I had some connectivity problems, so three posts in a row. This is number 3
When we pulled out of Seattle, the Puget Sound looked very nice with the sun shining and not much wind. A great view on departure. So I was getting worried, how long would it last. The ship was going the same way up North as it has come down, sailing around Vancouver Island. I was not disappointed or better said I was, as I had hoped to be wrong. The ship had barely entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca when the whistle started to blow again. As I had expected it, I had gone to bed early to catch at least a few hours of sleep. I did not envy the captain and staff captain at all, as the very low hanging clouds persisted for almost 24 hours. From Yesterday, Seattle day 1900 hrs. until today, nearly at the same time.
Luckily as the ship has to take this route, there is not that much to see when the clouds are high in the sky and the guests did not miss that much. The whales that can be seen here in abundance in spring and autumn are now in Alaskan waters eating their belly’s full and we will see them later. As it is the first day of the cruise, the guests are milling around in full force trying to figure out of how the ships lay out works and where everything is. As it is high summer we have a large amount of children on board (at least “large” for HAL standards) but the 4 Club Hal Team members keep them safely “locked up” inside Club HAL. Most parents are quite happy to drop the kids off in the morning and collect them again in the evening again. Sometimes they are being picked up for lunch, but normally after the first day little Johnny prefers to stay at Club HAL and far away from his parents.
As with every HAL ship, the Amsterdam is full of antiques and memorabilia from the Dutch Empire days and some recent items as well. We have on display a woven tapestry made by one of the members of the Cobra group, Karel Appel, which was very famous in the 1960’s. I still have not figured out what the tapestry is supposed to symbolize, but maybe that is the purpose of it.
ms Amsterdam forward staircase deck 9
What I have figured out is a display of gold colored fairy’s hanging in the staircase on deck 9 just outside my cabin. I knew I had seen that before, on another ship, somewhere in the past. Yesterday I read the name plate that goes with it and then it clicked into place. Nieuw Amsterdam 1938, far before my time, but I had seen it on photos in my collection. So time to check the files and yes there is was.
ss Nieuw Amsterdam II First Class Lobby
The Four Seasons by the Dutch artist Leo Brom had originally hung in the First Class Lobby of the Nieuw Amsterdam II and now re-surfaced here on the Amsterdam III. As I have never seen the Nieuw Amsterdam II in real life, I was 15 when she went for scrap; it was a nice moment to recognize a real life piece of this ship. There is still quite a bit of items from the ship around. A lot was taken off before she went to Taiwan. Some is located in the Maritime Museum, some in an art museum and some is in the hands of collectors. I have been told that some items are still for sale in Kaohsiung, near 40 years after the scrapping. I will have to do some digging to find out how this piece survived all those years and how it ended up on board this ship. Holland America does not maintain a depot for its ship art so it must have come from somewhere else.
The ms Amsterdam will continue to run up the West coast of Vancouver Island, then pass the Queen Charlotte Islands and then early tomorrow morning, enter Chatham Strait to pick up the pilot at Kake, where the Alaska Inside Passage starts. Tomorrow afternoon the ship will be in Tracy Arm, looking at Glaciers as the Amsterdam is not visiting Glacier Bay. I mentioned in a previous blog that in the old days Holland America was always in port alone. That is no longer the case, 3 to 4 ships is the norm but even in Tracy Arm, off the beaten path, we will not be by ourselves as somewhere inside we will meet the Norwegian Jewel.
The weather forecast calls for overcast skies and chilly northerly winds and that will mean that the chance for very low hanging clouds it not that great. So maybe we can put the ships whistle to bed for a few days.
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