Westerdam was crossing the Gulf of Alaska from Kodiak to Sitka, Alaska. On Baranof Island in the Alexander Archipelago. Baranof Island is just to the west of the Tongass National Forest. At noon the ship was about half way to Sitka.

 

   This morning was cloudy, temperature 4 C and wind WSW 23 km per hour. The ship’s course this morning was 98.3° at 15 knots. 

   We had breakfast in Lido before going for lattes in the Crow’s Nest to meet Kathy and Dennis for a game of Five Crowns before Andy Fletcher’s final lecture “What the Scientists Think about It All” at 11 a.m.  When we returned to the stateroom Judy had left a message asking to meet them for dinner tonight.

    After the lecture we walked on the Promenade Deck for almost as hour, catching up to and chatting with Pat and Pete for a while.  At 2 p.m was this cruise’s Ask the Captain in the theatre that was well attended. As like last cruise there was a 30 minute slide show of the Navigation Deck narrated by the captain followed by a 30 minute Question and Answer session. The captain spoke of cable lengths from the pier. A cable length is equal to 1/10 of a nautical mile (or around 185 meters). The crew consists of about 650 people in the hotel division – housekeeping, bars, restaurants, and guest services; about 60 Deck officers to maneuver the ship and 75 technicians for internet and entertainment.  Fuel used for the cruise will be 1,436 tonnes or about 380,000 U.S. gallons, which is a rate of 79 gallons per nautical mile. 

     We met Pat and Pete to play Five Crowns before meeting Judy and Doug for dinner. The show this evening was duo Matt Wolfe, guitarist and vocalist, Lainie Munro with guitar music of all genres.

   Current news: the U.S. Federal Reserve increased interest rates by .25 points to between 5 % & 5.25%. It is the tenth rise in one year and a 16 year high.

        Total steps  13,174      Flights of stairs 26

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