I started this blog to share photographs. When working in international media development I wrote weekly letters to family and friends. I asked then not to share them because I made observations that may, if publicized, compromise my work. But … Continue reading Unalaska Photo Gallery
A Coast Guard Cutter pulled rank and Westerdam had stand offshore and tender passengers into Dutch Harbor, the port for Unalaska. We disembarked at the Carl E. Moses small boat harbor. “Small” is a relative term in Alaska. The harbor … Continue reading Fresh Blueberries
In 1986 the Hubbard Glacier was a circus and Raven Radio covered it. In May pressure from the Valorie Glacier, that feeds the Hubbard Glacier, Alaska’s biggest tidewater glacier, pushed the glacier forward. The glacier pushed the glacial till of … Continue reading Covering the Hubbard Glacier.
The glacier is singing, at least if you like modern music. Alaska composer John Luther Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for Music with his symphonic composition “Become Ocean” about glaciers becoming part of the sea. It has been performed by … Continue reading The Hubbard Glacier Speaks for Itself. (Become Ocean.)
September 6, 2024, Sailing the Lynn Canal Haines is near the top of the Lyn Canal, a deep fjord created along a fault line. Deep both in depth below sea level and because it cuts deeply into the continent. Haines … Continue reading An Alaskan Ferry Tale
September 6, 2024 Some of our cruise mates balked at the $25 admission to the American Bald Eagle Foundation Natural History Museum and Raptor Center in Haines. The Sitka Raptor Center, which is larger and has more birds, is only … Continue reading Eagle Intake
September 5, 2024. We know most people in Sitka, in the winter. But in the summer a whole new crop of newbies arrive in town. I don’t know as many of them. As we walk from Westerdam to the Sitka … Continue reading Our Hailing Port
Wednesday, Sept 4, Calling today “Scenic Cruising the Inside Passage” was a bit of an oversell by Holland America. But time and tide… We left Vancouver after 3 PM to get to Seymour Narrows by half past midnight. I was … Continue reading Dark Passage
Canada Place Cruise Terminal in Vancouver must be run by PHD Candidate Graduate Assistants conducting psychological tests. We are the rats in the maze. You go from one end to the other and back again, and on the return is … Continue reading A Four Hour Coffee
When I saw that there was a place in Victoria called “Abkhazi Gardens” I had to learn more. Abkhazia is a region of the Republic of Georgia that was invaded and is occupied by the Russians. I advised a radio … Continue reading Georgia in Victoria
Sept 1, 2024 I woke up this morning with a fever. I suspect it was a reaction to having gotten two shots yesterday, flu and COVID. So it was a slow start. The Norwegian line berths its ships right in … Continue reading And We’re Off!
View Post We are off again on a 53 day cruise from Seattle to Seattle via Alaska, Japan and Hawaii. The map, below, is updated from the one I first posted. 240830 How We Almost Outsmarted Ourselves. 240831 The Colonial … Continue reading Westerdam 2024 Legendary Japan.
Alaskan’s have a love hate relationship with Seattle. It is often the place we are medevacked to when we have an emergency. When we arrive, we feel like crap, but we leave healed. It is the home of Costco (well … Continue reading The Colonial Office
It’s common wisdom to arrive at your cruise port a day or two early. Our Japan cruise starts Sept 1, so we had planned to arrive Aug. 31 but after some fog in Southeast Alaska and what looked like a … Continue reading How We Almost Outsmarted Ourselves.
On Thursday I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Rotarian Timothy Massawe from the Moshi Rotary Club in Tanzania. Our club is working with his to support a group of girls attending school. We do regular zooms with … Continue reading Sitka Shows Off.
For the last several decades it has been a little over 14 miles from one end of Sitka’s road system to the other. Over the July 4th weekend that became a little under 16 miles as the first section of … Continue reading Now it’s 16 Miles!
(July 2, 2024, 248 years later.) On an unseasonably cool July 2, 1776, Richard Henry Lee moved a resolution, before the second Continental Congress, declaring independence for the 13 American colonies. To get unanimous agreement Congress made changes during the … Continue reading 248 Years Ago
I used to transit Peril Strait a lot. When I was chair of the Alaska Public Radio Network, I went back and forth to Juneau to lobby the state legislature frequently. I loved sitting in the solarium of the ferry, … Continue reading Noting Changes on a Dynamic Coastline.
The Chichagof Dream started its life in Jeffersonville Indiana in 1984, launched as the Spirit of Nantucket for Clipper Cruise Lines. She cruised the Canadian Maritimes, the East Coast’s Intercoastal Waterway, and the Great Lakes. Cruise West bought her and … Continue reading Chichagof Dream
Suzi and I were offered berths on the MV Chichagof for a two night “Shakedown Cruise” over Memorial Day Weekend. We took the opportunity. We were the “Guinea Pigs” for Alaska Dream Cruises as they broke in a new crew … Continue reading Memorial Day Shakedown Cruise.
Getting to Sitka from the inside passage you either need to sail around the North of Chichagof Island, through Icy Strait and Cross Sound, or south around Cape Ommany on the southern tip of Baranof Island, unless you go through … Continue reading Peril Strait Sunset
In a way it was like riding the state ferry, only with much better food, more luxurious accommodations and a ship that stops for whales. Alaskan Dream Cruises invited a group of Sitkans to take a Memorial Day “shakedown” cruise … Continue reading Shakedown Cruise
As Sitka waited for the dark, (as dark as it ever gets in May) we watched our glorious blue skies fade to dusk and clouds began to form. The forecast was for cloudy skies after sunset. Sunset is just after … Continue reading A Global Moment of Wonder
In an early blog post on this cruise, I wrote about how many of our boarding cruise mates thought of this as a “long cruise,” 22 days. We thought of it as a short cruise, 22 days. At the end … Continue reading Coda, I think this really is my final post on this cruise.