Sailing to Alaska, Day 2 – Grenville Channel
The 2nd day on a northbound cruise to Alaska is “at sea”, with lots of onboard activities but not a lot to see scenery-wise normally. On this sailing of the Celebrity Millennium, however, we got a huge bonus thanks to Captain Zisis Tamaras.
Sunrise in Queen Charlotte Sound, off the north coast of Vancouver Island, shot from my balcony at 05:44.
At 10:00 we went to the main restaurant, the Metropolitan, to start an tour of the food services on board, including a galley tour and “Taste of Millennium”, which was displays by each of the specialty restaurants. This is Executive Chef Jason Banyon describing some of the things needed to make it all work.
Fruit carving being done in the galley.
The displays from all the restaurants stretched halfway around the atrium.
Just before noon we tucked into a small channel west of Princess Royal Island instead of the usual route out in Hecate Strait. This was much better!
A great route with far better weather than what had been forecast – a superb day on the British Columbia coast.
About 12:30, the captain made an annnoucement that instead of sailing the route that had been scheduled, we would be sailing up Grenville Channel. Incredible! This very narrow passage is one of the most scenic channels on the coast – commonly used by Alaska cruise ships 50-plus years ago, it’s almost never used by today’s large ships. This photo was shot at 2:52 pm as we approached the narrowest part of the channel.
Grenville Channel certainly got people up top – and many of them stayed for hours to experience this very special event.
It takes a small-ship cruise to see the coast “up close and personal” – usually!
The view of Grenville Channel from our balcony.
The narrowest part of Grenville Channel is just ahead, at 3:58 pm.
What can you say about a view like that?
Fine wine, with nature’s best just yards away from the window – this is Alaska cruising at it’s most comfortable.
A capella quartet “North by Northwest” performs in Cafe al Bacio.
This is Cafe al Bacio, an area that we spend quite a bit of time in 🙂
We saw a few bears during our close-up sailing. There’s a black bear in the middle of the grassy patch here.
Classical string trio “Beacon Street” performs in Cafe al Bacio.
We’d seen rain ahead for much of the cruise through Grenville Channel, but we didn’t catch up to it until about 4:30. Our balcony is well sheltered for rainy-day cruising as long as there’s no wind.
After the rain, a very special treat.
The BC coast is very quiet today, but there are signs of the logging/lumber industry that made it a very different place a few decades ago.
Sun on our ship but heavy rain to the side.
Our position at 5:15 pm, seen on our TV. While this map is much better than we’ve had on other ships, the other displays have had information such as speed and lat/long, information that I like to see.
Coastal patterns. Normally I take few photos on Day 2 (the “sea day”), but after editing I have 152 photos from this day.
The evening sky at 10:01 pm.
Tomorrow is our first port visit, at Icy Strait Point, the cruise ship facility at the village of Hoonah.
About The Author
