Arriving Dutch Harbor

Louise - in answer to your question...YES, Fred Everson is the Captain this voyage, & Gene is the Cruise Director.

The Kodiak sail-away was spectacular! First, we were blessed with good weather, and even the local people told us it was highly unusual. Second, the party was well-attended and we were able to meet several very nice folks. Last, we saw more whales than we’ve ever seen before. Not one or two, but literally dozens! At one point, there were visible spouts & sprays in every direction. None of the whales completely breached, but several gave us a great show!

 

 

 

 

 

Once we hit open sea and around midnight, we hit some weather conditions that have been with us since – cloudy, cold, off & on rain, with moderate swells. The Captain refers to them as ‘moderate’ but the ship has been pitching & yawing for over 24 hours now. Pools & hot tubs were drained early yesterday morning and an outside “Salmon Bake” was postponed until sometime later today after we leave Dutch Harbor. We’re in crabbing waters now, or those where fishermen from “Deadliest Catch” film their show. I will tell you this – they don’t use ‘window dressing’ on the show – these are very rough waters. The picture from our cabin here (yesterday afternoon) doesn’t begin to capture the turbulent conditions, but we’ve been in much worse.

Entertainment in the main theater has been good each night, and well-attended. We’ve had the usual array of singers, dancers, & comedians – not outstanding, but talented & entertaining.

We did very little yesterday aside from our 9:00 technology class and some Wii bowling early afternoon. The technology class is overflowing – excellent instructor (Craig) and interesting topics – Windows 8. Wii is drawing about two dozen folks each session. Cheryl has been up five times now and as you might guess…five consecutive strikes! I’ve been up an equal number of times and as you’ve guessed already…NO strikes yet! It’s OK…she’s on the same team and helps us win! No rummy games – stilled tied at two games each. I took a nap before Happy Hour – just something about rough seas – it’s like being rocked to sleep and we both love it. Our tablemates are all very nice people and we’ve enjoyed their company. Cheryl and I adopted a dear 93 year-old man sailing alone. He’s actually a friend of a couple we met on the 2012 World Cruise (Paul & Judy) and once he found us & introduced himself, we’ve been keeping tabs on him ever since. He was eating alone, so I made arrangements to have our table expanded to accommodate him – we now have seven. His name is Joe, from Valencia, California. God bless him – he gets lost just trying to find his cabin, but talk about a kind, gentle, good-hearted guy – we now meet him for Happy Hour each afternoon and then take him to dinner – he’s a pretty happy camper at this point. Judy & Paul…thanks for hooking him up with us – very much enjoy his company and not to worry, we’ll take good care of him!

We’re scheduled to dock in Dutch Harbor at 8:00 this morning, about 4 hours from now – it’s just after 4am...my favorite time of day. I’ll do my best to post the many pictures we have so far from Kodiak, but may have to wait until we get to Japan. As I’ve mentioned, the ships’ internet is very slow & frustrating.