Day 34 Summer Vacation 2009

Today we will be at sea for most of the day. We left Ketchikan AK yesterday just after noon, and we didn’t arrive in Victoria BC till 6:30 pm this afternoon.

It was a lazy day for both of us, we are tired after all of our shore excursions and just want to relax, but there are many activities onboard that we could partake in if we had a bit more energy. There is an Eagles tribute concert going on in the Vista Lounge, there is bingo, the casino, many computer seminars, a wildlife lecture, the list goes on and on each day for things to do onboard.

At 6:30pm we docked in Victoria BC. Here are a couple of photos of our Captain Henk Keiger docking The Westerdam in Victoria British Columbia.

I can now add BC as a Province that we have visited (although briefly) We will have to come back to BC and do a more thorough visit.

We left the ship and boarded a bus for our shore excursion. This evening we are going Orca Whale Watching. It wasn’t too long before we started seeing the Orca’s. We were told that Orca’s are actually huge dolphins, not whales. Orca’s are also referred to as Killer Whales, but as the guide explained, they should actually be called Killer Dolphins, but no one wants to think of dolphins as being killers. Orca’s actually do kill whales, particularly the large humpback whales, but it takes about a dozen of them in a pack to bring down a baby humpback whale, so Orca’s are quite content eating smaller prey such as seals and sea lions and fish. Here are some of the photos that I took of the Orca’s.

Just as we were turning the tour boat around to head back and after I had put my camera away, one of the Orca’s jumped out of the water about 100 feet away from our boat. We have all seen the commercials on TV how the Orca’s jump out of the aquarium at Sea World or Marine Land and do a spectacular splash in the water, well that is what happened here, I guess he was saying good night to us. Unfortunately no photo. I doubt I would have captured it anyways, it is very difficult to photograph whales or any wildlife, but especially whales because you never know when or where they might surface and when they do, it is only for a few brief seconds.

We headed back to port to re-board The Westerdam for our final night onboard as we sail back to Seattle Washington.

In our room we found another towel animal.

We will be docking in Seattle around 6:30 am, so we have chosen an early disembarkation at 8:30 am and once off the ship we will be driving to Spokane Washington.

To see all of the photos that I took today, please visit my FLICKR site.

Day 33 Summer Vacation 2009

Last night after I wrote the blog there was a Dessert Extravaganza at 10:00 pm on the Lido Deck. It was a very elaborate and elegant affair. Lots of ice sculptures, hundreds of decorated cakes and desserts and lots of watermelon carvings.

Back in our room when we returned we found another Towel Animal. Each night when we come back to our room we find a different animal. Tonight was an elephant.

This morning we were up bright and early because we have to be on the Pier at 7:30 am for our Best of Ketchikan Tour.

The first part of the tour is by boat around the Island that Ketchikan is situated on. We saw a bald eagle.

It was low tide and we got an opportunity to see star fish as they clung to the rocks waiting for the high tide to arrive.

We got to visit a fish cannery where we got a demonstration of how they used to can salmon. The George Island Fisherman’s Co-op cannery was closed in the 60’s but all the machinery remains in working condition for demonstration purposes.

After our tour of the fish cannery, we boarded a bus for the next part of our tour. Next stop on the tour was the Saxman Totem Park.

One thing that I did learn is that you do not call them Totem Poles. The word Totem means pole and of course the word Pole means pole, so if you call them Totem Poles, you are in effect calling them Pole Poles. So it is best to refer to them as Totems or Poles, but not both.

I liked the Totem of Lincoln, it sort of tied in our Lincoln Highway part of our summer vacation with our Alaska Cruise visit to Ketchikan Alaska.

Actually yesterday in Sitka we found another Lincoln reference, the main street was called Lincoln Street.

We had to be back onboard The Westerdam by 12:30pm so it was a rather quick visit of Ketchikan.

To see all of our photos from today you can view them on my FLICKR site.

We will be at sea for the rest of today and this evening, and most of tomorrow until we arrive in Victoria BC.

