Sunday the 9th was our wedding anniversary – Bel and I had been married for 29 years and were celebrating with an Inside Passage cruise through Alaska.
We met with Ed and Shelly at 11 and made our way down to the terminal. We moved through quickly and all was looking good until we hit customs. Ed and Shelly are US citizens and went straight through. 2 very frustrating hours later we joined them on the ship – apparently there were three ships being boarded and most people were non US citizens.
We went up to the roof after the briefing to watch the departure and have a few drinks.
A couple of drinks later and disaster struck! I was carry empty wine glasses back to the bar for a refill when I slipped on the stairs and hit the railing with the glasses, breaking one and cutting my fingers. Lots of blood and panicked staff, only two small cuts but one needed a stitch. Not a great start but all ok. More wine was needed.
That evening we booked into a speciality Italian restaurant to celebrate our anniversary. Ed and Shelly joined us and surprised us with a bottle of champagne. Lovely food all finished off with a cake provided by the restaurant for our celebration.
The first two days of the cruise were at sea, lots of cruising up to Alaska, while we did lots of eating, drinking, a little shopping and a test of the Casino. We were relatively close to shore along the way passing by misty wooded shoreline and the occasional fishing boat and remote villages.
The days were getting longer as we went. In Vancouver it was staying light until about 9.30, as we entered Alaska it was light until 11.
We arrived at Icy Straight Point in Hoona Alaska at around 4pm on Tuesday. The port was tiny, dwarfed by the cruise ship. Hoona is small Alaskan town of 750 people. It is only accessible by boat or air, and is even harder to get to during winter. The remoteness means that most people combine a subsistence life style with work. Hunting deer (a limit of 3 per head) and salmon which they dry and can themselves.
While there we went on a Brown bear search. We were driven out of town on an old bus and then taken on a walk through three viewing platforms. The landscape was very pretty, but there no bears.
Lots of bear poop, but not a bear to be seen – except for one we found carved in a tree.
And a few “smokey the bears”
We then headed off on a whale watching tour. This was more successful with a couple of humpbacks swimming around the boat. It was amazing how close to shore they were swimming – the water got very deep quickly.
We got back from the whale watching at 10pm and it was still very light. A quick walk back to the ship to grab some dinner and we were cruising to our next destination.