The end of seaso
n is definitely upon us. This morning when we crawled out of the warmth of our cabins to complete our turn on gangway farewell duty, we were greeted by lashing, freezing wind, howling so loud that the departing guests couldn’t hear us over the roar and the snap of the terminal tent (which, despite being permanently cemented to the ground, sound like it was about to fly away at any second). Our cruise director took one look at the situation and immediately lobbied (and thankfully won) to have us moved inside, where we were plyed with coffee and hot chocolate to keep us warm and awake until the shift was over.
Alaska’s brief season of warmth and sunshine appears to have vanished overnight. It’s still sunny out there, but if you step out into it you find that it’s still lashingly cold. And since the Puget sound is currently being buffeted by similar weather, I can imagine the next few days at sea may be…interesting.
Rather than staying in on one of the few chances we have to go out (though it was tempting to just fall flat back into bed), we took shelter in a local coffee shop that used to be a church. Sipping on mochas and writing home, and updating things that needed to be updated. I don’t normally take my computer ashore, but there are days when needs must.
Of course, when we got back to the ship, easy street is over and embark day starts. Seward embark day remains very odd, because unlike a normal turn around port it doesn’t really start until mid-afternoon. Because the majority of the guests coming on are on the train or bus down from Denali they don’t arrive until much later in the day; so the ship is pratically empty during the morning. Therefore, everything that would normally be done in the morning of an embark day ends up taking place in the afternoon – the passenger safety drill for example doesn’t start until after 7. So the day starts late (well, it does for those who don’t draw gangway farewell that morning), but once it starts, it doesn’t stop until you fall face first into bed at 11:30.