Day 32 Summer Vacation 2009

This morning we were awakened by loud banging and clanging as the lifeboat outside our window was being lowered to the water. Earlier this morning the ship anchored in the harbour of Sitka Alaska.

We had breakfast and then took the tender to shore and killed some time before our tour by walking along the main street.

Our tour today is Sea Life Discovery by Semi Sub. The vessel is rather unique, the bottom of the hull is made up of glass viewing windows, we sit along a bench and view the aquatic world through the windows. The water is full of green phyto plankton and algae, so it is rather hard to photograph anything through the glass and the green water, but we did see lots of fish, jellies, hermit crabs and sea cucumbers.

Other things we saw were large sunflower starfish and leather starfish, eel grass and sea lettuce.

Coming back to the dock I went up on deck so that I could get some photos of our ship at anchor.

Back onboard the ship, we had a late lunch and then went up to the observation deck to relax and enjoy the scenery. We saw a seal swimming in the harbour.

Tonight was formal night but we did not partake, instead we headed to the Lido Deck for a more casual dining experience.

To see all of the photos that I took today, you should visit my FLICKR site.

Tomorrow morning when we awake, we will be in Ketchikan Alaska.

Day 31 Summer Vacation 2009

I can now officially say that we are in Alaska, even though we have been in Alaskan waters for several days, we will oficially have our boots on the ground when we step off the ship in Juneau and so I can add another State to our States Visited Map.

This morning at 7:00 am the Westerdam docked in Juneau Alaska. Karen and I had breakfast then at 9:30 am we disembarked the ship and boarded our tour bus to the Mendenhall Glacier. Today was not nearly as hazy but there is still a hint of smoke in the air from those large forest fires further North.

The Glacier is about a 15 minute drive from Juneau AK.

After spending an hour at the glacier, we then drove to the pier where we boarded a boat to go whale watching. We were not 15 minutes from the dock before we saw our first whales. Orca Whales also known as Killer Whales. These are the black ones with the white patch just behind their dorsal fin and another white patch on their underside.

Then we saw our first Humpback Whale. These whales are as big as a greyhound bus, maybe bigger. At first we saw a couple of them, but by the end of our tour we were seeing about 12 of them.

Suddenly alongside the boat, a sea lion appeared, I think he was trying to hide from the Orca Whales in the area and using our boat as a shield.

This pod of humpback whales were doing something that is rarely seen, in fact the whale expert onboard our boat said that he has been doing these whale watching excursions daily for 6 years and has only seen this happen 7 times. What we got to witness is what is known as Bubble Net Feeding. If I remember what the guide told us correctly, I believe he said that there are approximately 1000 pods of humpback whales in the world, but only about 12 pods have learnt this technique of Bubble Net Feeding. The pod of whales work together as a team and they dive deep in unison and then they circle around a school of herring and as they circle the herring the whales start blowing bubbles underwater through their blow hole. They circle tighter and tighter causing the herring to swim in a tighter and tighter school until there is a lot of herring trapped within the confines of the bubble net, then in unison all the humpback whales rise to the surface out of the water with their mouths wide open taking in as many herring as they can into their wide open mouths.

I have some great video of the whales bubble net feeding, however you are going to have to wait until I get back to the mainland before I can upload the videos to my Flickr Site. For an internet connection on the ship it costs .75 cents per minute so you don’t spend a lot of time online, and certainly you do not upload 100’s of photos and videos each day to Flickr. In the days following our arrival back in Seattle WA, I will have free wi-fi and I will upload all the photos and videos at that time.

After our whale watching tour we came back to our ship and we rode the Mount Roberts Tramway up to the top of the mountain that overlooks Juneau AK. The view from above looking down on the ship was spectacular. There were 5 cruise ships visiting Juneau today.

At 7pm we untied from the pier and left Juneau AK heading for Sitka AK. We will arrive in Sitka around 8 am. Here are some parting shots as we leave Juneau.

To see all of the photos that I took today you can see them all on my FLICKR site.