Our morning started with a 9am coffee chat with Lance and Jason Kelly, one of the naturalists. The major takeaway was that in 2020 the Maasdam will be sailing two week cruises out of Vancouver. The itineraries haven't been announced but they will likely be the smaller ports and the Zodiacs will likely have their US Coast Guard approvals to operate. Alaska is an excellent venue for them.
The rest of the day was spent in a variety of EXC events. First up was a short excursions port talk on our remaining ports of call including a stern warning about visiting Russia and the ports there. Lance followed that presentation with his detailed presentation on the Kodiak and Dutch Harbor ports and another warning about the Visa requirements when visiting Russia. For lunch we sat with Master Kam and his wife and renewed our acquaintance.
Naomi Kakiuchi, the Asian guest chef from Seattle, presented making spring rolls and Japanese fried rice. Her spring rolls were to be available at the sip and savor later in the afternoon. As one of the more unusual EXC events, Rachel Moreno showed how to cut out and make Alaskan summer parkas (Kuspuk ) which I may have to try making. While Angela went to the 3pm movie, The Miracle, I attended Lottie Davies' EXC landscape photography session and later chatted with her. She was the guest EXC photographer on the South America to Papeete leg of the Maasdam's voyage which we were on.
Today was gala night, but we elected to enjoy a dinner in the Canaletto dining room (Italian Cuisine). It wasn't crowded and we were easily able to get to the Main Stage early to get a good seat for Savannah Jack. It was really good! Rachel Moreno presented an Evening Insight talk on the Alaska Native Peoples, and Jason Kelley gave a really good Voyager talk about 'What possibly could go wrong?' We heard this story on our Sri Lankan voyage, but it was worth hearing again! Afterwards we chatted with Jill and Joe until the Crow's Nest loud music drove us out.
Coming back to the room there was a written notice about the Russian Visa requirements.
Tomorrow we're in Kodiak and have nothing specific planned. Stay tuned.
So glad you can enjoy Rachel and Jason, they were both on our cruise in June. We were disappointed that the zodiacs weren't available this year....guess we'll have to go back next year!
ReplyDeleteLaura (kplady on CC)