Tag Archives | Selene

After a short turnaround at home, checking mail, etc, we headed back to Anacortes, where Spirit was fueled and nearly ready for departure.  After a nice gathering with friends at Skyline (Tucker’s, Lieschner’s,  Alveys and Hislops’s), we headed to Spirit for a much needed night of sleep before rising early to launch our new tender which had been in dry storage.  We installed the new propeller, intended to improve performance, but it actually made the performance worse so we put the original one back on.

After a final trip to Costco and Safeway we met our cruise guests, Ted and Lisa Marx about 7 PM for dinner at the Brown Lantern before retiring for an early departure from Anacortes Marina.

May 15, 2014

Dawn arrived all too early as we prepared to depart Anacortes Marina.  Spirit departed the slip right on schedule at 0600, while Miriam and Ted took the tender out separately to meet outside the breakwater and hook up the tow line.  By 0620 we underway seriously and headed down Guemes Channel to take advantage of the large ebb tide.  Passing through Thatcher Pass we then headed across Blakely Sound and through Pole Pass and then past Stuart Island across Haro Strait to Bedwell Harbor where we cleared Canadian Customs.  That process took only a few minutes by phone since the Customs dock was unmanned.

A short run from Bedwell Harbor brought us to Port Browning where we anchored Spirit in a nearly deserted bay in 25 feet of water.  Patrick and Ted headed ashore to check out the Pub menu and hours before all four of us took a scenic cruise in the new tender through the Pender Canal back to Bedwell Harbor and then around South Pender Island via Haro Strait and back to Port Browning.  Dinner at the pub was good, with an interesting cream of broccoli soup with blue cheese.  Thursday was also fish and chips special night, with good beer battered cod for very reasonable prices.

Returning to Spirit the four of us played “Mexican Train” until late, then realized that with the large ebb tide in the morning that we needed to have another 0600 departure.

May 16, 2014

We raised the anchor right on schedule at 0600 and decided to try a new route (for us) via Georgeson Passage into the Strait of Georgia.  Georgeson Passage, while a little narrow, has less current then Active Pass, and is 15 nautical miles shorter than going around the east end of Saturna Island.  There were a few violent eddies and whirlpools, but nothing the boat autopilot could not handle.

Exiting into the Strait of Georgia we set a course for Vancouver that would keep us in Canadian Waters until we cleared the northern USA boundary and then cut across the VTS lanes to the correct northbound lane near Sand Head.  The wind and seas had built to 25 knots and 3-5 foot seas on the starboard quarter.  The stabilizers were working hard and we kept hearing a strange banging noise.  Checking the engine room Patrick found the starboard stabilizer top bearing support housing bolts were loose, causing excessive motion and presumably causing the leak in the seal we had noticed.  A few minutes with a large Allen wrench on the capscrews solved that problem and the rest of the trip into Vancouver’s False Creek and Quayside Marina was uneventful, where we arrived at 1225.  We have now covered 85 nautical miles, only about 4000 left to go until we return to Anacortes.

The new tender towed nicely in the seas and arrived behind us in Vancouver with no spray on board, unlike Spirit, which had a lot of salt spray.

We re-provisioned with the fresh vegetables we could not bring across the border at both Costco, just a few blocks away, and at Urban Fare, one block from the marina.  After a snack of fresh oysters at “Provence” Bistro at the head of the dock we put on a rack of St. Louis style baby back pork ribs to slow cook for a late dinner.  The sun and warm temperatures made the cockpit the perfect place for dinner, which started with a shrimp and avocado cocktail.  As the skies gradually darkened we finished off the evening with another round of “Mexican Train”.

May 4, 2014

The weather is beginning to change as we head north towards San Diego.  The temperature is dropping and the wind is picking up, although the seas are still relatively calm.  Not much is happening on the ship, and the infection control measures continue.  We had the last formal night of the cruise, with “surf and turf” one of the entrees for dinner.

May 5, 2014

After a morning walk as the sun rose, with temperatures cool enough to require a jacket, we settled into the “at sea” routine, except that we avoided the crowds of people.  At noon we participated in an Indonesian Richstaffel lunch put on for those in suites.  The food was spicy and reminded us of our trips to SE Asia in the early 1990’s.  We did attend the evening show with the full cast of the Zuiderdam performing a high energy performance of singing and dancing to Broadway and Hollywood show tunes.

May 6, 2014

The Zuiderdam approached San Diego harbor before dawn and was docked at the “B” Street pier downtown by 0600.  The clearance process by US Customs was lengthy and we did not get off the ship until after 0900.  We took the shuttle to Balboa Park where we met Kathleen and Kyle, fellow cruisers from our transatlantic voyage several years ago.  After a tour of Balboa Park, led by Kyle, we enjoyed lunch on the patio of “Prado”, a nice restaurant located in the park.  The ship departs relatively early, so we arrived back on board before 1500.  

