Day 42 - Sunday - 5/07/17 - Scenic Cruising Glacier Bay

My started early when I woke up at 4am and watched the pilot boat come speeding across the Straights. The pilots (2 because we'll be sailing 24/7 in pilot required waters) boarded the ship and we resumed our speed until 3 hours later we reached the area of the Park ranger station where another small boat approached us with 2 Park Rangers, 2 Tlingit cultural representatives, and 2 National Geographic of Alaska representatives.  They boarded and set up their temporary visitor center in the Crow's Nest.  Ranger Deb provided the scenic commentary, the Nat Geo folks sold souvenir items with part of the proceeds going to support the National Park.  The main Tlingit representative gave information about the Tlingit peoples and had 'show and tell' items.  But most importantly, they brought their National Park stamp so we could obtain an impression from it for our National Parks Passport book.

On the slow cruise into the bay we had the opportunity to see wild mountain goats, Stellar sea lions, sea otters a few seals (it was seal birthing time, so we didn't see as much of those as I've seen on a prior trip which was later in the season), and multiple glaciers. The weather was sprinkly, but the rain stopped as we reached Margarite Glacier, which is the most active and healthy Glacier.  We hovered in front of it for an hour before setting a course to leave.  The other ranger gave a short slide presentation on the  National Park system in general and Glacier Bay National Park.  The Tlingit representative then gave an oral history of his people, and all too soon they reboarded their launch and were gone leaving us to continue our sail to Ketchikan.

I led the 4pm interdenominational Sunday service in which around 30 people participated.  It was the final Gala night so my wife and I ate in the main dining room because it was lobster night.  Afterwards, we watched the comedy show of John Joseph ( a New York style comedian).  Personally I liked the previous night's Savannah Jack performance much more.

Since I was up so early, I elected to go to bed early while my wife watched Patriot Games.

Tomorrow we are scheduled to arrive in Ketchikan at noon for a brief 5 hour stop.  So we should have some nice daylight cruising through the passageways leading to  Ketchikan.

Day 44 - Tuesday - 5/09/17 - At sea to Vancouver

Our final day at sea arrived and I woke up early to enjoy it.  We'll be sailing out in the open ocean all day until we reach near Port Hardy when we'll enter the protected waters between the mainland of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.  So far it's been quite smooth with only a a gentle rolling motion to the Volendam.

After leading the final interdenominational morning devotional time we participated in the BBC trivia contest scoring only 10 out of 28 possible points.  17 was the winning score.  Harry Strong then gave a nice presentation on Tsunamis.  Our final lunch was Asian fare and quite tasty.

Following lunch, Terry Greenberg gave a great presentation on the coastal First Nation people.  He was followed by Andy Fletcher who gave his concluding presentation on Life and the Meaning of Everything.  It really tied everything hung together.  

We enjoyed our last dinner in the Lido after watching the channel south of Port Hardy.  Later on I was in the Crow's Nest and saw part of a humpback whale breech as we passed through a narrow passageway between two islands.  Because the evening entertainment (Savannah Jack) was so popular, I staked out a seat early.  Both shows were high energy and very well attended.  I finished packing and had our luggage out before midnight.  

We're docked in Vancouver waiting for our disembarkation color to be called.  I'll do a last post after we get hone later today.  I hope you've enjoyed following along.

Day 43 - Monday - 5/08/17 - Ketchikan

It's hard to believe that we are on the next to last day of this 44 day voyage from Hong Kong.  After a very restful night's sleep, I woke up at 6am to us sailing down the channel beside Petroglyph Beach State Historical Park.  Overnight we had sailed out   into the ocean and then by Cape Pole we did a series of 'S' turns and the last major right turn by Cape Baker put us into the inland passageway we are currently sailing in.  The skies are overcast with a few sprinkles and a fairly low cloud ceiling.  I'm writing this segment sitting up in the Crow's Nest watching my world go by at about 20mph.  It's peaceful and tranquil with a slight undercurrent of country western music playing in the background.  Ahead of us is a large vessel that seems to be pulling away from us.  Earlier a small power boat sailed past us in the opposite direction.  The seas are very flat with only a slight wind ripple on the surface.  The tide or current marks are very prominent breaking up the surface sheen of the water.

Terry Greenberg gave an excellent history update on Alaska from the purchase to modern days.  Afterwards we watched the sail in to Ketchikan past an AK ferry in dry dock and a second one loading vehicles.

It's now evening and we had a good but brief day in Ketchikan.  There was the Star Princess in town when we arrived at noon and the projected rain held off all day.  As we have been to Ketchikan several times, we just walked around touring shops and reminiscing about our previous visits.  We ate at the oldest Mexican restaurant in Alaska (Cisco's) and it was good to taste a different cuisine with flavor!  While at the restaurant, the entire Island suddenly lost power, but we were able to be served.  We visited the local museum and then walked among the cute little shops along Creek Street which are built on pilings about 20 feet above the creek's headwaters to the ocean.

