good as dinner last night. Looks like we're going to be eating well at least. While we're eating, the crew raise the anchor and we head toward Icy Strait.
3:00pm: Cookie hour Our chef, Rebecca, and her helpers in the galley, have baked some fresh cookies. We discover that this is going to happen every afternoon, so we resolve to make sure we're back on board in time to get some each day.
5:00pm: We've spent the afternoon whale watching off Point Adolphus. This is one of the best whale watching spots in this area, and this afternoon the humpbacks put on a show for us.
6:00pm: Cocktail hour Now this is more like our sort of holiday :-) Stephanie, the bartender, dreams up a cocktail of the day, every day. Also on offer is a selection of wines, spirits and beers. The most popular beer is Alaskan Amber, brewed in Juneau, and Stephanie says that any time there are Aussies on board, the Amber disappears before the end of the cruise. It's not just the Aussies either, and anyway, there are only four of us among the 50 or so passengers.
8:30pm: We've docked at Glacier Bay Lodge in Bartlett Cove. We're here for a few hours - time for a walk through the forest and a presentation by one of the rangers. The forest walk was short, about 2km, but the scenery was magic. Unfortunately we didn't take a camera, figuring that there probably wasn't enough light for photos. There wasn't much, but we could have taken some great photos with the aid of a tripod (which we had). Bummer. The ranger's talk was very interesting too.
10:30pm: Back on board, we set sail for the northern end of Glacier Bay, where we'd start the day tomorrow. We stood on the upper deck for a while, enjoying the peace and quiet. Almost everyone else was in bed - the lack of sleep, early start and physical activity today (not to mention the couple of Ambers and a glass or two of Red) having taken their toll. We stayed up their for 15 minutes or so, then headed off to bed.