We wake up to sunshine. Amazing! Unfortunately, Carolyn is having a full blown asthma attack and is in bed. Dick gets up and goes to breakfast and then decides to go into town. We had only planned to walk around and check out a couple of things others have mentioned, so it is not too bad a day to be under the weather.
Dick doesn’t stay gone long. The town’s over all look is not touristy, but well off. There is a nice looking hotel just down from the dock and a park with children and dog walkers. Prince Rupert is an active seaport and is connected to the rest of Canada by a highway. The setting is beautiful, especially in the sunshine.
We spend time sitting on the balcony and Carolyn spends a lot of time sleeping. Though still not up to dressing for dinner, Carolyn is feeling better by evening and has room service. Dick goes to the main dinning room and joins a table of six. He is gone a couple of hours and has a good meal and conversation. One of the couples is the New Zealanders we ate with several nights ago.
We have a pretty sunset as we sail away; the first since Vancouver.
Tomorrow Klemtu, the First Nation visit.
We wake as the ship is anchoring at the upper end of Rudyerd Bay, surrounded by steep hills that are covered with trees. Again, the ceiling is low and there is mist off and on. The area lives up to its name! The ship is here all day. During the day, they send off the numerous kayaks and the afternoon catamaran tour using Allen Marine.
The tour, originally scheduled for 4PM, leaves at 2:30PM to take advantage of the remaining daylight and is out for three hours. The clouds have lifted and we can see the beautiful mountains and water falls all around. We start by heading further up the bay a little ways to the end and a place they call God’s Corner, a stunning, bow-shaped area with small shore meadows and towering mountains with waterfalls everywhere,. We then head down Rudyerd Bay, exploring first one side and then the other and looking at the magnificent scenery.
We finally break out into the Behm Canal. We circle New Eddystone Rock, so named by Vancouver in 1793. It has seals hauled out around it enjoying the little sun that is breaking through. We head down the West side of Winstanley Island and then back up its East side through Shoalwater Pass. Here we see some faded petroglyphs, thought to be between 200 and 300 years old. We also see more seals. It is starting to rain as we head back to the ship and we run in and out of showers until we reach the ship about 5:30PM.
It is worth the cost to see this rather hard to see, remote area as many times the flight tours are canceled due to weather. It is a beautiful sail in on the Sojourn, one larger ships can't do and it is nice to then get on the comfortable, uncrowded catamaran and explore even deeper. The tour is very nice and we are glad we did it.
Carolyn is fighting a bout of asthma and is rather sick after the boat ride. She climbs in bed and orders room service while Dick heads up to the patio for a good steak under the heaters but on the outside edge's covered tables. The ship is moving so there is wind and it is still cold even with the heaters at full blast.. We have eaten here several nights, but in the area between the bar and the grill and that has always been comfortable.
Losing an hour tonight, we are in bed by 9PM tomorrow time.
Wow, this turns out to be the best day so far! We arrive and dock at Wrangell on time, 10AM, after some early morning scenic cruising which wasn’t too scenic. The rain and fog continue to plague us. We have a jet-boat tour later this afternoon. Given the weather and the fact that we do not see much to attract us to the shore, we spend the day on board until tour time.
Our tour is provided by Alaska(n) Vista. We board an aluminum boat that will seat 16 plus the pilot and guide in a covered, heated cabin. It also has an open deck at the back for photo opts. It is powered by two, big diesel engines using water jets as propulsion. It is raining lightly and we enter a fog bank soon after leaving the dock. After some joking about not being able differentiate the land from the sea in a sea of many Islands, the captain assures us he will get us around safely!
The crew of two, one a native and one a local, both either a biologist or a naturalist, give us a feel for what we can expect to see and the history of the area on our “three hour tour.” The boat, for its size, is state of the art with impressive radar and GPS navigation. The course is already laid in and showing on the screen as we enter the fog bank. All the pilot has to do is stay on or near the red line unfolding on the screen. We can see nothing but white!