Back on board at 5pm, we watched the sail away and I grabbed a quick bite to eat before we watched the final 8pm performance of the cast show 'Classique'.  We came back and watched the 10pm showing as well.  We had seen the first performance of the show by another cast on another ship, so it was fitting that we see the last performance by this cast on the Volendam.  After a 5 week break, they are taking the show to the Veendam.  They will be replaced by a new cast with an entirely new set of shows by a new American producer for the subsequent sailings.  This should freshen things up a whole bunch as the current set of shows is getting a bit stale for us having seen them multiple times over the past 3 years.  With HAL having such a high rate of repeat business, keeping fresh shows has to be a real challenge.

After tonight, it's only one more sleep until we're done with this cruise.  Stay tuned for the final day's report and a wrap up post.

Day 41 - Saturday - 5/06/17 - At sea in Gulf of Alaska

I woke up this morning with a full on cold and congestion.  It was a bit of a struggle to lead the morning interdenominational service, but I made it through it.  There was a full schedule of 3 lectures plus the Ask The Captain Q&A session.  The quantum mechanics lecture was first and it was truly weird.  Terry Greenberg followed with a great lecture on Russian expansion into Alaska.  

After lunch I attended the America's Test Kitchen presentation on Chocolate, then the Captain's Q&A, and concluded the afternoon with Harry Strong's presentation on what causes movement in the ocean.  After this activity I collapsed and took a 2 1/2 hour nap which was refreshing.  

Savanna Jack was the evening's entertainment.  They are a high energy band from Nashville and they did a tribute to songs from 1955 to 1975.  It's their first time performing on HAL ships. It was so good we went back for the 10pm performance.

Day 40 - Friday - 5/05/17 - Kodiak, Alaska

I woke up this morning at 4am to the accompaniment of the ship rolling a bit and for some reason couldn't fall back asleep.  Finally at 6:00am I got up and showered and headed up to the Crow's Nest to watch the sail in.  There were low clouds and a number of small rock formations as we approached the Kodiak harbor.  I could see the Alaska State ferry Kennicott berthed off to our port or left side.  We held our position for a long while when the Captain finally  came on the PA system and said the Alaska ferry had a mechanical issue and would be delayed an hour.  So we continued to hold our position when he came on the PA system again saying there would be a further delay of an hour. Towards the end of that 2nd hour he inched the Volendam towards its berth and held the ship 90° to the dock until the the Kennicott departed.  He then swiftly rotated the Volendam a further 90° counterclockwise and slid her gently up against the pier.

At around 8:45am I called our tour guide to advise him  what was going on. After another wait the gangway was put in place and the yellow school buses were arriving to serve as the shore excursion transportation.  I never heard Deck 9 being called but finally I saw people disembarking the ship and getting in the yellow school buses for their tours or the ride to downtown. Every 20 minutes they would call another lower floor number 7, 6, 3, and 2.  At 10:45am I called our guide again and expressed concern that we might not make the 12 noon tour.  I should add that all the while we were waiting, the eagle watching was really good!

Then at around 11:20am we got the call for deck number 1 to get cleared.  We got in line and after 15 minutes a crew person finally came to the back of the line and had US passport holders go to a separate and significantly shorter line.  We then were through in less than a minute.  HAL just has to do immigration better!!  We should have been instructed to seek the proper line and it would have been more fair for the non-HAL tour passengers to use the numbered card system so that those who weren't planning to get off could use a later time for the immigration inspection.  And if US passport holders were such a minority, process us first and get us out of the way.  This inspection process made the previous inspections in Asia seem like a choreographed ballet in comparison!  End of rant.

Once off the ship another party on our excursion spotted me and noted that our van was nearby and we didn't need to take the shuttle into town to Henry's to meet with our guide.  So we boarded a comfortable van and Brie, our guide, took us to town and then to the top of the big hill above the town where they have 4-6 large windmills.  Those combined with hydropower provide 95% of Kodiak's power.  We also enjoyed nice vistas although it was a bit windy and the clouds kept obscuring the views.

Our next stop was at Ft. Abercrombie State Historical Park which is a memorial to the defensive guns that were constructed for WWII, but never fired.  We saw 8" guns that were left over from WWI battleships that were put in use for the 2nd world war.  From there we made a stop at WAL MART so a number of us could purchase some provisions.  I felt a cold coming on so I purchased some cold medicine.  Our final trip took us out to the fairgrounds to see a large eagle's nest.  While the eagle wasn't  visible, our guide assured us the best was in use and two eaglets should be soon visible. We also got to see the large US Coast Guard facility and the airport before being dropped off downtown where we did some souvenir shopping and then walked back to the ship along what the locals call cannery row due to the number of canneries found there.  They actually don't can anything here; they just process and freeze it for later processing in the lower 48.  It's only 4-5 blocks from downtown to the ship.  There's a cool store along the way called Pickled Willy's which  sells some incredible pickled seafoods and there were lots of samples.  We definitely spent some money there!

Because of our delay in the morning, the onboard time was extended by an hour to 5:30pm, and we made it back on by 5pm.  Before our customary Lido dinner, we watched the sail away which wasn't complicated and we departed promptly at 6pm.

I watched the movie, 'Sully', for the second time this cruise and each time it seems like a new movie.  I really like it.  I then watched the 10pm cast show of 'Dance' which is my third time to see it this cruise.

Tomorrow is a sea day as we cross the Gulf of Alaska.  We'll see if the seas are as smooth as when crossing the Pacific.

