Cruise day 1

We are now in Hawaii at the tail end of our trip. So I shall try to catch up on our cruise news.

We left Sunland early to head for Seattle. We followed Jim and Anita to the I90, the main road into Seattle. Passing through the desert and up on to the ridge we drove right past the wind farm we had been watching over the past few days. It covers 10,000 acres and has 140+ turbines.

For a while we could see Mt Rainier, the second highest mountain in the State at 4392m ( Mt St Helens being the highest). It was very hazy so could not get a good shot of this imposing snow covered volcano.

Back on the I90 after a breakfast stop, the scenery changed. The Cascade Range, Wenatchee Mountains and Mt Baker Snoqualmie National Forest just some of the names associated with this part of the world. The Cascade Range runs north south to the east of Seattle, from the border of Oregon in the south to the border of British Columbia in Canada to the north.

We stopped at Snoqualmie Pass where the snow drifts in winter can be about 3m deep on the road. Many of the peaks still had snow in patches though the hills are not particularly high at this point.

In Seattle it was cool with the occasional shower. We dropped off the car and Anita and Jim took us to the cruise terminal where they were parking their car. Embarkation went very smoothly and we headed straight for the Windjammer for lunch. We then found our cabin and went for a look around the ship to reacquaint ourselves.

Muster went off without too much hassle and we had hoped to have our luggage by then but no luck. So we headed up on deck for sailaway.

The weather had improved substantially by the time we left and we had a lovely view of the Seattle skyline. Heading up Puget Sound towards the Strait of Juan de Fuca we had a fine view of the Olympic Mountains. Anita’s daughter kindly looked up the history behind the name which was pretty interesting and has connections to Mt Olympus in Greece, hence the name of the highest peak (at 2432m). It was a very pretty view especially when the sun was catching on some clouds as it started its slow sink into the west.

An electric storm was brewing and we eventually headed straight into it. The captain had warned of rough weather for the first day at sea - bring it on!! Once we left the protected waters near Seattle and into Puget Sound, we headed into fog. The horn was sounding. We were hoping we sailed out of it before bedtime. We did and had some more views as we made way towards Alaska.

The sun was due to set around 9pm so Ian suggested I head out on deck to catch it. I had the foresight to put on my warm jacket – it was blowing a gale and the fog had rolled in again. Thicker this time. So I snapped quickly and managed to just catch a very weak glimpse of the red sun sinking.

We have a lovely smiling Indonesian steward, Sulasma, he was very happy when we told him we were from Australia. We’ve started off on the right foot with him so I don’t think we shall have any trouble getting the extra tea and milk we would like for our stateroom.