Holland America Blog
Safety Officer
Holland America Blog Has Just Posted the Following:
11 July 2015; British Columbia, Inside Passage. It was a bit of a grey and dull day today while we sailed through Queen Charlotte Sound. But if we had to have a grey and dull day during this cruise then today was the best day; as most guests were focused on what happened inside the ship.* By the early afternoon when we re-entered the Inside Passage again, it had cleared considerably and we could do the sightseeing as had been planned yesterday. With slack tide at Seymour Narrows being around 10 pm. there was sufficient time in the schedule to sail with a sedate speed of about 15 knots through the various waters of the Inside Passage and make a little detour. Average speed needed was about 12 knots but we were unlucky with having the Tide/current against us all the way until slack tide Seymour Narrows. So we went for 15 knots.* Not good for the fuel consumption and thus we did not have a very happy chief engineer. By 14.00 hrs. we passed Pine Island which marked the beginning of our bit of the Inside Passage and then the ship sailed for Alert Bay.* Coming from the West you go south of Malcolm Island, sail north of Haddington Island and then south of Cormorant Island on which South side Alert Bay is located. I like this route as everywhere there is something to see. And as I had not been here for about 3 years, I made sure that I was on the bridge. When you approach Haddington Island in the middle of Comorant Channel, you see three things. Sointula to the North, Haddington Island straight ahead, and Fort McNeal on Vancouver Island to the South. (Thus on the sb side as we were coming from the West) Sointula is a settlement which was founded by Finnish immigrants in the 19th. Century. They could continue the lifestyle they were used to, being logging and fishing. Sadly both the logging and the fishing are both in sharp decline and that means that the village is also in the decline. […]
Click here to view the article.
11 July 2015; British Columbia, Inside Passage. It was a bit of a grey and dull day today while we sailed through Queen Charlotte Sound. But if we had to have a grey and dull day during this cruise then today was the best day; as most guests were focused on what happened inside the ship.* By the early afternoon when we re-entered the Inside Passage again, it had cleared considerably and we could do the sightseeing as had been planned yesterday. With slack tide at Seymour Narrows being around 10 pm. there was sufficient time in the schedule to sail with a sedate speed of about 15 knots through the various waters of the Inside Passage and make a little detour. Average speed needed was about 12 knots but we were unlucky with having the Tide/current against us all the way until slack tide Seymour Narrows. So we went for 15 knots.* Not good for the fuel consumption and thus we did not have a very happy chief engineer. By 14.00 hrs. we passed Pine Island which marked the beginning of our bit of the Inside Passage and then the ship sailed for Alert Bay.* Coming from the West you go south of Malcolm Island, sail north of Haddington Island and then south of Cormorant Island on which South side Alert Bay is located. I like this route as everywhere there is something to see. And as I had not been here for about 3 years, I made sure that I was on the bridge. When you approach Haddington Island in the middle of Comorant Channel, you see three things. Sointula to the North, Haddington Island straight ahead, and Fort McNeal on Vancouver Island to the South. (Thus on the sb side as we were coming from the West) Sointula is a settlement which was founded by Finnish immigrants in the 19th. Century. They could continue the lifestyle they were used to, being logging and fishing. Sadly both the logging and the fishing are both in sharp decline and that means that the village is also in the decline. […]
Click here to view the article.
