Dear Readers,

Tomorrow I am flying to Montreal to join the ms Maasdam on 06 Sept. for 14 days to help them out with training. So my blog should start again on 7 Sept.

The Maasdam is making 7 day cruises  Montreal – Boston and back and around this time we should see the breath taking autumn scenery along the river banks.

I will be on the Maasdam until Sept 20 and then transfer to the Veendam.

The IT guru’s have been working on the blog and it should now be fully operational again. You should all have received a random ping, announcing my last blog on 25 July 2014 a few days ago.

The rest of my blog I will continue testing in the coming days and if is all back in order, which it looks like, then I will be uploading a lot of historical stuff in the coming weeks.

Best regards

Capt. Albert

The most famous shop in Ketchikan is Tongass. It is located right on the cruise ship berths. A prime spot as at least 2 full complements of cruise ship guests have to walk by there to get into town and back. The store has been there a long long time and once was a real “General Store” where you could buy everything you needed to survive in Alaska. That has now changed and all the down stairs has been taken over for selling souvenirs; except a small side corner where they have some drugstore items for sale. Why do I mention this store? Well it was raining today, real Ketchikan weather, and it looked like it that a full complement of at least one ship had marched straight into this store to stay dry, and they were of course shopping. The owner must be a rich man. It was almost too busy to sell anything. It confirmed my theory that it does not matter that much if it rains during the call at the last port of the cruise.  As long as the shops are open.

Tomorrow will be last day of this cruise, with an evening call at Victoria. The weather during the coming night does not look very good but once the ship has gotten past that, it should become sunny and warm. So although the cruise was -weather wise- not that exciting, it should have a favorable ending.

That brings me to the end of my blogging period and I would like to thank all the readers for keeping up with my musings and the humdrum of a travelling captain.

What is going to happen next?

I will have a month vacation first and she who shall be obeyed has booked a number of short holidays. We are taking a luxury train to the Tattoo in Edinburgh. I have been there before B&B style but now we are going the 5 star way. Secondly we will be making two short cruises. Just to be nosy to see how some other companies are doing.

Then, I should be back at sea by September 6. First visiting the Maasdam and then the Veendam. Both are doing 7 day cruises to Quebec and Montreal. The nice part of it is that it will be during Canadian Foliage season, e.g. autumn, so it might be magnificent.  Also on these two ships I will be helping out with the implementation of the 3-alarm system. Unless one of the trainers officially assigned for this job, obtains the proper US visa on time, so he can legally circumvent the Jones Act.

Maasdam 06 sep. – 20 sep.

Veendam 22 sep. – 06 oct.

After that I should start to gear up again for what I am supposed to do, support the ships with projects, train new captains and visit all the ships on a regular basis.

The IT Gurus have promised me that all the issues with the Blog will be resolved shortly and if that is the case there will be a stream of posts/upload coming with HAL history material. Hopefully they will also fix the email notification alert that the same time.

Thank you, and best regards

Captain Albert.

A little delay in posting this blog. Yesterday the Amsterdam was on a Southerly course and that means that the funnel blocks the sat dish.

We are not having much luck with the weather this cruise. Although on the second day it looked like as if the clouds would break, but it did not turn out that way. Today we had another real Alaska Day, with overcast skies and the occasional drop of rain coming down. Nothing to upset the proceedings of having a great cruise but it could have been better. For those guests who packed for a sunny – warm weather – cruise, and we have a few on board, it must be a disappointment. For the rest it does not really matter, they all brought their rain coats, back packs and boots and they all went off happily exploring Sitka.

Sitka is of course a bit of an anomaly compared to the other Alaskan Ports, cities and towns in as far as the history is more Russian than American. Although in the current way of life nothing feels Russian or International anymore but the history is still there in the buildings.

What amazes me most is the lack of Russian names among the local population. One would expect that given the presence of them for such a time, there would be some other traces left apart from the architecture. But in my dealings with the port of the last 30 years I have never have come across anybody who said that he/she was from a family from that period. It looks as if the Russians packed up lock stock and barrel after the handover of Alaska.

So what is left are the geographical names, the architecture and some cultural influences which the local population tries to keep alive. Many tours are available and one of them is the option to see Russian dances being performed. Another one, which has a Holland America connection, is a visit to the Raptor center. Here wounded birds of prey are nursed back to health. Holland America provided the grants that made the opening of the centre possible and has been sponsoring ever since. Either with more money or with trying to get as many tourists to visit the center.

