At Sea 7/21/1997 On The Inside Passage to Alaska

(AT SEA OFF BRITISH COLUMBIA, Monday, July 21, 1997)

by Jim Coffee

Today was spent at sea cruising through the “inside passage” off British Columbia to southern Alaska.

Our friendly naturalist on board said the “inside passage” was carved thousands of years before by glaciers during the Ice Age. The actual passage is threading through channels, often quite narrow, between islands and the mainland. Except for a few sections of open sea, the waters are all protected making for a smooth, swift passage.

The only settlement we passed today was a native fishing village name Bella Bella. It rained most of the day and the coast has a ghostly look. The shore rises to low hills or mountains right out of the ocean and there is hardly ever any sign of settlement. There is no logging or road building. Just mile after mile of forested hills.

Our ship, the MS Ryndam, is owned by Holland America Line and is just three years old according to one of the crew.

It is large at 720 feet and carries up to 1498 passengers, but is not giant as cruise ships go.

The ship is 101 feet wide and draws 24.5 feet of water. It is powered by Diesel electric engines with a maximum speed of 21 knots.

INDONESIAN CREW

The crew is mostly Indonesian, a leftover from Dutch colonialism is Indonesia. There are a few Filipinos, mostly wine stewards. The officers are all white, Dutch mostly with a few Germans. Our assistant head waiter, Mohammed, said he is from Sumatra and signed on for a year’s cruise. That means 365 days of work, no time off. After a year he will get a three-month leave.

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, with a population of 200 million which Mohammed says is 90% Muslim. Mohammed’s father has two wives, and five children with each wife.

We are at the second dinner seating and share a table with two widows from Kansas City, MO. One of them, Teresa, we found was on the same cruise we took last January through the Caribbean and the Panama Canal. That was a larger ship, Legend of the Seas, and we did not get acquainted on that cruise.

DRESS FOR DINNER

Dress for dinner was formal this evening, which means at least a coat and tie. After dinner we attended the ship’s stage show, which is quite professional. There are at least 10 dancers and there are seven in the band.

We are moving into a new time zone and set our clocks back an hour tonight. Some time after midnight we will cross the boundary and be back in U.S. waters.

At 7:00 a.m. our ship is due to dock at Ketchikan, our first port of call, and we are scheduled to visit the Saxman native village.