Saturday, September 9th - Boarding the Zuiderdam.

Knowing that we couldn't board the Zuiderdam until 1 p.m., we all had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, after which Monika, Lois, and I wandered down to Gastown to do some serious shopping. The sky was dark gray and a light drizzle was falling, so shopping was as good a way as any to spend a couple of spare hours.

Lois picked up some earrings style with a profile of a moose and shirts for her grandsons, I found a nice ball point pen made our of wood with a matching wooden case, and Monika found the obligatory sewing thimble with "Vancouver" on it, so we all ended up happy about the shopping. We also enjoyed a couple of stores that sold genuine, authentic handcrafts at genuine, extraordinarily high prices. The collection of carved wooden masks hanging on the wall of one such store varied quite spectacularly varied in form, color, and style. The store also had full-sized totem poles for sale and we joked about how our neighborhood "architectural control committee" (the folks who guard us from plastic pink flamingos) would react to having totem poles placed in our front yard.

Returning to the hotel around noon we retrieved our luggage and rolled it down to the cruise ship wharf, which was fortunately downhill all the way. Lois, Phyllis and Bill took another taxicab, but since it was only about 6 blocks and we had a head start on them, we all arrived at the dock at the same time. Considering that around 1800 folks were boarding our ship and another 1500-2000 people were boarding the Sapphire Princess right across from us, the embarkation process was remarkably fast and efficient.

Once onboard ship, we had a light buffet lunch in the Lido lounge, after which we unpacked for a while and then wandered around the ship checking out the library and other amenities until it was time for the obligatory lifeboat drill. As per the broadcast instructions, we grabbed our lifevests and headed out on deck. Following the directions to the staging area, we found lifeboat #12 and had our lifevests checked as role was called. That pretty much ended the excitement for the.

Our ship departed at 5:30 on the dot and we had dinner as it slipped underneath the Lion's Gate Bridge out into the sound. As the sun set, we turned north to start up the Inside Passage between the mainland and Vancouver Island. After dinner I sat on our verandah to read and watch the scenery slide by. As darkness fell the lights of the settlements along the shore gleamed like diamonds on a field of black velvet, a very pretty sight.

Our cabin, number 5130, was on the port (left) side of the ship, so I was watching the east coast of Vancouver Island, and I was astonished at how many settlements were on that shoreline. My memory of driving on Vancouver Island many years ago was that it was thinly settled and that the west coast in particular was so deserted that they set up emergency huts along the shore for shipwrecked sailors to take shelter in so that they would have a better chance of surviving. Clearly the east coast is a lot more populated than the west coast.

The Inland Passage is, of course, a very sheltered strip of water, but I was nevertheless surprised at how absolutely stable the Zuiderdam was as we glided along. Truly there was no motion at all, and that compared favorably not only to the somewhat rough transcontinental train ride we had just experienced but it was also smoother than the majority of airplane trips I had ever taken. It was just uncanny, because I could see the wake foaming by on the side, hear the splashing of the water and the low murmur of the diesels driving the ship, but there was no other sense of movement. Quite unusual. But it had at least one big advantage, namely that I could brace the camera on the railing and take time exposures of the sunset with no problem at all. It finally became too cold to sit on our small verandah and we retreated into the cabin for the night.