Captain's log:
12:30am Sailing through Hecate Strait
12:00pm Moderate to rough seas, cloudy skies; 13°C
3:00pm Canadian Pilots board at Pine Island
6:00pm Transiting Race Passage
10:15pm Passing Seymour Narrows at slack tide
Did you know that the person who "drives" the cruise ship is called a pilot. I had always thought it to be the captain. We woke up to grey skies again, the ship was swaying more noticeable the night before and several of our small items had been displaced from the shelf to the floor in the bathroom. We were a little sad and lost today, somewhat disorientated to time and date. It was our last day at sea and we would surely miss the food and excellent service on board. No wonder some of the passengers kept coming back, we overheard one who claimed he had cruised to Alaska seven times!
Perhaps it was the calm seas, or the copious amount of good food, the books which I had bought, thinking that I would finally have the time to finish them laid half read. My friend, who vowed to visit the gym often only did so once. We wondered how we had passed time on board for the past few days. Certainly, there were many activities organised by the cruise director, from musicals to theater events in the evenings, movies screened at least 4 times a day, 24hr cable TV (although we lost transmission for a while due to bad weather), bingo nights, bridge, cooking lessons, wine appreciation.......and so the list of activities went on, we did not participate in most of these events.
One that caught our attention was the towel folding class conducted by the housekeeping section. We had marveled and squealed with delight almost every evening when we returned to our room to find different cute towel animal welcoming us. We were therefore curious to learn how it was done. We reported to the Wajang theater at the allotted time, there were many curious guests wielding cameras ready to record every word and action of our instructors who were room stewards from Indonesia. They were patient in instructing us and even obliged us by folding animals upon request. It was an enjoyable afternoon. We suspect that this class was conducted only on the last day so that the crew would not face a towel shortage midway the cruise.
The disembarkation briefing cum farewell ceremony was entertaining yet informative. Detailed and clear instructions on the disembarkation process were given to us. We were tickled pink by the cruise director when he went through the top 10 most frequently asked questions by passengers in previous cruises.
As we near Vancouver, the weather improved. The fog lifted slowly to reveal scenic landscapes to our right and left. Perhaps it was our last day on board, perhaps it was the warmer weather, there were more passengers outside; soaking in the late afternoon sun and trying to catch a glimpse of wildlife. We did manage to see 2 pods of orcas swimming past our ship and a cheeky sea lion frolicking past our room window. As night approaches, the scenery turned surreal, it was like admiring a charcoal sketching on a huge canvas; and as dusk turned to night, we were greeted by a gentle moon that lit a moonlight path across the water. The world that we were to return to maybe in chaos but at that moment, staring into the moonlight sky, we felt only peace.
My log
No of wildlife spotted: 3 (Seagulls, orca and a sea lion)
No of meals consumed: 5