Day 39 - Thursday - 5/04/17 - At Sea to Alaska - 6

Today was our final day of the crossing of the Pacific, and I have to say it has been quite smooth.  The second officer said in his navigation talk that it has been the smoothest crossing he's experienced.  

After the morning interdenominational service which I led on the topic of generosity, Harry Strong gave an excellent presentation on Curtis Flying boats.  Mr. Strong has been volunteering in the restoration of several of these vintage items and has direct personal experience with them.  

For the noon PA announcement of the position and meteorological update and time zone change, Bruce, the Cruise Director, gave it and the Captain gave the onboard events update.  Both were deadpan serious, and we all enjoyed the switch. Following lunch, the Navigational talk was on the general subject of maritime education and how to get one's license to become a master of the vessel.  We also received a weather update that indicated the rainy weather should hold off until we leave Kodiak.   He also indicated that we have a damaged left or port stabilizer and that we are running solely using the right stabilizer.  

Terry Greenburg then presented his final talk on Asia in which he predicted a flip flop in the importance of the Eastern economies compared to the present dominance of western economies, particularly the USA.  I found the evidence compelling, although it probably won't happen in my lifetime. But the symptoms are all showing up now.

From the end of Mr. Greenburg's talk until dinner we reassumed our whale watching position in the Crow's Nest.  The watching was good; the finding was not.  Later my wife saw some dolphins.

Tonight's entertainment was a variety show featuring Rob Watkins and Electric Strings.

Today we learned the US immigration procedure and it will be a bit unfair for those with early non HAL tours.  The procedure will be for those on the higher decks to be processed first and proceeding down to deck 1 which is scheduled last in 2 hours after the start.  HAL tours will be processed among the preceding groups.  Fortunately my non HAL tour doesn't start until noon.

Stay tuned as we are about to finish the final 5 days of this 44 day cruise with a sailing down the Alaska and British Columbia coastlines.

Day 38 - Wednesday - 5/03/17 - At Sea to Alaska - 5

It was a whale of a day!  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  After the morning interdenominational service, there was the BBC game show with all new questions and then we went to the Crow's Nest to read and watch for wildlife.  After lunch in the Lido (we skipped the Indonesian lunch in our he main dining room), I went to the daily bridge and weather lecture presented by the second officer.  Captain Baijens then presented a PowerPoint virtual tour of the bridge plus photos of the Volendam in its last dry dock.  This was followed by a lecture on Quantum Mechanics which was changing to keep up with.  Afterwards we watched for wild life from a now familiar spot in the Crow's Nest.  We saw a few whale spouts plus we sailed alongside Unalaska (Dutch Harbor).  After a short break for a Lido dinner, we resumed our whale watch.  

And were we rewarded.  For almost 3 hours it was a continual display of spouting whales, breaching orcas, dolphins and the like,  this continued all the way through the Unimak Pass which is an 8 mile wide channel.  It was very busy with shipping traffic and we saw 4 large cargo vessels including one huge log transport ship.  All we're headed towards Japan via the great circle route.  We also had terrific views of Mt. Pogromni at 6568 feet and Mt. Shishaldin at 9372 feet. Both are inactive volcanoes and the whole Aleutian Island chain was formed by volcanic activity.

We watched the 10pm performance of the Alley Cats and then the Phillipino crew member show which was as well attended as any of these crew shows. It was a full house.

Day 37 - Tuesday - 2nd 5/02/17 - At Sea to Alaska - 4

At around 9:15pm last night we crossed the International Date Line which theoretically follows the 180° longitudinal line.  Up in Alaska it curves sharply to the West so as to have all of the Aleutian Island chain of islands on the same day as the rest of the USA.  It's an artificial marking on the map, and there was no 'bump' or sensation of crossing that line.  ;-)  We did receive certificates that we did cross it!

It also worth noting that we are traveling north of the Aleutian Island chain as the great circle route we are following took us there.  It's the shortest distance from our last stop in Japan until we reach Kodiak.  Interestingly, we have to sail at least 16 miles from the nearest land because in a full response emergency requiring us to stop, a response can't be expected for 12-14 hours and it would take us at least that amount of time to drift into shore.  Additionally the seas are much calmer up here north of the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea than it would have been sailing in the Pacific Ocean south of the island chain.  We did see a couple cargo ships plying their way towards Japan.

Coming back to the day's activities, it was a really low key sort of day onboard the Volendam.  Following the morning interdenominational service which I led with 20 in attendance, our first lecture was by Terry Greenburg on differences between East and West.  It was really good!  I attended the Navigational lecture which today was focused on the technical description of the ship.  It was really well attended (standing room only).  We were told that we'll be passing back through the Aleutian chain tomorrow with two more sea days before Kodiak.   Harry Strong's lecture was on coral with lots of pictures and movies.

Before our Lido dinner, we spent several hours in the Crow's Nest reading and watching for wildlife.  I finished another mystery novel, 'Signature Wounds' by Scott Morrison.  It's time to start my fifth book which will be another mystery novel.  After dinner I returned to the Crow's Nest to watch for wildlife and update my daily blog.  The evening's entertainment was the BBC Earth production of 'Frozen Planet which we have seen multiple times including once on this voyage.  So we elected to not go again. 

