Day 34 May 23rd Penzance to home (St Martin's)

The last day of our holiday was good weather as so many of our days had been.  We sorted ourselves out, had breakfast and caught a taxi with all our luggage to the quay for the Scillonian.  We met some campers on the quay (the Rosedales and Pattersons) who were on their way to St Martin's for a holiday and who told us they would be joined by a lot of their families in the coming week.  Our crossing was good, we met Heather and Alan on the quay and then joined the Voyager for the last leg to St Martin's.

Colin Rowley had kindly volunteered to meet us at Higher Town and transport us with all the luggage to Lower Town.  Button deigned to say hello to us and now we have the task of sorting out all the laundry and hopefully improve some aspects of the garden.  

On reflection, we have had a truly wonderful holiday and feel really blessed with our experiences.  The scenery with rivers, lakes, waterfalls, mountains, fjords and glaciers has been outstanding.  We have also never seen the variety of wildlife that we have witnessed in the last month - the bears, elks, moose, deer, the whales, dolphins, porpoises, sealions, sea otters and eagles were breathtaking.  Our overall impression was of a really exceptional time.  How do you follow that?

Days 32 & 33 May 21st & 22nd Seattle to Penzance

I have merged these days as they were spent continuously travelling with the loss of 8 hours due to time zones. Unfortunately no photos with this post. We awoke aboard the Zaandam at 0700 and did our sorting out and final packing before going to breakfast. Our turn to leave the boat was at 0840 in the finely organised system that Holland America have developed over the years. It was a fine, warm day which made life easier. Our main luggage had been collected overnight and so we carried our portables with paperwork and made our way off the boat and saying goodbye to the crew.

We found the luggage, grabbed a trolley, went through American immigration customs/passport and made our way to the queue for the coach which we had booked to transfer us to Seattle airport. It was quite a drive across this large city before we arrived at the drop off point. We retrieved the luggage, grabbed another trolley and found our way through the confusing maze of the airport until we arrived at our check-in desk. This was now about 1030 and the flight was 1330 and so we had plenty of time to relax now. We had checked in on-line the previous day. The hold luggage was deposited, we went through border control/security successfully and went to the departure lounge to settle down and wait. I posted yesterday’s blog, Christine had a wander and found some coffee/pastries. The time soon passed and we then boarded for the long flight.

The flight was largely uneventful. We ate, dozed watched catch-up TV – I watched Premier League action and Christine the Royal wedding. I eventually watched the film “Dunkirk” and amongst all this we lost 8 hours and arrived at Heathrow at 0700. We did the usual paper inspections, collected the luggage, went through customs and made our way to the Heathrow Express. We were soon on our way to Paddington station where we spent a lot of time in a lounge before joining the 1203 train to Penzance. It did give us an opportunity to freshen up. The train journey was smooth and we arrived soon after 1700. We then walked the short journey to Heather and Alan’s flat, settled in, went for fish & chips and had an early night as we had been up for 33 hours!

Day 31 May 20th Victoria

       

a good sailing day

Today we arrived back in

Canadian highway 1st milestone

Canada. From when we stirred until lunchtime we were cruising along the coast of Vancouver Island. It was overcast and did not appear very warm as we ventured out onto the verandah. The captain promised us a warmer

day when we docked and so it proved that it was about 15C and the clouds

Beacon Hill Park

cleared. We had decided our plans for a walking day which was all doable from where

Beacon Hill Park

the ship docked.

We left the boat at about 1330 and set out initially towards Beacon Hill Park. We started with jumpers and fleeces but soon we removed our fleeces. We saw the beginning (mile 0) of the trans Canadian

totem pole

highway. The initial reaction for the park was not too favourable as this part was unkempt but when we got

totem pole with sea otters

to the centre there were some lovely flowers, bushes, fountains and ponds with ducks. We carried on through and arrived on Douglas Street which appeared to be one of the main shopping streets. On the street was a first nation museum with totem poles one of which seemed to have a sea otter with its baby depicted. We stopped at Starbucks for a cold drink (it was quite sunny and warm) and then wandered along the harbour front.

Fairmont Empress Hotel

The Fairmont Empress hotel was impressive with flower Orcas in the garden and opposite was

flower orcas at the Fairmont

a statue of Captain James Cook. We carried on to the classic government building which had the war memorial in a corner of the grounds. We then followed the harbour wall path past the colourful fishermen’s wharf which now appears

the government building

to have been taken over by commercial enterprises. As we made our way back we came across (appropriately)

FishermensWharf

a cute family of Canada geese. We made our way back to the ship via a peruse of the quayside gift shop.

