We have gotten onto one of our few passages of real open sea, and the squall is making the boat feel like, well, a boat. That’s quite nice. The weather is still holding, although it’s clouding over, there’s a storm a-comin’, and the forecast promises a 100% chance of rain for tomorrow’s visit of Ketchikan. Earlier, it was nothing but beautiful. We woke up to a lovely British Columbia coastline scenery: steep conifer-covered hills, snowy mountains on the background. After breakfast, I had a lovely exercises. First, five miles on the ship’s one-tenth-mile jogging track (yes, that’s right: fifty laps) very high up on the forward deck. It was sunny and warm enough to run in shorts, although all the people who walked wisely had bundled up in down jackets. I managed to see some killer whales on the starboard side while running. Then I ran another couple of miles to test the gym’s treadmills. That wasn’t so boring, either, because the view is gorgeous. And now there are those big waves.

Tonight is our first formal evening, and I have just ironed my tux shirt. I like the sort of living where you dress for dinner. Stay tuned for further accounts.

(The next day)

So the formal evening was snazzy enough. Photos to be posted later; the boat’s satellite connection doesn’t work right now at all — too much cloud cover — and the internet cafe in Ketchikan I’m writing this from has a pretty slow connection.