The Inside Passage

The Inside Passage

The Lifeboat

      Our first foray into the waters of the Inside Passage found us doing two things, winding down and eating although perhaps not in that order. We were on a cruise ship, after all, just two of some 678 people onboard (passengers not counting the crew which alone numbered 400 and represented 50 different nationalities), which was still a far cry from the large massive cruise lines that can easily hold five or more times that number, mini-traveling cities that make one wonder how so much food and water and waste is handled on a daily and sometimes hourly schedule.  Our ship would burn through 9800 gallons of fuel and use more than that in water as we showered and quenched our thirst and dishes were washed and laundry was done.

The lifeboat in proportion to the ship

    Still, the relatively small ship seemed large to us, the lifeboats here alone holding 150 people each by themselves (during the initial drill before the ships can leave, everyone has to put on their provided life jacket and rendezvous under --and that means UNDER-- their assigned life boat, which serves to reinforce not only the size of the life boats and the ship, but also the amount of people with who you were now scattered with). One can't help but think of the confidence the people of the doomed Titanic felt, a ship billed as "unsinkable" at the time, for everyone here (including us) felt as casually safe as if we were just boarding yet another aircraft...no need to worry, no need to question anything disastrous other than how we would shower in the tiny crawl space provided (it actually made one wonder how the design engineers put a shower in at all, and where does all that drain water go?).  Then of course, the food, the overdosing of food, the endless array of offerings coupled with the minimal workout equipment (as if to say one shouldn't even be thinking that way of boldly trying to NOT gain weight....just eat and sleep).  And as much as we resisted, we were here as a getaway, an escape of sorts, and before long we were indeed fast asleep...and surprisingly, we stayed asleep.   No cell service, no  Internet (well, no "affordable" internet), and no hope of escape should you fall overboard (truth be told, the Canadian Coast Guard had already removed one passenger for medical reasons, so at least we discovered how people do get evacuated from these remote ocean regions).

The monster-size ships holding nearly 5000 people

     Of course, we were following the border of Alaska, the largest state in the U.S., and so named to mean "great land," likely more for its bounty of beauty and resources than its size. Home to half of the world's glaciers, Alaska also has the lowest per capita human population, it's size so overwhelming to its relatively small permanent residents.  It's human bounty began with early fur traders (primarily from Russia), then moved onto whalers, then the gold rush miners and now the tourists...us.  Those of you historical buffs, the U.S. bought Alaska for the sum of $7.2 million, a figure considered measly even then but Russia apparently badly needed the funds as well as the alliance during their Crimean war and preferred the neighboring U.S. to have ownership rather than another country.

     Our particular voyage through this inside passage is more properly named the Alexander Archipelago after the Russian czar and explorer with the same name.  500 miles (800 km) long and 100 miles wide, this area is home to over 1000 islands and holds 14 varieties of whales, along with 6 types of seals and five times as many types of fish (some, such as the mola mola can grow to be over 3000 pounds in weight...one caught in 1990 weighed over 5000 pounds, far above their normal weights of about 800 pounds).  And despite our hopes, the seas seem to be hiding their animal treasures from us, only one killer whale (actually orcas are not members of the whale family but rather are classified as dolphins) emerging briefly to tease us for a few seconds.  Perhaps after centuries of being hunted, the larger animals are learning to stay away from all of us, friend and foe alike (or perhaps their numbers are simply not there, something especially true for the slower-moving whales such as humpbacks and grays).

The view from the front of the ship

     Being at "sea" for such a period the ship has been designed to keep you busy (it's usually cold and windy outside since you are heading into a more northerly latitude) which means (besides eating and sleeping) indoor things...no outdoor pool weather here.  For me, this was a bit of a floating education as guest lecturers arrived, one a noted oceanographer, Steven Okulewicz, who teaches geology (physical and historical), geochemistry and oceanography and has done so for 30 years...and guess what, the room where he was speaking was packed.  Boredom or a quest to learn (or simply stumbling into the room by accident)?  Who knows, but it was encouraging to see that more people arrived for this than they did for the trivia or the group bingo games that followed...a floating college prison.

     But it was the slowing down that was the most noticeable.  Once things were done --eating, sleeping, listening-- it was time to do...nothing.  Watch the tellie? (the ship's catalogue held 6000 movies)  Read? (their library was equally extensive)  Ponder what you're really doing here?  To each his own...except for the tellie bit, we did it all which basically translated into doing very little.  And wasn't that the purpose of this trip, or of any vacation, a chance to break routine and to indeed ponder, to recharge, to gain or regain balance in your life, to realize just how fortunate you are to even be HAVING a vacation.  It's a time of reflection for where you came from in time or place, where you are now and where you might be heading, or a time for none of it.  It's YOUR time after all, to do with what you will.  May as well soak it in, all of it, for it is yours however brief.  And whether out in a tent for the weekend or cruising the Inside Passage, it is likely time deserved and time needed.  As Captain Picard was so fond of saying on the show Star Trek the Next Generation, "Make it so."