24 June 2017; At Sea, Gulf of Alaska.

The weather forecast today did not run in tune with the actual weather. Where the expectation had been for a clear morning followed by increasing cloudiness and rain in the afternoon, the reality was the other way around. Most of the day turned out to be gloomy but then it cleared in the late afternoon. Not good for today but certainly good for tomorrow as we should now have a sunny day in Seward. For the guests who leave us, it will be a nice way to start the overland journey.

Outside there was little to be seen, which was a pity as it was wind still for most of the day. It would not have been very difficult to spot wildlife in the waves. But all was quiet. So guests had to find things to do inside the ship and I am happy to advice that about 400 decided to attend my Holland America Lecture and thus now they all know where the company came from and where it is going.

The ceremony always opens with the singing of the National Anthem. Flag raising is doing done by the Security Guards and the song sung by a Lady from the Front Office.

With such a quiet day, it gives me chance to publish something I did not get the chance to do before. Philipino Independence day. On June 12 the Philipino community on board celebrated the 119^th. Philipine Independence day and because of the inclement weather it was done inside the show lounge.  While the Indonesian celebrations follow a very strict script which is the same all over the world, Philipinos are a more freewheeling country so it depends very much on the organizing committee on board to decide what shape and structure it will follow.

Historical narrative read by a Front Desk attendant.

The show lounge gave them the option to work with a power point setup and thus a short review of the turbulent history of the Philippines was narrated. The Philippines count the year that they went independent from Spain as the birth of their nation. It was not a real independence yet as for a long time after they were governed and supervised by the USA, who had moved in after the USA- Spain war over Cuba and the Philippines.  The longtime presence of American influence resulted in the fact that most Philippino’s speak a sort of combined language. Their native Tagalog is the base language which is then interspersed with American English.  Basically if there is not a good word to describe a situation in one language then you just borrow it from the other language.

Wise words from Captain Pieter Bos, Master of the ms Noordam

Standard is always a short speech by the Chairman of the Philipino Communities and then there have to be a few wise words from the captain. What a captain says is entirely up to him as the important part is to sound genuine and you cannot do that with a scripted speech. So every captain does what he feels comfortable with and what feels natural to him. I normally insert a bit of philpino – Holland America history into the speech and captain Bos reflected more on the way we work together on board. As we say in the Dutch language: “there are many ways that lead to Rome” and so there also many ways to show your appreciation for a large group of hard working people on board.

You cannot celebrate anything in the Philippines without at least one song.

The celebration is always followed by a party in the evening and that is normally held on the evening that the clocks go an hour back so in our case the night before Ketchikan when we adjust for Alaska Time. Because we could not do anything outside, there were no independence games on the outside deck.  But as it was a sea day this time, there was hardly any time for that anyway as sea days are very busy days in Alaska with guest services, as we have so few sea days in the cruise.

Our next celebration will be the 4^th of July for the Americans, then in August we have Indonesian Independence day, and the Dutch already had their Kings Day in April.  Then sometimes the Indian contingent on board (Cooks and Security), organize something as well when their day arrives but that does not always happen. Mainly because it is a much smaller group.

Tomorrow we are in Seward and we should have a glorious day.