Alaska 2019

So for the third year in a row we found ourselves on a cruise boat in Alaska.  

In 2017 we cruised from  Seward, Alaska across the Bering Strait to Kamchatka, Russia and then south to Otaru in Northern Japan.  The company was Silversea. It was a great cruise and we met some great people.

In July 2018 we did a similar cruise to the one this year on a small, garbage scow of a boat. The company was called UnCruise and while we met some fine folks on the cruise and actually had some interesting and fun times off the boat I would not recommended this cruise company.

This year we decided to sail the inside passage again, only starting in Vancouver, with a couple we met on our Antarctica cruise in Dec. '17 / Jan '18. Boyd and Cindy Howell, both Canadians, he a newfie and she a born and bred Alberta gal, now both living and working in Houston, Texas. They'd visited us last year in Kelowna over the Labour Day long weekend and we'd had a lot of fun together.  Terri and I were both eager to see them again.

It's funny how new friends, we've just met on a cruise, will fly long distances to spend a week or a long weekend with us, and friends we've had for 3o years won't even take a short drive or flight.  

Our  cruise leaves from Vancouver and ends in Anchorage - that's what the brochure says but actually the cruise ends in Seward which is good two hour drive to Anchorage. Apparently cruises used to end in Anchorage but there are some security concerns now - not exactly sure just what - which means cruise ships no longer dock there.

Below is Canada Place and is where all the cruise ships dock. The day we joined our cruise there were three ships there taking on passengers. Our little ship, The Seabourn Sojourn, carries only 450 people. The thing on the left side of the pic below that looks like an office building is actually the Celebrity Eclipse, a 2,852 passenger ship. She's massive but nowhere near as big as the largest ships these days. Presently the Symphony of the Seas is the largest passenger ship has a maximum passenger capacity of 6,680.

The ship just behind our ship and in the next pic is the Holland America Line Westerdam.

The Westerdam has a passenger capacity of  1,848 people - so she has over 4 times the people on our little ship.

The map below shows (kind of) our trip.  It's actually from next years schedule but our trip is over so I can't access that graphic.  What's shown below is close. I don't think we stopped at Prince Rupert though.

The first day out of Vancouver is a sailing day...that means drinking!  Not really ..but we do enjoy an occasional cocktail in the observation bar on deck 10.  And since our room is on cabin 9 it makes it sooooooo easy.

I'm not sure where or what this is...just an island we went past on our sailing day. The fog and mist make it look spooky.

Our friend Cindy..it's "formal" night tonight. Men are asked to wear jackets to the main restaurant and ladies are asked to wear a dress or pant suits so Cindy is in her fancy dress and wearing her husband, Boyd's, jacket. It's a bit chilly tonight.

At the rear of the ship is a restaurant called "The Colonnade". The shot below is actually breakfast, where we ate all our breakfast except one day when the wind was too strong and too cold. There are overhead heaters but with  a wind it's like a fart in a windstorm.

The next day we're in a small Alaskan town called Ketchikan. Kind of a shit-hole place - not too much going on.  

We picked an excursion that had us (me) driving small speed boats out in the bay looking for wildlife...didn't see much...a few eagles.

They made us get pretty well dressed up for it as you can see below.

The boats held four people and the gal in the centre (Carol) and her husband (John)  to her left were with us. He didn't want to drive so I did all the driving and as a result didn't get many pictures.

The one below shows how the weather has deteriorated.

Back in Ketchikan we see the Westerdam that we saw in Vancouver has caught up to us and is again parked behind us.

And also in Ketchikan today is the Silver Explorer. Our cruise to Russia and Japan two summers ago was on this boat's sister ship which is presently out of service. Walking around Ketchikan we ran into some of the expedition crew that we'd sailed with on the voyage two years ago and they still remembered us.

A few other shots of a picturesque part of town (and most of the town wasn't very picturesque).

In the gold rush days the streets below were the "red light" district.  all cleaned up now though.

And another huge ship in port today in Ketchikan, The Star Princess. She carries 3,100 passengers.  I don't really how how these small towns like Ketchikan deal with all these people.  Our ship is 450, the Westerdam is 1,800 and the Star Princess is 3,100. That's 5,350 extra people in town today...and there's the bunch from the Silver Explorer..another 100 or so..plus all the crew that have time off. Unreal!

I guess these small Alaska towns really make a lot of their yearly income in a few short summer months.

Next day is another "sea day" in Misty Fjord and it is aptly named as can be seen below!

We've decided to go kayaking with our friends Boyd and Cindy. Sebourn makes you get dressed up in the "dry suits" shown below.  It's quite an ordeal getting suited up but we've done it a few times now so we're getting better at it.

It was a pretty good kayak trip. It rained on us quite a bit and it was chilly but a lot of fun.

We kayaked up a river and had to contend with the water flowing down to the sea. It got quite difficult at times.

Boyd and Cindy again.

A shot of the Seabourn Sojourn with coloured arrow pointing to some important areas of the ship.

The red arrow points to our cabin on this cruise.
The green arrow points to the observation bar on deck 10
The blue arrow points in the general direction of the pool bar on deck 8 and the sky bar on deck 9 - just down the hallway from us.

And it just got mistier as the day wore on.

July 18th and we're in a place called Wrangel.  We were here just over a year ago - on July 4th.