Sitka is also a base for the United States Coast Guard who has stationed several helicopters there. Those are well known to us as we sometimes request their services to air lift patients from the ship, if somebody needs acute treatment that goes beyond the capabilities of the onboard Medical Department.

I visited the base long time ago, when I was sailing with a captain whose hobby this sort of thing was and one item I found there on display was the stern of one of the Prinsendam (I) tenders when the Prinsendam sank in 1980 in the Gulf of Alaska. Sitka airbase had been involved in that rescue due to proximity.  A rescue which I still consider a remarkable feat as in quite bad Gulf of Alaska weather they managed to launch all lifeboats, filled with rather mature citizens, without any injuries and they were all safely picked up by helicopters and a tanker.

The Amsterdam left on time as everybody had returned early. Every captain loves a bit of rain, an hour before departure. Tomorrow will be Ketchikan and we are expecting that the town will offer us one of those 332 days of the year that it rains.

The weather that was supposed to change for the better really did not. It remained overcast with dark clouds gathering at times but it remained dry. Which was fortunate for all the guests we had on board, and on the other ships.  Four ships in port, two HAL, two Princess, meant a full house and the weather was not much of an issue to upset a good day in port. The clouds stayed fairly high making it possible to have all the flight adventures take place as well. By Alaskan standards it was a good day, with regular Alaskan Weather. I was happy as well, as the wind stayed between a Gentle and a Moderate Breeze keeping the chop of the water down to small waves, so we could do our training classes.

For the rest it was a bit of a sad day, at least for all the Dutch on board. The Kingdom of the Netherlands is in official mourning, due to the airplane disaster in Ukraine where this Malaysian Airplane was downed, killing all on board. A large number of them were Dutch Nationals or people who lived in the Netherlands so it was a heavy blow to the country.

The Dutch are very peace loving in general and generally  go by the rule of live and let live, and this un expected and unnecessary act of violence shocked the Nation to its core.  Now the coffins are coming home, the country is marking that awful fact by stepping back in contemplation. TV programs have been adapted and a hush lies over the land, where the high summer with tropical temperatures normally assures much happiness.

As a cruise ship company, there is not much that you can do, but what was possible we did. All day long, on all Holland America Line ships, the National flags went Half Mast.  The Jack at the bow was not flown at all and the large Nation Flag at the stern was lowered as much as possible.  A small token from us to all of those innocent travelers who were killed in a random act of violence.

The flag of the ms Amsterdam at half mast

MAY THEY REST IN PEACE.

The flag of the ms Oosterdam at half mast

In the morning the sunshine came through and at once the clouds came down and for about for 2 hours, it was a very small world again. The ships whistle announced it to the world accordingly. But as always when coming to any ice field or ice cap, the air and water temperature changes and thus when coming closer to Tracy Arm the world opened up again. A good thing as sailing into a Fjord full of ice cubes, while having no visibility is not something that is wise to do, but no challenges today. Visibility was good and there was little ice while sailing in and that meant that the whole sightseeing program could take place as planned.

So by 2 pm the ship sailed into Tracy Arm and slowly worked its way towards the glacier face. Tracy arm is open to everybody, it is not a National Park, and thus not regulated by the National Park authority. It also means that there are no Rangers around and thus the scenic narration on board is done by our own Travel Guide. Sawyer Glacier is quite nice and very similar to Marjorie Glacier in Glacier Bay, rising steeply up from the water to a height of about 300 feet. As mentioned last week, for me the attraction of Tracy Arm is the steepness of the Mountains on either side of the water. It reminds me very much of the Norwegian Fjords, even down to the coloring of the rocks in certain places, although the variation in rock composition is greater here than what I have seen in Lyse fjord and Sonde Fjord.

The Ship sails mid channel courses everywhere in Alaska, unless it has to go around a bump somewhere and it also does so in Tracy Arm. The safest way to go, although near some of the rock formations it would be safe to sail 2 or 3 feet away from them, as the rock face goes straight down in the water for another 100 to 200 feet. The pilots in Norway told me that in the old days, they did “broom stick” sailing. This meant bringing the bridge wing so close to the rock wall, that it could be touched with a broom stick from that bridge wing. That could be done as the rock wall went straight down under water for another few hundred feet. Navigational wise it was and would be quite a challenge as due to the size of everything, it is very difficult to correctly estimate distances.