After dinner and a dry but cold day today, a light drizzle formed on the front facing windows in the Crow's Nest  as darkness continued its slow creep upon us.  We ended our evening in the Mix watching and listening Don play Broadway show tunes.  He's pretty good and we've seen him on other cruises.

And so ended our second May second. Fortunately the mats in the elevators didn't change so we knew it was still Tuesday.  For those who don't know, the carpet floor mats in the elevators have the day of the week on them and are changed out daily to help us keep track of what day it is.  It's a clever and simple way to keep us passengers aware of what day of the week it is.  Otherwise, there's very little sense of what day of the week it is.

Day 36 - Tuesday - 5/02/17 - At Sea to Alaska - 3

Oh how nice are the lazy days of sea days.  While I had to be up early to lead the interdenominational service, I was pleased that we had 31 in attendence.  Jeremy gave an interesting presentation on the two upcoming ports of call in Alaska as well as our final destination.  Harry Strong followed that up with his presentation on Sea Turtles.

After a brief lunch I attended the daily lecture on navigation presented by the ship's second officer.  It was interesting, and I learned we would be encountering weather in the upcoming days on our way to Kodiak. The afternoon's lecture by Andy Fletcher on space and time matters was pretty intense and was followed by a good Q&A session.

Up in the Crow's Nest, we spotted 3 whales which entertained us for a few minutes.  Later on at dinner in the Lido, some dolphins or porpoises were spotted.

Kubo and the Two Strings was tonight's movie and we followed that up with watching the cast performance of Droom.

Day 35 - Monday - 5/01/17 - At Sea to Alaska - 2

The fog horn continued to blow overnight and it was still foggy in the morning.  After leading the Interdenominational service (quite well attended) with a topic of 'Mystery' we ate a later breakfast than normal.  There was another Mariner awards ceremony and Bruce noted there were over 1,000 Mariners on the crossing.  It was followed by a Mariner's lunch.  There we enjoyed table conversation with a Dutch couple, single ladies from Perth and Alabama.  Before the 3pm lecture on Issac Newton, we did a bit of reading.  Andy Fletcher was a bit difficult to keep up with his presentation on Newton and Einstein and their positions about science, particularly time and space.  Afterwards we assumed our position in the Crow's Nest, read and watched for wildlife as the skies had cleared.  We spotted some fish rising and ocean debris, but that was all.

While tonight was Gala Night, we elected to eat once again in the Lido and had simple meals.

The evening's entertainment was Elliott Finkle, a simply outstanding pianist.  We've seen him before and in my opinion he's the best entertainer we've seen on a ship!  We even came back to watch his 10pm show.  I hope he plays an afternoon classical concert  like we had on another ship.

Day 34 - Sunday - 4/30/17 - At Sea to Alaska - 1

Overnight there was a little motion to the ocean but nothing too severe. However it was extremely foggy.  There was even fog inside the covered LiDO pool area which made quite an eerie view.  

As a volunteer for the interdenominational service it went okay.  Leading songs is not my strong suit, and someone volunteered to help with that at our next service.  Today's ventriloquist entertainer volunteered to read the Scripture, and he volunteered to help in the interdenominational devotional times for the next 6 sea days.

Mr. Greenburg gave an excellent presentation on differences between Japan and the West.  His 4 key points were:

1. Hierarchy vs Equality
2. Individualism vs Collectivism 
3. Certainty vs Ambiguity
4. Acceptance of contradiction vs logic

At noon the Captain came on the PA system and announced that the ship's time was now 1pm.  So in less than 24 hours we've lost 2 hours!

I finished reading 'The Greatest Generation' and started a rereading a novel titled 'Terms of Use' by Scott Alan Morrison.  It's a mystery novel about cyber attacks. I also started a new action thriller 'Field of Fire' by one of my favorite authors in this genre: Marc Cameron.  They are high intensity action packed spy thrillers with a central character of Joshua Quinn who rides a BMW motorcycle.

Harry Strong began his lecture series on One Ocean this afternoon.  It was just an introduction, but he appears to be a good speaker.  Following his lecture we resumed our customary spot in the Crow's Nest watching flat sea and thick fog pass by accompanied by the long blasts of the ship's horn every two minutes in accordance with international maritime law.  Those tones continued throughout the day and into the night.  I wonder how much longer we'll be sailing through fog which makes wildlife spotting nearly impossible.  It was also about 39°f outside which made walking the deck a bit challenging.

The evening's entertainment was a ventriloquist, Rob Watkins.  He was quite good with a number of different routines.

Day 33 - Saturday - 4/29/17 - Kushiro

Finally, we reached our last Japanese port on this cruise at Kushiro on Hokkaido.  We arrived at 8am and were quickly off the ship and found our guide for the day.  We quickly headed out of the port area for an observatory which turned out to be locked as we were too early.  So we reboarded the bus and drove a short distance up the road to a observation point for a brief stop.  It was a bit overcast so there wasn't much to see.  We reboarded the bus and drove back to the observatory and found it to be open.  The guide seemed insistent that we needed a lavatory and this was the place.  What she didn't realize was that there was really good WIFI there and that for me was more important as I couldn't get my portable WIFI device to connect.  

One surprising thing about Kushiro was how cold it was.  It's located at 43º north latitude which is 4º south of Seattle's latitude.  But it's so much colder here and very few spring plants have started to turn green for the the year and there was still snow banks in many places.

