After a full day in Seward (see previous blog post), we sailed for our next port of call, Valdez. The weather continued to be relatively sunny and clear, which was remarkable considering that the west coast of North America from Seward all the way south to Northern California is pretty much a rain forest. Lots of cloudy days, lots of rain, and lots of snow in winter. We were grateful to have mostly blue skies and clear views. Here is some of what we could see:
We were still getting over some travel fatigue, so we relaxed and did not take any of the excursions available to us in Valdez. Nevertheless, as we prowled about our ship, the Orion, we found wonderful views on all sides of the vessel. Here you can see a fishing boat at anchor, with rugged mountain scenery in the distance.View looking across the harbor towards the tanker docks. The terraced tank farm is the holding area that receives crude oil arriving through the Alaska Pipeline, which starts on the North Slope and ends in Valdez. Tanker ships arrive at intervals to take on loads of oil from these holding tanks. Another fishing boat sails past us in the foreground, and the green landscape behind the tank farm vouches for the frequent rains that come to this area.While in port we were able to take a tour of the Orion’s bridge. One of the officers showed us around (this is how I know we had 914 passengers aboard), and a few members of our group took the opportunity to sit in the Captain’s chair. As you might expect, the view from the bridge was excellent, and we were impressed with the redundant navigation and control systems used to pilot the ship. Speaking of pilots, on previous Viking cruises we often saw pilots board the ship to help with navigation into or out of a port. These pilots were trained specifically for each port, but the pilots helping with this Alaska cruise were regional pilots. They knew all of the major ports in their region, as well as the fjords and inside passages that we might sail to get to a particular harbor.Closer view of mountain scenery as we left Valdez. Notice the waterfall coming down the mountainside, and the glacier filling a saddle between peaks in the upper center of the photo. Alaska has lots of wilderness that starts right outside the doorstep, and this is part of it.View of the mountains behind our ship as we sailed out into the Gulf of Alaska. The ocean swell shows up as a pattern of transverse lines cutting across the wake of our ship. More accurately, our ship cut across the swell as we sailed, with little if any discernible vibration or movement.Here we are, on deck to enjoy the breeze and evening sun after supper. This was late July, so sunlit days were still really long and the nights were short.I was taking an evening shot off the stern of our ship when I noticed increasing mid- to high-level cloudiness and decreasing light as we approached sunset. And I noticed something unexpected in the snowy mountain range behind us. Look in the center of the photo, and what do you see?In case you did not find the surprise in the previous photo, here is a closer view. We see what appears to be a gigantic cross, perhaps as much as a thousand feet high, in a snow field near the top of the mountains. It must be a pattern created as the snowfield partially melts each summer, and we would not have seen it if we were socked in by clouds or rain. It was nice to see, though, and it was a pleasant end to a beautiful day.