When I was with the Prinsendam in Norway, we stopped opposite Pulpit Rock and all the officers were asked to guess the distance from the Ship to the rock wall. We were 2000 feet away but everybody thought we were much closer due to the height perspective. We had to use the Radar to measure the correct distance. So these local navigators must have had quite some experience and tricks up their sleeves to get the broom stick trick right. The Amsterdam left Tracy Arm around 8 pm, with all the broom sticks still safely in their lockers.

From there it is a slow run to Juneau for an early morning arrival. We will be in port together with the Oosterdam which is expected to pull in around 08.00 am. Weather forecast, overcast with passing showers and a gentle breeze. As long as that breeze stays gentle then it is fine by me, as the trainees are going down in the lifeboats again.

Today two blogs in a row because when I tried to upload yesterday, the funnel was in the way, cutting out the Satellite signal. So we have the 20^th and the 21st.

We are still under the influence of this small depression that caused all the rain in Ketchikan, wind in Victoria and gloomy weather in Seattle.  It should be gone by tomorrow but today we had the last of the rain and the grey skies. Also we had ships movement. The wind two days ago must have been strong enough in the Gulf of Alaska to create medium height waves that are just enough to make the ship pitch on occasion. Just gently. Just enough to give the kids on board a very good day, as the pool water was rolling along nicely. That creates a sort of wave pattern that no wave pool at home can re-produce. It was just nice to splash about in and not creating any dangerous situations that would warrant the pool to be drained. So a lot of small happy-campers today. Those who were not in the pool were busy with creating mayhem in Club HAL, supervised by 5 youth staff. I greatly admire them, as I would not be able to cope with this continuous mountain of sound coming at me, created by over a 160 kids, from 3 to 15.  But as long as they are there, it is quiet in the ship.

At least reasonably quiet as this week Trivia seem to have a rowdy attendance and the game is played with “the knife on the table” as we call it in Holland. When things are heating up, there is always a wise guy who knows better than the official answer on the Trivia card and then you have arguments. When passing by the crow’s nest I overheard something about Babe Ruth and his records. Luckily I do not know anything about Base Ball, so the finer points eluded me completely. I have heard about Babe Ruth, who hasn’t, and I also know that Marilyn Monroe may have married him briefly but there my knowledge stops. I tried to play American Trivia in the past and sometimes managed to win on points, as long as there was a lot of history, politics and Geography involved, but the moment it dealt with cartoons, American TV and American Sports, then a trivia team would wish I was not there.

Today I had an interesting challenge on my hands and that was the discussion with the Purser about how much space does $ 1 mln. Dollars take up in an overnight bag. Part of the new alarm system is the introduction of a group, led by the purser who is solely designated to take all passports, seaman’s books and all paper money ashore. This to make Identification and processing by the local authorities at the landing point of the lifeboats and life rafts easier.  All those documents will be carried ashore by the Purser and his/her team and we have 8 crew for that purpose = 16 bags, so the question was: is it enough?

In an emergency it is not expected that the Purser has time to carefully stack them up in a bag, but just throw them in, plus is then the weight still low enough to be carried. As we could not test it by a emptying the contents of the safe, we had to calculate. So $ 1 million in 20 dollar notes turned out to be quite a lot of weight and on international cruises; we also have foreign currencies on board. More weight, more bags. It will keep the Purser occupied for a few days, to figure out what is needed, or whether he has enough.

Thus I felt that I had done my good deed for the day. The good ship Amsterdam in the meantime plodded along nicely on the North Pacific Ocean. By early afternoon we passed the Queen Charlotte Islands and  that means by tomorrow morning we will enter Chatham Strait. Here, near Kake, we will collect the Alaskan Pilots and then head towards Tracy Arm for our afternoon Glacier Adventure.

Now we have to keep our fingers crossed that the Glaciers inside Tracy Arm have not been too active and produced too much ice. Especially in the beginning of the season it can clog up the whole fjord and make an entry into the fjord completely impossible. We are now midseason, so the chance is less, but it has happened before and the poor cruise ship was stuck outside.

With the weather system passing by, it should be a nice and dry day tomorrow, with hopefully not too much sunshine, otherwise we might get those very low hanging clouds again.

Everything went as planned and by 0630, the ship was all fast under an overcast sky and with next to us the Grand Princess who is basically sailing the same cruise as we do and therefore never very far away.  In some ports they sail earlier than we do and in some ports they arrive later but in principle it is the same route that they follow. As both companies are now part of the HAL group (Consisting out of HAL, Princess, Seabourn and the Hal/Princess land tour part) it is basically one happy family that sails around in circles here. As with any change over port, the routine is the same as always, a very busy routine, which meant that apart from paperwork I was not in action today. I had my days outing courtesy of the CBP, as I had to oblige with the zero count = empty ship, required to ensure that everybody has gone through the CBP check and an hour later I was back on board.