It was a short drive up to the AKAN International Crane Center Tancho Observation Center where there was a little crane museum and I paid the 340¥ to be able to see 3 cranes which are in the rehabilitation pens.  One even had an egg that it was caring for.  It was a very large egg.  They are beautiful large white cranes.  After leaving the Crane Center, we headed for AKAN village and spotted a crane in a field.  At the Akan village we watched a cultural show and had a chance to walk around the village.  What was surprising was the number of Alaskan like totems and wood carvings.  We also visited a museum to see the green algae balls and had an opportunity to get some snacks for lunch.  My choice was dried squid, and I found it delectable!  As we were leaving the museum, a fox made its way along the embankment next to the bus.  Later on on the drive back to the ship, we spotted another fox in a field as well as a pair of cranes.  The male crane was doing what our guide said was his 'happy dance.'

We arrived back at the ship 15 minutes before the posted deadline and there were a few local merchants selling their wares plus some students lingering around.  We reboarded and went through the very fast exit of Japan immigration process on the ship in the Franz Hals lounge.  

There was a 1/2 hour delay in the departure due to 3 buses of HAL shore excursions which came back late.  Later we met a couple who were on one of the excursions and the guide, upon hearing of the 3pm on board time, simply shrugged their shoulders and said the tour would occur as scheduled.  

We watched the sail away from the Crow's Nest as the ship backed away from the dock, backed into the turning basin and rotated clockwise 180º, sailed out of the harbor and headed for Alaska with a projected 6 days at sea.  

The captain announced that we would be losing an hour tonight and then an hour every day at noon.  The entertainment was the Cast show of 'Variations' which we watched twice and I worked on my sermon presentation and the order of service for the Interdenominational  service for tomorrow morning that I'm leading.   

Day 32 - Friday - 4/28/17 - Muroran

Today's stop at Muroran was the Volendam's first ever stop here.  And the town appeared to be ready.  But more on that later.

Denise from Cruise Critic organized a tour that would take us to Hell Valley, Lake Toyo, and Mt  Usu in one tour.  Generally the HAL tours only would go to 1 or 2 of the three on a single tour, but visiting all three in one trip would be a real treat.

We easily got off the ship just after 8am to the watchful eyes of a number of Japanese port guards.  We even had to show our stateroom keycard to take the stairway down to A deck to disembark.  Our cheerful guide for the day, Fuji, was waiting for us and after a brief delay we headed out to the Hell Valley which is the English equivalent of Jigokudani.  It's a sulphur rich hot springs and steam vents area not unlike those found in Yellowstone, but on a much smaller scale.  There are nice paved and wooden walkways and some stairs in order to get closer to the action!  Nearby there are a number of hotels and thermal related activities.

From Hell Valley we drove over to Lake Tōyo where we stopped at a nice overlook with a souvenir shop and restroom facility.  I sampled some seaweed soup which was excellent!  Afterwards we drove up to Mt. Usu which looks out on Mt. Showa-Shizan which was steaming.  This latter mountain was formed in 1943 after the eruption of Mt. Uzu.  There are even other ruins of an apartment building, a bathhouse, and a hospital from the various recent eruptions.  This is a seismically active area!!  We took the Ropeway (gondola) up Mt. Uzu and hiked another few minutes up to the Ginnuma crater viewing area. This crater was formed by a 1977 eruption.  In fact the whole back side of Mt. Uzu has been increasing in size due to volcanic activity.  

After all of this activity and with the cooler temperatures, we enjoyed some Ramen at a little restaurant.  It was quite good.  In fact, I liked it better than the Ramen museum Ramen.  Again, it's nothing like the Top Ramen we get in the States.

On the drive back to the port we saw the site of the G8 summit which is situated on top of a large hill.  It was likely selected due to its ease of establishing a security perimeter.  We were also able to drive over the high suspension bridge that we would later sail under as we left the port area.  

Back at the port, there was a beehive of activity with local artisans selling their wares, the high school kids taking surveys and offering to paint a person's name in Japanese characters on a card for a small fee.  One could also wear a kimona, use the free wifi, or earlier in the day take a local hop on hop off shuttle bus for 1,000¥ or $10 for the day.  They also provided really nice free  maps of the area.  

Later, we learned that while we were out on tour, the Mayor presented Captain Baijens a commemorative plaque in honor of the Volendam's first call at Muroran.  This will be added to the display on Deck 4 just aft of the theatre. We watched the sail away from the Crow's Nest while watching the school kids and townspeople give us a rousing send off.  And with a blast of the horn the Volendam eased away from the dock and backed into the turning basin, rotated 180° clockwise, and sailed out of the harbor and under the suspension bridge, discharged the pilot, and sailed into the large bay before turning north in the Pacific Ocean on our way to Kushiro. 

After another Lido dinner, my wife chose to watch the movie, The Forest, but I wanted to see the main stage performance of the Alley Cats, an accapella quartet.  They were really good, so I decided to see them a second time at 10pm, and used the in between time to update my blog.

Tomorrow is our last Japanese port of call at Kushiro.  We have an early all aboard time of 3pm in order to have our exit clearance processed from Japan.  We'll have 6 sea days until we reach Kodiak.  Time to rest up, and there will be a delay in my posting until we reach Kodiak.  Stay tuned and despite the importance of the destination, remember to savor the journey.

