As this seven day cruise winds down, we thought that any chance of scenic cruising was not going to happen. When we went to the Pinnacle for breakfast, you could not see anything outside the windows except fog….dense fog. We could hear the foghorn blowing as well. It's funny – some people we know love that sound, but we think it is eerie and foreboding. Especially when you think about why they are blowing that warning horn. We did have hope that the fog would lift later in the afternoon, and we might have some scenic cruising of the Inside Passage.
The Mariner Recognition Event was held once again in the Gallery Bar at 10:30am. There were seven bronze medals awarded, and the total amount of guests was 14. We recall the old days, not so long ago, when there were many more people invited to these affairs. When everyone cannot be included, you are bound to ruffle some feathers when only a select group is included. Where does one cut off the number of days earned to qualify for an invite? Today, there were six President's Club members, the medal awardees, and one guest. That speaks volumes….. We did have a chance to visit with Henk and ask a few questions in general relating to the upcoming longer cruise. There will be about 600 guests sailing onward, like us, with 400 more boarding in Vancouver tomorrow. When we reach San Diego, we will have a total of 1650 for the Tales of the South Pacific. Things have changed regarding the Covid testing, except for those boarding we think. We will have to be tested before arriving to Hawaii. And perhaps again in Tonga, Fiji, or Samoa of they require it there. Sounds like we will know the details one day at a time. Oh yes, masks will be mandatory in the beginning of the long cruise, which will begin in San Diego. That is fine and dandy with us.
We did make a stop at the Gallery Bar to pick up some cans of water for our room. Then we strolled through the Shops to see what was being promoted. Usually with the final Alaska cruise, they are selling everything associated with it. Today, we only saw some t-shirts with the 75 year sailing Alaska HAL T shirts at 75% off. Their inventory seemed to be minimal for this area, so there is less to sell. There were a lot of folks in these shops, so we did not linger. Even with masks on, there was no social distancing.
By the time we got back to the room, we had two more Delft tiles, and later, we received the two full size photos of us with Henk and the Captain. Worked on the computer, but we are still finding the connection poor. It took hours to send one email. We had to take a mile walk on the promenade deck to get some exercise and fresh air, even if it was foggy air. The decks had been hosed down, so we were careful walking. Only a few folks were doing the same as us. We asked Henk about jogging, which was prohibited on the Amsterdam. But here, jogging is OK since there are no rooms beneath the deck, only public areas. Oh yes, we saw the "doggie" spot set up, so we do have a dog onboard, although we have not seen it.
Lunch for us was at 2pm with the delivery of room service. We had been spending most of the afternoon on the veranda, on the watch for whales, orcas, eagles, or porpoise. And it was cool, especially with the fog, which was thinning out by now. Eventually it lifted, and we were able to see both shorelines of the Inside Passage. According to the map on TV and a handy local Alaska map we got in Skagway, we were able to chart our course. It appeared that we were entering the Queen Charlotte Strait near 4pm. At that point, we spotted hundreds, if not thousands of Dall porpoise jumping, trying to keep up with the ship. Everywhere we looked, we saw signs of this huge pod. Now we were really on the lookout for more animal sightings. We were not disappointed as we saw some eagles high up in the conifers, then we spotted a pod of orcas near the shoreline. They breached one at a time, blew their spouts, and dove. There must have been 4 or 5 of them. It was one of those "if you snooze, you lose" sightings since it happened so fast, then they were gone as the Captain did not slow down at all.
According to the map, it appears we were not far from Vancouver, so we expect the speed of the ship to be 8 knots or so. The good thing is that sailing in this passage, we escape the rolling swells of the open Pacific Ocean, like we experienced last night.
Dinner was in the dining room with the special Culinary Council meal. We had made reservations for the Pinnacle Grill tonight, but we wanted to order the prime rib dinner, which in the past, has been excellent. So for starters, we had the crispy shrimp salad, and the prime rib, medium rare, and one, an outside cut. Our plates arrived hot as could be with the most delicious, tender prime rib ever. We were happy campers. We added the smallest dessert of a torte and a sliver of rum cake, then we were full happy campers. The attendance in the dining room tonight was spotty, because most will be leaving tomorrow. We are sure the Lido was quite busy tonight.
Tomorrow the breakfast will be super early at 6:30am. We plan on doing the same hike in Vancouver that we did the last two weeks, even if it is raining.
Bill & Mary Ann