The lack of adventure for today, gives me the chance to blog about something else. It has been announced a while ago already but it will come back time and time again until November 2015. And that is the transfer of the Statendam and the Ryndam. Two beloved ships but also part of the oldest class in the fleet.

A few years ago, our CEO Stein Kruse mentioned in a cruise magazine that he saw Holland America’s optimal size of fleet being 15 units. And now we have a 16^th being readied, the Pinnacle-dam. (That is not the official name but the ship belongs to the new Pinnacle class). Based on that statement I was not so surprised for an announcement to be issued that one of the ships would have to go. I also was not surprised that it would be the Statendam as she is the oldest one. I had not expected two ships at the same time. Although the order of our new ship, also called for the option for a 2^nd one, so maybe there is something there.

Now you can sell two very handy sized ships for a good price to a buyer but then they come back as direct competitors. Thus Carnival has instigated the policy to send smaller units to new markets. As a result the Statendam and Ryndam will go to P&O Australia. This company is also part of Carnival Corporation and Australia is very much an upcoming Cruise Market. The challenge is the size of the country, or better said the Continent. If you want to make cruising easy for newcomers, you do not want to have them fly for hours to something they do not know. But if you can get the ship to their doorstep, they might go for it, and once you have the cruise bug, you are hooked for life.

The way the ships might look like after the hand over. (Photo Courtesy; a creative soul on the internet, name unknown)

Thus down under is very much a target area for Carnival Corp and that means that you have the start with smaller ships. In the same way as they developed the Spanish market with Iberos Cruceros. Also here smaller ships haven been brought in already. P&O Australia has a number of ships that are smaller units of P&O/Princess.

The changeover will start in November 2015 when both ships will receive a makeover to get them ready for the Aussie & Kiwi market. I do not know what this make over will entail but I would be willing to bet a few dollars on it, that they will install another bar or two, as they do like a drink down there.

I will be sad to see the two ships go, as they were very beloved by our guests. I liked them as well, as they were very handy in maneuvering and had a lot of power for their size. However in order to keep the majority of our clientele happy, the company has to continue offering the latest in the industry and that means constant renewal.

Down under they are ready for them. The first thing they did was start a competition for new names and recently the two names chosen were announced.

The ms Amsterdam sailed under its own name on time from Seattle, ready for the next round of Alaska, with a full house of excited guests. The weather for tomorrow gives for little change, so we have to see how it will develop in the coming days. I need wind still weather in Juneau, as my classes have to mess around with lifeboats again.

This band of rainy weather is stretching down all the way from Ketchikan to Seattle and the normally very green island of Vancouver looked very grey and dull when the shore line came into view around 11 am, when the ship approaches Strait Juan de Fuca. Normally it comes into view as thin green line and when coming closer it turns out that the thin green line is a mountain range. Today it was mostly obscured by rain clouds.  Those clouds stayed nicely high up in the sky until around 14.30, by now the ship was well inside the Strait and here the temperature difference was still such that the clouds descended onto the water for about 2 hours. And that meant that the whistle was happily blowing again its 2 minute cycle. When we neared the Northern part of the Puget Sound, the world opened up again.

It was very windy, so the parade of Seattle ships had quite a challenge to get inside Victoria. The pecking order this time was NCL first, followed by, followed by us. The wind was almost due east, running a wind force 7, and that meant that docking was luckily still possible. The berths at Ogden Point are SS/NE in line up and thus the wind was mainly on the stern, making the drift of the ships controllable. But it all took more time than usual, so the gangway went out a little bit later than normal. Luckily Canadian Authorities are very quick in clearing ships if you have your paperwork in order, and 15 minutes after the gangway was out, most of the guests could stream ashore.

For some it was their first time in Canada and I overheard two rather startling observations. One that Canadians in Victoria spoke English, secondly that the road signs had funny words on it. Obviously the fact that the Canadian road signs are in two languages had not yet reached the depths of Kentucky. I assume the guests came from there, as they had one of these sewn-on signs on the handbag: I am proud to come from Kentucky. (American Flag to the left, text to the right). Well at least they learned something. Travelling does broaden the mind. If they were from somewhere else, then I apologize un-reservedly to all people from Kentucky.