Day 31 - Thursday - 4/27/17 - Aomori

The bay that Aomori is located on is quite large.  We sailed in  it for over an hour this morning until we reached our berth.  Once a 180° clockwise turn was completed, we slipped sideways into our parking spot poised for an easy deoarture. 

Our tour group organized by Carol from Cruise Critic assembled and we were easily off the ship by 8:15am.  There was a short delay in finding our guide, but eventually we located her.  Yuki was her name and she spoke great English, but had never guided a group before.  This led to a few challenges throughout the day as she didn't clearly and loudly set expectations or communicate directions.

It was about an hour to Hirosaki and its famous castle and cherry blossoms.  We toured a Samarai house before wandering our way through the park. A striking feature for me of the castle are the many dams that are found in the moat.  Also the castle itself dating from 1811 has been moved about 50 meters away from its foundation which is being renovated.  It's a 10 year project with 6 more years to go.  We also enjoyed a bento box lunch on a tarp in the lawn.  It was a bit brisk, however.

We then drove back to the port area to visit the Nebuta Warasse museum with its collection of very colorful lighted floats from the annual Neputa Festival in early August.  This was a highlight for me!

Back on the ship we played trivia (not very well) and watched the sail away from the Crow's Nest before our Lido dinner.  Today (4/27) is King's Day in Holland so there was a 7:15pm party around the Lido pool. Everyone was encouraged to wear some piece of orange to commemorate the day.

We watched the Bill Murray movie 'Lost in Translation' which was set in Tokyo and Kyoto.  While a number of the Japanese cultural scenes were cute, there was a big emptiness conveyed in the film.  Afterwards we watched the main stage show, 'Strings Alive'.

Day 30 - Wednesday - 4/26/17 - At Sea to Aomori

Oh the beauty of lazy sea days.  I led the interdenominational devotional time as a volunteer leader and will do the same for the remainder of the sea days plus the Sunday interdenominational service since there is no Protestant chaplain on board.  While I'm not ordained, I'm a very involved lay person in my home church.

Cruise Critic held its final meet and greet in the Explorer's Lounge and I was able to meet a few new people.  But I missed the first Japanese cultural lecture by Terry Greenberg, a former Canadian diplomat in Asia.  He also later in the day gave a 2,000 year history of Japan which was quite good.  I'm looking forward to more of his presentations. Jeremy and Maya, Shore Excursions Manager, also presented sessions on the upcoming ports of call.

As I sat down in the Crow's Nest for a session of reading, suddenly there were a number of fish that just broke the surface in front of the ship for about five minutes.   Another guest commented that they were likely tuna, but I didn't know what they were.

Although it was Gala night, there wasn't enough on the menu to entice us to dress up.  So our granddaughter joined us for dinner in the Lido.  We skipped the Captain's toast to watch the early showing of 'Eagle Huntress' a documentary about a 13 year old Kazakh girl who becomes the first female in her family to become an hunter using a golden eagle.  It was really good!  We then watched the cast performance of Atlantic Crossing for the 3rd time.

Tomorrow is Aomori which is the 3rd to the last Japanese port call on this trip.  Stay tuned and while the destination is important, remember to savor the journey!

Day 29 - Tuesday - 4/25/17 - Yokohama

It was a very beautiful day to be in Yokohama today compared to a few weeks ago.  We arrived by 7am and I used our WIFI  device while lying in bed as there was no urgency to getting up early as we didn't need to meet with our tour group until 8:40.

After a very easy disembarkation, we were met by our Tours By Locals guide for today, Art, who turned out to be a motorcyclist.  We hit it off quite easily because of that common interest.  We used taxies to drive about 20 minutes (1900¥) to the Sankeien gardens which were created in the early 1900's by a wealthy silk merchant.  It took about 2 hours to tour these exquisite and tranquil gardens.  Google it and  you won't be disappointed.  We then used the GD same two taxies to drive to a train station where we purchased train tickets to get to the Ramen Museum.  With a couple of transfers, we were soon at the ShinYokohama Ramen museum which is  a collection of little restaurants which sell various types of Ramen.  One orders tickets using a vending machine at the respective restaurants (a bit of a complex procedure even for the Japanese). If you order in one restaurant, you are not allowed to eat it in another.  It was very yummy, and I'd do it again.  We then caught the subway back to the ship.  I needed some more yen, so we walked back into town to the post office.  It seems that in Japan banks, Post Offices, and 7/11 stores are the locations for ATM's for foreign transactions. We made it back to the ship within 15 minutes of the deadline for boarding the ship which was 3pm.  

The muster drill occurred at 3:15pm, and afterwards I had the opportunity to confer with Debbie, the events coordinator about use of the Hudson Room for the interdenominational service on sea days at 9AM.  I've volunteered to lead it.

Once again from the Crow's Nest, we watched the sail away out of the harbor and into Tokyo Bay amid the twilight sun.  We took dinner in the Lido, and the prime rib was excellent.  

As it's April 25, there was a very nice ANZAC memorial service with a reading of Flanders Field, a wreath laying, prayers, a moment of silence, and playing of the Last Post and the Australian and New Zealand national anthems.