Today in the morning we went on a fast boat to look at some icebergs.

They weren't real big but they we're good looking.

This is the glacier the burgs were calved off. Our boast captain wouldn't get any closer saying how dangerous it is. Pussy!

Back in Wrangel we hiked up the same hill we hiked up last year only this time with our friends Boyd and Cindy.

The view of downtown Wrangel from the ship.  It's a safe bet that people don't come here for the night-life.

And just as we did last year in Wrangell we went looking for the petroglyphs - and this year we found them. Last year we turned left when we should have turned right.

They're thousands of years old and nobody knows who made them or what their purpose was.

A late afternoon artsy-fartsy shot.

and another taken from the colonnade at the back of the ship.

And one final shot of Wrangell in the dark.

The next day, July 19, we're in a small town called Sitka. The weather has improved substantially and our excursion today is a hike through the woods.  The call it a hike but it's really just a stroll.

We were in Sitja last year at the start of our UnCruise adventure. For that reason I didn't take any pictures of the town.  Anyone interested in seeing a bit about Sitka can click here.

So just some pictures from the hike (stroll).

A toppled tree.  These big rtess don't have a very deep root - they have roots that spread out.

We all had to get our picture taken against this tree whose roots have become exposed over the years.

Below is a banana slug.  The good kind.  There are others that are mostly black that are the bad kind. They are an invasive species and our guide killed a few of them on our walk.

Very scenic country.

Back at the ship in the afternoon they're having some sort of "do" on the deck - I think it's caviar and vodka shooters.  Seabourn goes through tons of caviar on these voyages. Terri and I are not fans so they save a bit of money.

In the evening we had dinner with our friends Boyd and Cindy. There's one "fancy" restaurant on the ship - The Grill by Thomas Keller - it's included in the price but you have to make a reservation.  It was Cindy's birthday.  Wine is included as well but we splurged for an expensive bottle (two actually) to celebrate the occasion.

July 20th and we're in Endicott Arm.  It's another kayaking day. Up against a glacier.

We thought it was going to be colder than it turned out to be but Terri kept her parka hood on anyway...just to look cool.

The Seabourn Sojourn against a huge chunk of rock.  It looks so small.

There were so mau waterfalls coming down the mountain side.

Look right in the middle of the picture below. There's a vertical dark line just left of centre.

Look at the next two pics and find that vertical line.

What happened is a HUGE fucking piece of ice rose up from the depths between the fist pic and 2nd and 3rd.  It was massive and the picture above does not come close to showing how big it was. Just consider we're about a mile or so from the face of the glacier.

As soon as it rose up it caught a current and it was outta here...

The thing had really caught a fast current and was in a big hurry to get to the open sea...or at least that's how it seemed.

A few more pics of Endicott Arm.

Back on the ship after kayaking the pool deck is deserted. It has rained and it's cool and everyone's probably in the observation bar on deck 10.  

July 21st finds us Haines, Alaska.  It's a nice little town.

Today's activity is an other hike - a stroll really.

The scenery is beautiful here.

Part of Haines from the ship.

In town I met this young pecker and I just loved his tee shirt.  He let me take a picture.

Across the harbor we saw a ship that looked very familiar...The Silver Muse..we spent 3o days on the Muse this past  December / January on a cruise from Bali to Auckland.  

Just some shots of the fantastic scenery as we leave Haines and head for our next destination.

Next day we're in Juneau and we going heli-hiking.

A shot of Juneau from our ship.

A shot just after we've taken off in the helicopter. The glacier in the distance - pretty much dead centre in the shot - is the Mendenhall Glacier and that's where we'll be hiking today.

So just a bunch of shots of the terrain as we head up to the base where we'll be hiking from.

In the shot below and the one following helicopters can be seen in the distance.  The glacier is used for a variety of tourist activities. Our friends Boyd and Cindy came up to the glacier to do some dog sledding.

Here we are with our glacier hiking gear on; parka, waterproof pants, helmet, ice axe and special hard boots and crampons - the spiky things attached to the boots.  You need these for going uphill and downhill on the glacier.  Not the easiest things to manoeuvre but after a bit of practise we did ok.

We've climbed a bit up the hill and that's the base camp below us.

At the end of the hike before going back down.

These are the big cruise ships in town today:

The Ruby Princess - 3,080 passengers

The Eurodam - 2,104 passengers

The Nieuw Westerdam - 1,848 passengers

The Celebrity Solstice - 2,852 passengers

So just about 10,000 people in town today from these four ships.

Some shots from our cabin on the Seabourn Sojourn.

Entryway

Washroom

Walkin closet.

TV / dining area.

A nice veranda.  

The next day we were at a place called Icy Strait Point. We were supposed to go on a whale watching expedition but there was thunder and lightning (at least that's what they said - I didn't see any) so we just got a couple miles out  and we were called back in.

The next day was a sea day and the next morning we were in Seward - the end of the trip.

All in all a good trip and one I'm sure we'll do again in a few years.

Seabourn often has a professional photographer on these kind of trips and this ruise had tone too.

Below is a link to a dropbox folder that has a bunch of photos taken by the pro.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqrcnbg38bsjiyg/AACxpcci7r0N9j35EYqky5rJa?dl=0

That's it for Alaska 2019.

Next Istanbul!!!