We also have a group of Texans on board, who proudly walk around with large cowboy hats on their heads. They turned out to be quite handy in Ketchikan. At least the ones that  were made of solid material, and thus looked waterproof. One gentleman was wearing a straw version and that hat slowly started to wilt under the constant rain and drizzle of the Ketchikan weather. Obviously where he lived rain was not much of an issue.

Victoria harbour as seen from the air.

Victoria is a nice city which I like very much, so it is a pity that this is only an evening call. For most of the crew it is of no use as they are all working in the evening. Plus as the city is curved around the port, it is not so easy to run into town for a few minutes. Something you can easily do in Vancouver.  So most crew come to Victoria with the ship but never see it. Only on occasion we have a full day call, when a ship is on a repositioning cruise. It is in a way a pity that Victoria gets most of its summer traffic in the form of evening calls by ships which have to comply with the Jones Act.

Having that done, the Amsterdam pulled out just before midnight for a quick dash south through the Puget sound to dock in Seattle at 06.30. Again the same parade of ships, with the NCL one heading for downtown and HAL and Princess to Pier 91, more to the North.

The weather for Seattle is forecast to be about the same as to day. Overcast with temperatures in the mid-fifties, chance of showers but not much of it, and that is not bad weather for travelling.

The whole ship woke up to a real Ketchikan day. Maybe not as advertised in the brochures, but in the way the locals know it. Wet, very wet. It rained, it drizzled and then it drizzled some more. As mentioned in my Ketchikan blog of last cruise, for the final port in the cruise it does not matter so much. At least not for the majority of the crowd. There are still many who are on a shore excursion but they see Ketchikan the way it really is, so how can they complain? For the rest it is the final opportunity to buy a keepsake to take home from the cruise. And the town was there to help. We were docked by 7 am and a number shops were already open by 7 am.

Today there were four ships in, two Holland America, two Princess and a NCL ship. Delivering just short of 9000 guests to Ketchikan.  Not to mention the crew, who get excited about Ketchikan, just for one reason: Wall Mart. When you live on board you have to keep your priorities in order and that means knowing where to shop. So the pecking order is here: Vancouver for noodles, chips and clothing. Juneau (Costco) for electronics and Ketchikan for everything else. A crewmember’s bane in life is always the fact that good shops are seldom near the cruise terminal. If they are there, then the prices are exorbitant. Understandably as the lease for a shop in a prominent location is probably exorbitant as well. A tube of toothpaste on Ketchikan Sea Front is often 75% dearer as when having the chance to go away from the tourist area. Thus paying for a taxi is worthwhile if you stock up for a longer period. Some taxi owners in Juneau have seen the logic in that and there is now a larger number of little vans or MPV’s that take 6 crew at the time to and from the shops in the valley. The taxi people still get their business and the fare for the crew remains reasonable as it can be split four or six ways.  I normally bring my stuff with me from home, as I am married to a very thrifty shopper, good price comparer and bargain hunter, and that is thus where the best prices are. Until now I have never been questioned by customs why I have 5 tubes of toothpaste in my suitcase. But today I ran out, so I had to dash across the street, and yes it was about 75% dearer.

Most of my time today was again spent with training for the roll out of the new Three Alarm System which greatest advantage is that its sequence creates more time for everybody to get ready. If there is an emergency, then everybody starts preparing at a much earlier stay, during the 2^nd stage of the cycle, and is really ready in case the ultimate decision has to be made. The crew appreciates it as well, the time spent on drills might now take longer but everybody feels that it will work better. Although during an emergency a crewmember will turn into a barking sergeant major, to get everybody to their muster stations, the feeling will always persist that if you can do it in the most comfortable way, then we should do that. We are after all still people who work in the service industry.

Apart from the Lifeboat training for a group of 33 participants, my main focus is on getting the whole crew ready to get a handle on this new three step alarm system. That means that they will get an introduction of about 30 minutes and then a group specific training of 45 minutes. The challenge is to catch them when they can attend. For small groups we have a crew-training room on board but for larger groups I need a public room in the ship. Show lounge, Movie theatre, Card room, wing of the dining room, anything goes a long as there are enough seats and I can hook my computer up for a power point presentation. Those rooms are not always available, as on sea days the guests have their activities there and that results in some creative scheduling by the ships management to make it all possible. So I might give a training in the very early morning, or in the late evening.

The greatest chunk of all these presentations deal with Crowd Management. Since the booming of the Cruise Industry from the mid eighties onwards; a lot of research has been done into the behavorial patterns of larger numbers of people on a ship.  Studies about the best flow of public rooms, about the best flow from cabins to Muster Stations, but also how to communicate with large groups.