For the 3rd time this cruise we watched the Listen to The Music program which introduces the entertainment staff.  It's an upbeat production!

Day 28 - Monday - 4/24/17 - At Sea to Yokohama

It was a really lazy day today at sea since the majority of the guests are disembarking tomorrow. We did a lot of reading and I finished the George Washington book and started a new book, 'The Greatest Generation' by Tom Brokow.  

There was a BBC trivia game and a special presentation for the 500 guests who are continuing on to Vancouver.  Bruce, our CD indicated there would be a whole set of new guest lecturers and performers joining us for the crossing and that we would have two May seconds because we cross the international date line.  Also we'll lose time most every day as we cross the Pacific on our eastward journey. 

We also watched the action / suspense movie 'Inferno' starring Tom Hanks.  Seeing the concluding scenes set in Istanbul was pretty cool since we've been there.  Classique was the cast show which we have seen multiple times.  The late show was lightly attended as many are packing tonight.

Day 27 - Sunday - 4/23/17 - Hososhima, Japan

I always like it when a port is welcoming to our cruise ship.  Hyuga is one of those ports.  But the day started out not so well with a difficult and time consuming immigration process and a problem with my tour company.

Here's how the immigration and customs process is supposed to work.  All passengers not on a HAL shore excursion obtain in advance a plastic numbered card that establishes one's sequence to pass through the immigration and customs process which in this case was handled in the Explorer's Lounge on Deck 5.  On our previous embarkation in Nagasaki, it was handled in the terminal.  Then once the immigration and customs process starts, the sequential numbers are called and the HAL groups are merged in with the sequential ticket holders.  Everyone is scanned with a heat sensor (looking for favors) and then one presents one's passport and immigration card.  The Japanese agent scans the passport, examines the immigration card and scans it, takes a retinal photo and one has fingerprints taken of their pointing finger.  A QR code is printed and affixed in each passport.  That process takes about a minute per passenger. Then one goes a few feet to the customs area, receives a disembarkation clearance card, surrenders the customs declaration card, and the passengers are sorted between HAL shore excursion participants and independent travelers.  We all then can make our way to the gangway where the disembarkation clearance card is collected, our room card is scanned, and we are free to leave the ship.  If a minor is in your party, the responsible party must be there for the security person to override the warning screen that is presented when the minor attempts to scan off the ship.

With that background, here's how it actually worked on this day.  We arrived at 8am, but the Japanese authorities didn't arrive until 9am.  It wan't until 9:23 that the first group "S"  was called and 5 minutes later group 1 was called which included the first Cruise Critic group of 19.  About 1/2 hour later groups 2 & 3 were called, and then a short delay before group 4 was called which included part of my group.  Shortly group 5, which included the rest of my group, was called.  The process above worked well for my group in terms of the actual steps.  For the first Cruise Critic group and some other passengers, there was a glitch in HAL's process whereby the disembarking passengers got to the exit scanning station after going through the above process, and the system said they hadn't been processed.  The HAL representative wanted to send everyone back through the immigration process, but the passengers balked at the idea due to to the time it takes to do that.  Eventually cooler heads prevailed and they were allowed off the ship.  I'm really surprised with the number of immigration processes that HAL has done on multiple ships and multiple ports over many years that they don't have it down to an art form!

For my group, our guide, Junko, was waiting for me, but she seemed a bit anxious about the time.  There were still 6 people who had not cleared immigration and I waited for them with the guide.  Eventually we were all on the bus and read to depart by 10:20 which was only 20 minutes past our scheduled 10am departure time.  

After about a 1/2 bus ride west from the cruise terminal we reached the first of 4 planned stops on the day's tour.  This was at Umagase which is a natural formation of hexagonal volcanic pillars similar to those found at the Giant's Causeway in Ireland.  From the parking lot there is a short walk along a paved trail out to the two view points which are quite pretty.  Along the way the guide said we were behind schedule because we were supposed to leave a 9am.  I told her, "NO, we were confirmed to leave at 10am."  She called into her office and eventually got the tour extended to 1:30 or 1:40pm which was the time per my confirmation form.    I found my copy of the email confirmation indicating a start time of 10am and an ending time of 1:30pm and showed it to her. There were also two couples who were quite insistent about spending maximum time in Mimitsu, a historic shipping village and site of a memorial to the founding of the Japanese navy.  So I negotiated with the guide to skip the stop at Omi Shrine which in retrospect I wish I hadn't.  We made another viewpoint stop at at the "Sea-Cruz" which is a place where the stone split in an almost perfect cross.  It was quite pretty as well.  From there we headed to Mimitsu which for my taste was an 'okay' stop.  The village is certainly old, but very plain.  There's a small museum that we visited and my wife and I headed off on our own to walk the town.  We found a small cafe for some pastry items and some vending machines for liquids.  The Japanese Navy memorial was scenic as was the nearby shrine.  We also found and photographed the one engine fire station for my friends in Bellingham who are firefighters.  I photograph fire stations all over the world for them.

For future travelers to this port who might want to visit Mimitsu, there's a train for 560¥ RT.  It's about a 1 mile walk from the Mimitsu train station to the town.  But it's an inexpensive option.

