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.
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
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.
On the ship you can’t help but hear people talking about the changes in cruising since the pandemic, cost cutting and upsells, to make lines more profitable, or perhaps to help them pay off the debts they encountered while not … Continue reading The Art of the Upsell
In 2015 we were on the Circle South America cruise on Prinsendam, a Holland America ship that carried around 800 passengers. HAL presented a slide show about its new ship, Koningsdam, carrying 2650 passengers, coming next year. Koningsdam would carry … Continue reading Is it the “Monsterdam?”
Normally I can’t wait to get off in port, but by the time we hit Victoria, at 1 Friday afternoon I decided I needed a nap more than a visit to Victoria (it’s in the neighborhood and we’ve been there … Continue reading … and it always ends with the Milk Run.
240424 The Promenade Deck One of the things that Holland America cruisers like abut the line is that all of their ships have a Promenade Deck, Deck 3, that wraps around the ship. You can walk outside. On Koningsdam three … Continue reading Deck 3
I was sleeping when I heard the dings and an announcement asking the medical team to report to a stateroom on Deck 6. A couple of hours later the captain came on the PA system and apologized for the early … Continue reading A Course Diversion