Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Onboard ship – Glacier Bay


12:20 am

Yep. You read that right. AM. Can’t sleep. The storm the Captain warned us about is here and is this ship rolling! Waves outside are about 12 feet or more high and whitecaps on every one of them. We went to the Captain’s toast last night to see what he looked like and think a less handsome Captain Steubing. Bald, fairly short, grizzled, with an accent that’s a cross between Dutch, German and Japanese. At that point, about 8:00 in the evening, the waves were cresting at about 11 feet.

We stayed for the evening’s performance by the Statendam singers and dancers and it was a very good show of this type. The accompaniment was recorded and the dancers only lipsynched, but the singers sang live. The Can-Can number the girls did was great and the costumes for all their numbers were fantastic. Spent half the time wishing Kate was here!

Spent the other half of the time amazed at how those kids danced when the ship was rolling as if we’re on a kiddie roller coaster. That doesn’t ever end. One’s stomach isn’t doing the flips of a ‘whee’ dip in the road, but rather a constant “oops”. After the show Darlene high-tailed it to her stateroom probably for the same reason I high-tailed it to ours. I made it in the room and managed to take the motion sickness pill when I’m afraid the seasickness won. Dinner was good, but I didn’t get to keep it.

What I didn’t expect was to feel immediately better, but I did. My head cleared up, the heat wave I was carrying with me calmed down…much better. But I was also done for the night. Steven and I crawled into bed and watched the first half of Catch Me if You Can on TV before turning it off ‘cause we were falling asleep.

But mine was a fitful rest. I say “was” because I’m giving up for a while. The ship has given some major lurches and I just can’t sleep. We had to take the stemware off the shelf earlier because it all slid and tipped over, but it’s a bit worse now. Don’t expect it to worsen any more than this, however. And by the time we reach Glacier Bay tomorrow, we’ll be back into calmer waters. That should be about 10:00 tomorrow morning.

9:40 am

I’m feeling better this morning, but had a breakfast of saltines and green tea this morning. When that stayed put, I had a blueberry muffin, a small pecan Danish and a croissant with my morning prune juice. So far so good.

Of course, the seas are much calmer now that we’ve sailed into Glacier Bay. I woke this morning early and saw one passing by my window. Cool sight to wake up to, that’s for sure. I like having the verandah staterooms with the entire outside wall a window onto the views.

We’ve slowed now so the park rangers can get on and the pilots for Glacier Bay as well. I understand why we don’t actually dock…the ship is far too large for going close to shore in these waters. So boats carrying needed personnel come to us instead.

But it didn’t occur to me till this morning that we don’t even stop for them. We keep going at a slow speed (5 knots? I’m guessing here), they pull up alongside and match speed and the transfer occurs. Stopping a ship this large and then restarting it would take a huge amount of energy each time, so it just isn’t done.

Steven said his mom made it through the night with absolutely no seasickness whatsovever. Nopi, one of our Stewards, said the seas were rough even for him. Steven felt better than he had on the littler boat we went on in the Kenai Fjords, but still got a little green. My bout of seasickness, from sweaty start to inglorious finish, lasted about twenty minutes. Have yet to speak to the others to see how they made out.

But last night’s high seas were certainly a topic of conversation at breakfast this morning! Steven and I went to the Lido deck restaurant for breakfast and that’s all anyone was talking about at the various tables.

I’m sitting in the Explorer’s Lounge again…and thinking I should’ve brought one of Diana’s books to slip in among the more staid fare…

4:55 pm
I have to tell you that seasickness medicine works by knocking you our! I slept for several more hours this morning, had lunch (a light one as I still wasn’t entirely myself) and came back to the cabin. Steven rented Arthur (big surprise) and we’ve been watching it in between seeing these magnificent glaciers. After the last viewing we ordered up hot chocolate and warm cookies to the room to warm up. Such a life!

We’re at the Johns Hopkins glacier now, but I missed why it’s called that. Have shot some video, but am sure Dave’s is far better since he has a better camera than I do. I’m using the Flip cam I got in June from BOCES. Putting it through its paces. Seems to shoot good stuff, but I’ll edit later.

The mountainsides here are all scarred from the glaciers’ movement. Not much vegetation grows on them and what is here is young in geological terms (only a few hundred years old, if even that).

The seasickness medicine makes me feel woozy; Steven said he’s feeling it too. It’s a 24-hr tablet, so it should wear off soon. I hope.

Iceworms. Never thought there could be such a thing, But the ranger’s telling us about these creatures about the width of a penny and about 8 inches long that only come up to the surface of the ice on cloudy days when it’s cold enough for them to come up to feed. They feed on the pollen dropped by the wind. Talk about weird!

Ragged edges on top means that part of the mountain stuck up over the top of the glacier. Rounded edges means it was under the glacier and have been sanded down by the ice.

The Tlingit are the native peoples that live here. We’re a force of nature and have co-opted the weather with carbon emissions and ozone changes. How many boats and ships are allowed into Glacier Bay? It’s something the Parks Service struggles with. They’re charged with keeping the integrity of the waters and the purity of the natural process, a charge they take very seriously in these times of climate change.

9:09 pm

Had dinner at the Rotterdam restaurant again tonight, which meant dressing for dinner. The seas are MUCH calmer this evening … in fact, I think we stay in the sound all the way to Haines. That’s okay with me since my first ocean foray wasn’t stellar.

Went to see Antonio Scalci, a show pianist and the entertainment for the night. Will have to tell Heath about these gigs. He was okay, but at his best with a Ferrante and Teischer piece (sorry, can’t remember the name of it).

Steven borrowed Inkheart, which I’ve seen, but he hasn’t. It was good, so we’re settling down to watch it and get an early bedtime. By 8:30 tomorrow we’re docked in Haines and want to be right out there!