We are entering the Stikine River delta and the river is in flood stage, 12 feet out of its normal wide and meandering banks and unusual for this time of year. There is also a very strong current. The water almost looks like syrup it is so choked with silt from an extremely heavy rain a few days ago; "water you can eat!" We begin to see a lot of trash in the river, like huge, 80-foot trees, as the fog dissipates. We also see River Otters rafted up on a sand bar. There must be 20 or 30 of them in a very small area. The Captain tells us they are hauled out to conserve energy until the water clears up some and they can feed.
We stop every 15-20 minutes for more information as we explorer the sloughs and side tributaries. We see a juvenile eagle in a tree near his birth nest as well as floating, hunting cabins. It is elk season and the hunters are out. We also explore a fresh water salmon stream. The change from muddy to green is the joining of the stream to the river.
We end up in Shakes Lake which is dotted by floating and grounded ice from Shakes Glacier six miles up the lake. The icebergs are beautiful with their display of “glacier blue” color. We get close to the glacier, about 700 feet away. It is not very tall, 60-80 feet, as compared to 100-300 feet for some we have seen. But it is very deep and the captain says the big ice bergs come mostly from poppers coming up from under the water.
It is a 45 minute run back to the ship and we retrace most of the route we took into the glacier. We are told that the round trip is approximately 75 miles and it has gone quickly. It is a great tour, well worth the rather high price of $279 each.
It is the returning guest's cocktail party tonight, but we are very tired and go to dinner in the restaurant as soon as it opens and then retire. Tomorrow Misty Fjords!
We are in bed by the time the Captain pulled the plug on Juneau at 11PM last night. We drift down the Gastineau Channel, then down Stephens Passage. By the time we wake up and open the curtains this morning at 8:30AM the decision has been made and we are sailing up Endicott Arm with lots of good sized ice floating by.
The fjord is about 30 miles long and we are scheduled to board the catamaran at 10:45AM for our close encounter with Dawes Glacier. We head to breakfast in the restaurant. On this cruise there are a number of people that like to be served breakfast in a quite, elegant way. So far the port side window section is mostly filled every morning with between 40 and 70 people. Carolyn broke from our normal routine of Eggs Benedict today and had poached eggs and grits instead. The eggs have been perfectly runny and the bacon crisp every morning, well, except Monday. We were sitting next to a Cruise Critic member and were talking abut liking crisp bacon and the plates came out with limp bacon on them. Our waiter notices and immediately returns with plates of crisp bacon before either of us can ask! Now that is Seabourn!
We head back to the room and gather cameras, coats, hats and gloves just in case it is cold and head down to the club to meet the Allen Marine catamaran. It has been following us this morning. They get the kayaks going and then we board. The boat will hold 150, but Seabourn said they would not put more than 110 people. Not sure there are that many today. There is plenty of room on the three decks. The lowest deck is indoor seating only with a snack bar. The second deck has both indoor seating and an outside deck and the third deck is outside only. They have crab bisque, sweet rolls and small sandwiches with an open bar all during the trip.
There is heavy ice close to the glacier with some beautiful large icebergs. The ship stops about two miles from the glacier face and the catamaran takes us to about a quarter of a mile off the face. The glacier is actively caving today with lots of little splashes and two really nice shows. We really luck out with the weather.
It is misty and overcast most of the way to the face, but once we arrived, the clouds lift and the sky lightens up and the sun and some blue appear. We spend most of the time in front of the glacier before exploring the side walls and looking for wildlife.
The kayakers were also up at the face with us and looked like they were having fun. We did get to see some harbor seals hauled out on an iceberg. The catamaran has an all women crew except for a male bartender.
We get back to the ship about 1:30PM. Carolyn gets some pizza for lunch and brings it back to the room, to enjoy it on the balcony. Dick works on the 1,000+ pictures we took today and then goes to the grill for a late lunch. He also enjoys some time in the hot tub on Deck 6 with three ladies as we sail. They are out there over an hour having a wonderful conversation watching the scenery go by.
We have an invitation to join the Assistant Cruise Director’s table tonight. It is another pleasant evening. There are seven of us, one couple from Chicago, one couple from Auckland, NZ and the Asst. Cruise Director, a young man from Scotland. The conversation topics are diverse and interesting and once again we are late leaving. There is a classical pianist playing in the Grand Salon, but as usual we are sleepy and head for bed.
Tomorrow we have some scenic cruising then a stop in Wrangell.
