Tuesday 17th September Lat Unknown. Long, Unknow. Lost in fog and rain for the last 36 hours all we saw were the ghosts of cruise ships passing in the fog and nothing else until about 4pm to day when the rain cleared enough for us to see the famous Port Hardy light house entrance to the […]

Mon 16th Sept. Misty Fjord    55.66N 130.68W It was a fjord. It was misty. It was wet. I was wet and so was the eagle. All this before breakfast. Ilze chose wisely to stay in bed. Pete

Wrangell 56.47 N 132.38 W Why did we bother with Wrangell. Only because the  ship came here. No one else bothers. The only way in and out is via the small Ferry. It rains almost every day. The Chiefs lodge was a one quarter scale replica built in 1947 outside which we stood in the […]

Sitka  57.05 N 135.34 W After yet another night of being tossed around on the high seas of the Gulf of Alaska we woke to a glorious sunny day, after too many days of cold, high wind, fog, and high seas and sailed into Sitka Sound ringed by volcanoes including the looming Mt Edgecombe. Our […]

Friday 13th September 59.57N 141.26W After another rough night crossing from Kodiak Island to the mainland Ilze and I spent a happy few hours on shore in the town of Seward. We visited several unusual places that included the Blue Moose gift shop, the Sew N. Bee Quilt shop and Safeway supermarket. Who knew. Back […]

Tuesday 10th September 58.05 N. 154.32 W. Today begins two of the days that will be one of the highlight of this trip. The search for bears in Geographic Harbour part of the Katmai National  Park and tomorrow morning we sail deep into Uganik Sound on Kodiak Island. We dream of opportunities like these and […]

Mon 9th Sept. Aniakchak 56.44N 15729W is technically not an island as it is part of the Alaskan mainland but is totally issolated from human interference on land by the huge Katmai National Park. Over 4 million acres it includes the island of Kodiak which we visit in two days time. Our excursion crew was […]

Sunday 8th of September. Off the island of Unga 52.457N 168.21W The weather has improved in that visibility was good but rain was about. We finally got to go ashore although Ilze made a late decision to stay on board as the footing at landing was not good being a steep gravel beach and then […]

The ship ploughed on in rich gloom until about an hour out of Dutch Harbour when the skies cleared and awesome majesty loomed. Cragged cliffs, glacier gouged fjords, spouting whales and sea lions were all spotted before we came alongside. Dutch Harbour is actually only the name of the bay, made famous on a TV […]

After the disappointment of missing out on the zodiac landings the previous day, we awoke to clear if drizzly skies only to be further disappointed. In order to avoid the worst of yesterday’s storm our Captain had diverted the ships course and we no longer crossed the International Date Line depriving me of an additional […]