Day 2 – Cruising through the Inside Passage
Today we will be at sea for the whole day, cruising past Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii towards Alaska. Andrew and I woke up early, getting to the gym at 6:15 where we did an hour of yoga. We’ve been missing our daily yoga classes that we used to do in London so we’re trying to get back in to the routine.
After a quick change, we arrived to breakfast exactly when it opened so once again we had a seat with an incredible view by the window. Refueled, we settled in to a day of drifting between the various decks of the ship to watch the views go by. Unfortunately we passed through a bit of a storm in the early afternoon and James and Andrew felt pretty rough. While they were napping I went on a tour of the ship’s galley which was pretty cool. They go through around 18,000 bottles of wine and 35,000 litres of beer every two weeks on board!
After an afternoon gym session, it was time to go for dinner. We had some pre-dinner drinks in the Sky Lounge at the top of the ship where they had a King Crab buffet laid out. It was so good, like normal crab meat but huge so it just slid out of the claws. Then it was time for the main event. We had scallops to start, gnocchi and lamb for main, and apple crumble for dessert. Yum! I even had my first glimpse of a whale out of the window!
Day 3 – Icy Strait Point
Once again, our day started with yoga and breakfast. Today, we’re much further north in the Inside Passage and there is a lot more wildlife. Just during breakfast we saw whales, porpoises and a penguin swimming past the boat. For much of the morning we watched from the decks in search of the next flick of a whale tail.
Today we would be docking for the afternoon in Icy Strait Point. Icy Strait Point is a privately owned attraction for tourists just outside of the village of Hoonah. It was basically created as a spot for cruise ships to brak up the journey a little in Alaska. We were one of the first to get off the ship once we’d docked, eager to explore and search for bears.
First we walked around the signposted nature trail. It was tiny, like 500m, and so we didn’t see anything that interesting along there. We the decided to walk along the coast to the village of Hoonah, around 1.5km away. On the way we were told by some locals that there have been sightings of two juvenile bears on an island just off the coast so we were very excited!
Along the way we spotted many bald eagles, and we kept our eyes out in the forest for bears. Finally, just as we were entering Hoonah, we saw the two bears on an island! They were two young grizzly bears and they hung around on the beach for a long time as we took photos and watched them.
We then wandered through Hoonah, where we saw some totem poles being carved, before heading back to Icy Strait Point. On arrival back at the port, we were greeted by many people offering canapes. Obviously we accepted. We tried caribou meat balls, halibut sliders, salmon, and local beer. It was like a party with live music and lots of food. We later learnt that this is because the CEO of the cruise ship company is on our boat and it only happens once per year!
[Photo credit for wildlife snaps: James Green]