Saturday, September 14, 2013

Alaskan Cruise Chapter 2

Crazy how this cruise came about! Our office was closing for a week and Jim & I were excited to go up to the mountains to camp & quad. Just before we started to get things ready we found this deal & we couldn't pass it up, especially because we had enough points on our Southwest credit card to fly to Seattle & back. This was us leaving Seattle, ready for some relaxation!
At sea
Juneau
I had a few bouts of motion sickness but it was still worth it, we had such a great time!
Mendenhall Glacier
Our ship...the Star Princess
Our tram ride
Skagway
Glacier Bay was very awesome! It rained a couple of days, one of them was while we were at Glacier Bay...it's ok, we love the rain!
Ketchican
Dress-Up Nights
Our ship had an unexpected rescue, Here is the newspaper article about it... THREE RESCUED IN A DRAMATIC SEA RESCUE OFF UCLUELET More than a dozen rescue officials, from the air, from the sea and even a nearby cruise ship took part in a sea rescue off Ucluelet Friday. Three people floated helplessly in the water, clinging onto coolers and a half-inflated dingy as their 29-foot fishing vessel was sucked into the swelling seas. The two men and one woman were able to send out a mayday when their fishing boat, the Aquaholic, started taking on water around 12:40 p.m. which prompted every nearby vessel to respond to the distress call and save their lives. Rushing to their rescue was a Cormorant helicopter from Comox air force base, a Transport Canada aircraft, coast guard boats from Tofino and Bamfield, and a Star Princess cruise liner. “Anyone in the area was racing to assist,” said Air force Capt. Ray Jacobson. “It would have been quite the sight for the people in the water seeing everyone racing toward them.” Jacobson said the three were very fortunate and were only in the water for just over half an hour. Chartered fishermen in Ucluelet said the three were from Alberta but had their boat moored at the inner boat basin. At least one fishermen said several charters didn’t go out fishing on Friday because the seas were too rough with three metre swells.
I got pretty sick because we had to turn our ship around so quickly & we had very little time in Victoria because of the rescue, but it was so worth it to help save three people!! The last evening of the cruise as we approached Victoria...beautiful!!