Cruise — Day 02 — At Sea, traversing Queen Charlotte Sound 



Ship's Time 19:45 (Saturday, June 10, 2006).
Ship's Position 53° 11.33' N, 132° 54.94' W (off NW coast of Queen Charlotte Island).

Pictures for this blog entry can be found here.

We got up this morning to moderate seas (approaching 10 feet) and a strong breeze at about 27 knots (31 mpg) coming onto the bow, so with our forward motion of 21 knots (24 mph) it may be a bit hard standing on deck with a 48 knot (54 mph) trying to blow you over the stern. The temperature was around 50 all day, so it is not exactly comfortable out there. I was feeling ok, but Lynda woke up with a migraine, so she didn't leave the room all day, and I have only gone out to eat.

We spent most of the day traversing the stretch of the Pacific between Vancouver Island and Queen Charlotte Island, finally coming abreast of Queen Charlotte around 5 PM and staying about 10-15 miles off the coast. It is a rugged coastline of mountains and fjords, sometimes shrouded in fog. About 7:30 we started seeing higher mountains covered with glaciers between the fogbanks we were running in and out of on this stretch. The sky for the most part has been clear all day, but the fog seemed to become more common as the evening wore on, but each time we ran into one a brilliant rainbow would briefly form right off our verandah. Shredded bits of fog would fly by us as the wind picked up to 41 knots (47 mph — they put this info on channel 40 on in-room TV) until we were fogged in completely. Hope it clears by morning.

We are far enough north that the sun doesn't set until 10:03 and comes back up at 3:53. good thing we have black out curtains or we won't be able to sleep tonight. We get into Juneau tomorrow (Sunday) at noon (5 PM EDT) and are scheduled for a hike to Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching. If Lynda feels better, she will probably do some shopping in port while I go shoot pictures of totem poles. Talk to y'all tomorrow. 

Posted: Sat - June 10, 2006 at 04:55 PM          

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