It was a good day at a very attractive downtown area of

Canada Geese family

the city. We spent the rest of the evening sorting ourselves out, having dinner then saying goodbye to the crew members who had looked after us so well. We returned to our cabin to pack as we are leaving fairly early tomorrow morning. We did watch the ship exit the port at about 2230. Next stop Seattle.

Day 30 May19th at sea

deck with Queen Charlotte islands in distance

Today was a day a day of recuperation and reorganisation. Not many pictures today. It was overcast, fairly chilly (8C) and light winds. We breakfasted, toured some parts of the boat we had not previously seen and then went to a port information talk on Victoria, Vancouver Island where we visit tomorrow. After this we had a coffee and then walked four laps of deck 3 which amounts to a just over a mile.

Christine by this time had caught up with the details of the royal wedding on BBC world service on our cabin TV and I had found out the Cup final result via the internet. We then talked about the possibilities for tomorrow as we would have liked to visit the world famous Butchart gardens 15 miles outside Victoria but we are not due to dock until 1330 and they close at 1700. After consulting with the ship tour officer we have decided we can’t visit those gardens but will visit other gardens within the city of Victoria.

We did some more walking round the deck – it was quite bleak but we could just see land in the form of the Queen Charlotte islands. We had to give up walking because of deck maintenance but back at our cabin verandah we saw some dolphins or porpoises swimming alongside the ship. The wildlife extravaganza has not finished yet!

We came in and discussed our projected programme for

Us with Toro and Din at gala dinner

tomorrow and started getting ready for disembarkation. After this we prepared ourselves for the gala dinner in the ship’s restaurant this evening which was very good with everyone dressed up. We had a nightcap and then retired to the cabin.

Day 29 May17th Sitka

         

St Michael's Cathedral

It was forecast that today would be

Lutheran Church interior

fine and warm and so when we looked out of the cabin in the morning it was dry and sunny but felt cold. We hoped it would get warmer as the day progressed! We breakfasted and saw that we had already docked in Sitka and people were using the shuttle to get to the town which was the Russian capital of Alaska.

By 1000 we left as well because we wanted to see the town before

sea lion

taking our pre-arranged wildlife boat trip at 1215. We found the Russian Orthodox cathedral and a

part of totem pole

Lutheran church which was much simpler in style. We looked at shops and totem pole square before deciding we needed a coffee and soon found a small hotel which served coffee and cake. The town was basically busier than Homer or Kodiak and seemed an important centre for

sea lion resting on buoy

this southern area of Alaska.

We had booked the boat trip hopefully to see some sea otters (which we had not seen so far) and any other wildlife in the area.

male sea otter

We set off in a similar styled boat to previous and soon saw bald eagles and sea lions (again a first for this trip), we carried on and began to see sea otters in small numbers. We initially saw a male – they swim on their backs and keep their paws out of the

mum sea otter with baby swimming

water because they do not have the

female sea otter with baby

usually very thick fur on their paws. Sea lions, seals etc have blubber to keep them warm. Then we found a group of females (they do not hang around with males), some of whom had pups riding on their stomachs. A bit further on their was a mum with a small

it was sunny somewhere!

pup who she was teaching to swim and we could hear her talking to it all the time.

blue sky in the distance

We carried on and for a time we saw nothing else new as were looking for whales and bears on the shorelines of islands. Eventually we came across a brown bear on the shore but he was not there too long. We went ahead and a few minutes later saw some

brown bear

porpoises and nearby to that a humpback whale appeared. He dived and we waited around for it to resurface and eventually we saw the blowing and

our route

humpback again. Unfortunately we were not able to photograph the whale or porpoises. Time was passing and we had to return to the Zaandam as it was all-aboard at 1530. It was a good trip – we had seen some of the animals before but this was the first time in Alaska for porpoises, sea lions and groups of sea otters.

The weather was colder than predicted and so by the time we arrived back at the ship we were ready for a nice, hot cup of tea. Since then we have been through our photos, selected some for the blog and have now been for this evening’s dinner.  So ended our final day in Alaska for our cruise.