We made it back to the port at 1:40pm and there were all sorts of small vendors in 10x10 booths selling various wares.  We spoke with one peanut vending couple who were about to fly to Seattle and Portland for their honeymoon.  We then caught the shuttle bus to the Hyuga train station where we spent the bulk of our time in a local department store called "Trail" which is sort of like a miniature WalMart.  We bought a few goodies including sushi and Coke Plus since we hadn't had lunch yet.  The 3:30pm shuttle got us back to the port where my wife dolled up in a Kimona for a cool photo opportunity.  This was a nice cultural touch provided by the locals.  We also ate our sushi and did a bit of WIFI, watched a cool drum performance, and then boarded the ship.

Back on board, we headed for the Crow's nest to watch the sail away as has been our custom this trip.  I was able to snap a picture of the PILOT who was in the elevator as we rode it together.  Promptly and on schedule, the Voldendam slipped sideways from the pier, rotated clockwise 90º, and sailed out of the harbor to the waiting open sea and setting sun.  

Once again, we took a quiet dinner in the LIDO before attending a Collector's Voyage cocktail party next to the LIDO pool.  I learned that the present Captain Baijens won't be the captain next February when we plan to sail from Singapore to Yokohama.  

The evening's entertainment was a comic mime / juggler Yosuke Ikeda.  Parts of his routine were clever and well executed, but I'd rather see a vocalist or instrumentalist.  We spent the remainder of the evening sipping tea and enjoying conversation with other guests and being grandparent supervisors of our granddaughter in the hot tub and swimming pool.  Interestingly earlier in the cruise she indicated she hated swimming.  It's amazing how being with 'friends' changes things.

Tomorrow is the last sea day before the Yokohama stop and the start of the last segment for us.  Stay tuned.

Day 26 - Saturday - 4/22/17 - At Sea to Hososhima, Japan

I awakened a bit early this morning to compose some notes about our shore excursion to a few members of my tour in Hososhima that I've not seen in person over the past few weeks. I delivered those to the office by 7:30am before eating breakfast and attending the interdenominational devotional time.  We did the On Deck for a Cause 10k walk, and attended Dr. Kam's lecture on the history and value of Tai Chi and martial arts.  It was really good.

Just before lunch a Costa cruise ship crossed front of us at a closer distance I was expecting.  Maybe that's the Costa way, but I've never in all of our years of cruising seen a ship cross that close on the high seas.

Captain Jeroen Baijens Q & A session was once again really good with excellent questions being asked by the audience.  Afterwards there was a BBC movie on filming in extreme conditions that I missed the last part of due to catching some viewing the back of my eyeballs time. 

As our granddaughter picked up a cold and spent most of the day in bed, she missed the formal night with us and one of her friends, Megan, and Megan's parents, Ray and Barbara.  While eating dinner, we saw the first wildlife of the trip:  a large school of very small dolphins or porpoises that paced the ship off the starboard side.  They were there at least 45 minutes.

Phil gave a good talk on geishas emphasizing their entertainment role as 'ladies of the evening' and not 'ladies of the night'.  The evening's entertainment was a harmonica playing married couple from Malaysia called Aiden & Evelyn.  They were really good although their volume was way too high.  Several people walked out of the performance.

After the performance a passenger approached me to discuss the portable SIM card (GlocalMe) that he had learned I was using for my WIFI access.  I guess word is getting around about the device.

Since we have a busy day tomorrow, we chose to retire early.  Stay tuned!

Day 25 - Friday - 4/21/17 - Incheon, S.Korea - Day 2

Staying overnight in a port is a real treat.  Generally it allows the traveler to stay out or even off the ship overnight.  We stayed on the ship and our 7:30am meetup time definitely came early!  Our group of 11 traveled by van in really heavy traffic for over an hour to the Hwaseong fortress and the folk village at Young in.  

The fortress is a large walled structure  that has been surrounded by the new modern city.  A multi-lane highway even passes through the fortress grounds.  A little tram takes visitors around the fortress, but we didn't have time to take it, so we climbed the fortress wall and walked around about 1/2 of it. A large group of school age children were receiving archery instruction as that was a principal defensive weapon when the castle was in use.  There are even slots in the wall for the archers of old to launch their arrows as well as some tiny cannons and even containers of rocks that could be lobbed down on attackers.

The folk village is a very large theme type park with lots of museums and displays that present and preserve the Korean culture.  There were lots  of pre-school and school age kids visiting the park.  The junior high age kids definitely wanted to speak English with these odd looking folks (us). At the far end of the park is a large Korean food court.  I enjoyed a couple of skewers of seasoned pork for about $5.

Interestingly, there were a couple small dams inside the park.  I only mention this as I participate in an event in the USA where I ride my motorcycle to dams and take a picture of it at the dam.  It's sort of like a scavenger hunt.

Back on board the ship we watched the ship depart and then pass through the locks out into the open sea on our way back to Japan.    After a Lido dinner we watched the movie, 'Memoirs of a Geisha' and a repeat performance of the cast show 'Dance'.

I was able to pick up our tour group's early disembarkation numbers for the upcoming immigration entry port of Hoshoshima.  This will allow the entire group an easier and earlier time off the ship in order to catch our excursion.

Tomorrow is a sea day so some much needed rest is in order for at least two of my party (not me).  Stay tuned and while the destination is important, remember to savor the journey.