The ship finally departed at 1600 in brisk winds which really picked up as we exited the harbor for the 1231 nautical mile run to Victoria, our next stop.  By the time we were fully out in the Pacific, the winds were in excess of 30 knots, with seas to match.  Dinner was a high motion affair in the increasing bow quarter seas.  The ship rocked and rolled all night, and all the outside decks were closed due to the high winds, which exceeded 60 MPH at times.

May 7, 2014

The decks remain closed since the winds continue strong out of the Northwest.  The seas are at times enormous, but seem to be decreasing somewhat as we continue north.  With not much else to do, we had a leisurely breakfast in the Pinnacle Restaurant.  Our walk will have to be on the inside decks.  Miriam had lunch for the first time in the main dining room with Dorothy Vaccaro, one of our evening tablemates.  Dinner was the next highlight of a long and relaxing (boring) day.  The show was another high energy full cast production by the Zuiderdam Singers and Dancers.

May 8, 2014

Sometime during the night we passed though the winds from the northwest and the winds are now from the south at 29 MPH, with following seas.  The ship speed has increased to around 19 knots in order to make Victoria, BC by 1600 tomorrow, but the motion is very calm with the seas coming from dead astern.  At midday the visibility decreased and the fog horn came back on as we steamed towards Crescent City, CA.  The ship continues at the highest level of infection control.  I guess we have to be glad that it is only the hands that have to be sanitized every time one enters a public area, even the shops.

April 26, 2014

Today was another day at sea on our way to “five ports in five days”.  The weather was mostly cloudy with some brief but intense showers.  Once again, the day was slow, with another formal night.

April 27, 2014

We arrived early into Puntarenas, Costa Rica where Patrick had an early shore excursion, combining an aerial tram up through the rain forest canopy and then a zip line adventure back down the hill.  The zip line was in ten sections, several more than 1200 feet long and several hundred feet above the valley floor through the rain forest canopy.

Miriam had a scenic tour by bus through the countryside, with a stop in a small town for folkloric dancing and bands.  Both tours arrived back at the ship with just a little time before sailing.  The weather was very hot near the docks, so we passed on the walk into the small port town we had driven through.

April 28, 2014

The ship arrived in Corinto, Nicaragua shortly before 1000 and we headed on a tour to the Flor de Cana rum distillery, about a 45 minute drive through the countryside towards the city of Leon.  The immediate impression was of a very poor country, reinforced by the guide’s talk as we drove along relatively poor roads.  The distillery was modern and set up for tours, with electric carts to take us from place to place in the very hot weather.  Flor de Cana prides itself on “Slow Aging” their rum in white oak barrels that had previously been used for American whiskeyand bourbon.  Each barrel can be used twice more before it has given up all the taste and color to the rum.  We tasted both 18 and 7 year old rum, both good.  Returning to the ship we saw quite a few people eating in the small port town of Corinto, which proved to be a taste of things to come.

April 29, 2014

The ship docked in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala shortly before 0900 and we boarded a bus for a 90 minute drive to Antigua, a colonial town we had visited by bus some years before.  The previous visit included Palm Sunday with colorful processions though the city.  Today we shopped for jade, walked around the streets and ended up at “Frida’s” for lunch, a Mexican restaurant we had tried on the previous trip and knew was “safe”.  We were given about 3 ½ hours in the city before the 90 minute drive back to the ship, giving us just a few minutes of last minute sightseeing in the shopping mall at the cruise terminal before departing for the next  port.

April 30, 2014

Puerto Chiapas, Mexico was our next port of call, arriving shortly before 0730 to the sounds of Marimbas and dancers on the dock, greeting the ship.  Boarding our bus, we headed for the small town of Tuxtlachico to see the entire chocolate making process the local people use, visit the local market and church before visiting the archaeological site of Izapa.  Izapa was an Olmec site, predating the Mayan civilization by several hundred years.  The excavated site was relatively small, but was only about 3 percent of the total site.

Returning to the ship we relaxed near the shoreside pool and restaurant complex built to support the cruise ships where the breeze provided relief from the heat before the ship departed for Hualtuco, Mexico.

May 1, 2014

The stop in the small port of Hualtuco was short, only about 7 hours.  We took a catamaran sail to visit five of the nine bays forming the Hualtuco area, which has really developed since our last visit in 2007.  We were surprised at the size of the hotel complexes, which now total over 6000 rooms out of a planned total of 17,000 rooms.  Returning to the small marina we found a spot in the shade on the beach and had a swim in the warm water while relaxing in the breeze, providing relief from the heat.  May and June are the hot months in Hualtuco, with temperatures often exceeding 100 degrees.

Returning to the ship we found that measures had been taken to try and prevent the spread of some GI illness that some passengers had experienced.  We could no longer get our own coffee and water, and everything was now “served”.  Unfortunately, not everyone complied, apparently, since the measures became more drastic over the next few days.  We are not affected.