Day 28 May 17th Hubbard Glacier and sea

Indonesian show cast 

We went to a guitar concert

MS Zaandam 1939

in the theatre last evening which was very good and after that there was a concert by some of the Indonesian members of the ship’s crew which again was excellent and gave a sample of their culture. Today dawned a much better day and we were grateful as we were hoping to

ship's bell on bow

visit Hubbard Glacier later

On the bow

and get some good views. The weather was calm and we had completed most of the crossing of the Bay of Alaska overnight The morning was leisurely as we were not due to get to the glacier until 1500. We breakfasted and then read for a while before getting some exercise by walking 4 laps round deck 3. The scenery was improving as we entered Yakutat Bay and the bow was opened so that we could get some photos there. On the way back to the cabin we took a picture of a former MS Zaandam in 1939 at Cawsand Bay (near Plymouth).

glacier from distance

We lunched and about that

nearer the glacier

time the ship picked up the local pilot. The mountains were now dominating the shoreline and we also saw several whales appearing but no photos this time. Soon we could see the glacier in the distance and the ship slowed considerably as we approached to prevent a

Hubbard glacier face

wash disturbing the marine and shoreline ecologies. We

blue ice iceberg from glacier

watched from our verandah for most of the time and then went to the deck and bow as the ship began to slowly turn round quite close to the face of the glacier. It was all very expertly done and we were able to take some close up photos and videos.   One video shows the face of the glacier and the other one is taken further back showing reflections in the still water.

Soon we were on our return journey out of the bay and heading for the Bay of Alaska.

We returned to our verandah, saw some pretty small icebergs which were blue tinged from the glacier and looked out for other wildlife but with no success. We are further north than Endicott Arm glacier and the vegetation is nowhere near as lush and so that could explain the lack of bears, moose etc. We continued the slow journey until we got to the end of Yakutat and are now heading towards Sitka. This evening we have dinner and a show with the backdrop of BBC’s Alaska Earth programme.

      

Day 27 May 16th Kodiak and sea

   

church belltower

Russian Orthodox Church

We had arrived at Kodiak by the time we woke in the morning. One of the advantages of cruising is that you see somewhere different each day and do most of the travelling in-between overnight. Kodiak is part of

 another rain forest and true to form it was raining and misty when we decided to leave the boat and visit the town. It was a short shuttle ride away. We had a quick walk through the town which again was not too inspiring. We had heard that there

church interior

was a Russian Orthodox church here from the time that Alaska was Russian and we found this

church interior

typical style church. It is still in use as there some locals brought up that way. It had some lovely paintings and icons but not on the scale of St Petersburg which we visited last year.

After this we found the wildlife center which was interesting and watched a film about conservation on the island. It has Kodiak bears which are different and bigger than other

exhibit at wildlife center

North American bears. We did not see any in the wild and neither did we see any river otters which live in the local river. After this we decided to go back to the ship for lunch.

In the stairwells on the ship

Dover Castle

are paintings of former Holland America ships and near our cabin is a picture of a boat passing Dover Castle which I thought I would include. We relaxed and read for the rest of the afternoon apart from a mile walk around a deck.  The sea was a bit lumpy!

Day 26 May 15th Homer

       

dock at the end of a long spit

By the morning we had sailed

one of many noisy kittiwakes

from Anchorage to Homer where again the weather forecast was mixed. As we were here all day and we had a long day yesterday we decided to stay on board in the morning and visit this small fishing community in the afternoon. First impressions looking from the boat were not great. There was a large, noisy colony of kittiwakes around the dock.

eagle nesting on bollard

Our morning was spent sorting out after yesterday and writing yesterday’s blog. After some lunch we caught the shuttle into Homer which

the ship from the town

was down a very long spit from the dock. On the way we saw an eagle’s nest in one of the sea bollards. We got off at a parade of shops which were not too attractive. We had a good look round a hardware/general store which was well stocked but we did not need anything! The shuttle buses were doing circles and so we got on and went to the next

a coal truck and former post office!

point. There were art and craft shops here but nothing too vibrant and as the rest of the place seemed like this we decided to go back to the ship on the next bus. Whilst on the bus a lady said that taking another shuttle was more rewarding and so we did this at the quay. This took us to an area where there were different styles of building on the seafront

seafarers memorial

. Also there was a seafarers memorial which had tiles and plaques in memory of locals (some very young) lost at sea. It was a poignant reminder of the dangers of fishing anywhere in the world. This area was certainly more interesting to us than the main town.

harbour/marina with Zaandam

We decided to walk back to the ship and followed a path round the harbour/marina. It is obvious that the place comes

boat launching Homer style

to life in the summer but that time had not yet come. We spoke to a couple about to launch their boat and watched others launching. We made it back to the boat in time to watch

unmooring using a boat

her being unmoored. She was too long for the jetty and had to be tied/untied from sea bollards which could only be reached by boat. We were soon away and past the end of the spit.

the end of the spit