May 6, 2023 Sea Day #9

   

    After leaving Ketchikan before 6 p.m., yesterday, Westerdam was followed out of port by Nieuw Amsterdam on its way back to Vancouver. Shortly after 7 p.m., the pilot boat arrived to collect the harbour pilot from the ship, then it waited in the area for the Nieuw Amsterdam to offload its’ pilot when it got to the area.  Westerdam went south toward Dixon Entrance into Hecafe Strait with Haida Gwaii to the west. By daylight, she was in Queen Charlotte Sound going a little south west to start to skirt Vancouver Island for the rest of the day. 

     The Itinerary for this cruise at the beginning of April stated that the ship was to travel the Inside Passage weaving among the smaller islands from Ketchikan to Seattle. However the captain had calculated speeds needed to cover the distance. He altered head office in Seattle when he  realized that Westerdam could not arrive in Seattle at 7 a.m. on Sunday, May 7 using that route. This itinerary was planned for 2021 and postponed to 2022, then again to 2023, but Vancouver had been the end port. Changing the end port to Seattle added more distance in congested shipping lanes at reduced speeds. Several days before the start of this 14 day cruise, it was announced that the  Inside Passage route would be changed to a route going on the west side of Vancouver Island. That announcement came only a few days before notification that the port visit on April 26 to Kushiro, Japan was cancelled due to predicted very bad weather. The decision was very disappointing to the passengers, but there was the extra day in Yokohama in exchange.

     Special baggage tags were delivered to attach to our luggage for identification when the luggage is transferred from the ship to the Seattle terminal. After we pack our suitcases, we are instructed to place them in the hall before midnight, when the crew will collect them and transfer them to the terminal baggage pickup in the morning for us to collect, before boarding the transfer bus to the airport.

   Today was the coronation of King Charles III in London. The news stations available on the ship’s satellite feed - BBC, Fox News and MSNBC networks all showed highlights of the occasion throughout the day. 

   This morning the sky was overcast with layers of cloud, temperature 8° C and very little wind. The sun broke through by mid-afternoon. There were no white capped waves to be seen on the water. After breakfast in the dining room, we climbed the stairs to the Crow’s Nest Café on Deck 10 for a game of Five Crowns with Cathy and Dennis from Vancouver.  We skipped the EXC talk and retrieved our jackets to walk on Deck 3 for about an hour, before having lunch in the dining room. At 2:30 p.m. Westerdam was just over 12 nautical miles west of Cachalot, B.C.

    Later in the afternoon, we met Pat and Pete at the Crow’s Nest Café to complete Thursday’s Five Crowns game. As we played cards we could see the Diamond Princess cruise ship keeping pace just a few kilometres away. After finishing the game, we found a Phase 10 card game on one of the shelves of games. We played the game even though there were four cards missing, we didn’t know which ones were missing. Pat was the first to complete the game. It was close to dinnertime when we finished. The four of us decided to meet for our final dinner on the ship, after a quick change. We were seated away from the back windows. Even though the sun was shining through the windows, the tables by the back windows make conversations difficult because of the engine noise. We toasted a great holiday.

   We returned to the stateroom to pack our luggage and put it in the hall by midnight. By 9 p.m. Westerdam was nearing the entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait and less than ten hours until docking in Seattle.

Steps 11,323 Flights of stairs 20