The latter point is the biggest challenge for all of us. When there is something going on; and an announcement is made: 60 out of a 100 do not react. 35 out of a 100, wants to do something but does not know necessarily what and the other 5 might push the panic button.  This means that more announcements have to be made and then the 60 will follow the example of the 35 and do as being told. This is not only in an emergency, but also during a simple procedure as the routine for going ashore with the tenders, when the ship first arrives. The Cruise Director explains it all, it is in the daily program, but still the Front office is bombarded with questions about what to do. Last Sitka I spent 45 minutes watching this at the Front Desk and that period 61 guests came over to ask the question: where do I get my tender ticket and from where does my Tour leave ? Not counting those who got hold of a crewmember before they reached the Front Desk. So out of the 800 who goes ashore, roughly a 100 still need to be told again what to do and where to go, on top of the announcements and the published information.

Based on that behavorial pattern, I try to provide the crew with some tools to get the message across and prevent the guests on board from reacting to rumours, as that causes a ripple of uncertainty in the ship and that leads to panic. Only 5 out of  a 100 might react that way, but if we can stop them in their tract, then we have a very safe and simple procedure we can follow.

It was a mainly dry but overcast day today, which is about Sitka standard. It is always nice to have a sunny day but it is by no means the norm. Ketchikan has 332 rainy days a year and if you catch a sunny day there, then it means it is something extra ordinary. For Sitka a dry day is not a bad thing either but as it is open to the North Pacific Ocean, the weather is more regulated by the sea. Ketchikan gets the rain drifting in from the sea and then more rain is released by clouds bouncing back from the mountains.

The Amsterdam was the only ship again and as it was a windless day, parked in the inner anchorage, reducing the tender distance to a minimal length. The Azipods kept the stern in position, the bow was held by anchor and there she sat happily for the rest of the day.

Since a number of years, the locals have been building out onto the islands around the anchorage area. I suppose the year by year influx of tourist money make it affordable to construct an island house or a chalet or cottage as it is not cheap. All the work has be done from a barge, and as some islands are nothing more than rocky outcroppings, pilings have to be installed to make a level floor possible. Most of these houses are for lease in the summer and very much in demand by people from down south who come fishing for a weekend or a week.

A number of years ago, one of the lighthouses which guarded the old approach to the harbor was converted in a luxury B&B and in the light chamber a Jacuzzi was installed. Very romantic of course but you have to climb all the steps up and then back down again. Also this B & B is currently for sale. It looks like that the generation that I knew from the 80 & 90’s are starting to retire and are cashing in on their assets.

Today my lifeboat classes were busy with learning about the inventory of the lifeboats. Basically everything is set up in such a way, that if you do not know what to do, or you have forgotten something, there are instructions for everything. It varies from how to start the engine, when to hand out food and water, to attracting attention when help is nearby. Some of the inventory is from days gone by, when the crew did not wear lifejackets and the boats were from wood. Thus having 2 axes in the lifeboat is of limited use as the lifeboat is now made of polyester. There is also the requirement to have a whistle in the boat. Nowadays every lifejacket has a whistle, which makes this one then number 151 to the total count available. But in the old days there were no lifejackets, hence the whistle requirement.

TPA or Thermal Protective Aid. They retail for about $ 15,– and no boat should be without one.

Other items are of more use, such as TPA’s, or Thermal Protective Aids.  They are a sort of silver one-sie and you use them to warm up a under cooled person. They work extremely well as they reflect all the body heat that you lose straight back. I tried it once, and it made me feel like a Baked Potato in a microwave. So even persons with advanced hypothermia can be warmed up quite quickly.  It is a very good tool to save lives.

Eating the food rations is also always of interest. Today one of them hit the nail on the head. She said it tasted like Scottish Shortbread and it does. The ingredients are similar and shortbread was also developed by the Scots as travel rations when wandering over the highlands.  I wonder how close our current rations are to the original shortbread recipe, as I know that bakeries have been tinkering with it, to make it the worldwide cookie-success it now is.

The ship left right on time and put the pedal to the metal as it is a tight run to Ketchikan for a 0700 arrival. The ship will sail in outside waters until it re-enters the Inside Passage near Cape Decision and then goes via Sumner strait and Tongass Narrows to Ketchikan.

It will be a real Ketchikan day tomorrow, so liquid sunshine for most of the day and with 4 ships in, it will be busy in the shops.