Saturday, August 28, 2010
Victoria from sea...
On the bridge
When there is heavy traffic, bad weather, or coming into port, they have six on the bridge.
To change the course, it takes the approval of two officers and then final approval by the Master. At various points, they also have a pilot captain who comes aboard in an advisory position because s/he knows the area very well.
The navigation console
They do have a "ship's wheel" to manually move the ship but it's about the size of a car steering wheel. Apparently big ship's wheels are passe...
Bridge tour on the M.V. Infinity
After seeing our Master turn the ship 360 degrees in the narrow Tracy Arm fjord we were already impressed. The bridge tour was interesting -- the ship uses gas turbine engines, they have six navigation areas around the ship. There are even 'port holes' in the floors so the officers can look down to sea through the decks.
Leaving Skagway
Day 5 is at sea - travelling out of the Inside Passage to the west side of Haida Gwaii and then south to Vancouver Island.
Just down the street...
Arctic Brotherhood in Skagway
The Fraternal Order of the Arctic Brotherhood was organized by eleven men in February 1899 en route from Seattle to Skagway. They formed the Arctic Brotherhood to provide mutual assistance, friendship, and social interaction in the northern communities of Alaska and the Yukon.
Covered with driftwood, their building in Skagway is part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park reserve.
The actual White Pass Trail
Raining in White Pass
I saw bear tracks along the rail lines. Although the naturalist on the ship, Brent Nixon, had told us how to identify grizzly versus black bear tracks (grizzly claw marks are further from the foot print itself), I'm not sure what they were. Probably black bear. The bear was not in sight, however.
Crossing the Canadian border at Fraser, British Columbia
There's a train station and a customs building. That's it -- except for the beautiful scenery!
Captain William Moore Bridge -- where are the other supports?!
It was the first of its design in the USA, apparently. The side without the pylon rests on the rock which has a massive fault line in it.
Our guide said it has moved up to three feet to accommodate shifts in the rock face from time to time. They allow one commercial vehicle on the bridge at a time (alternating one way) and there is a speed limit of five miles per hour.
Enroute to Fraser, British Columbia
The terrain is incredible. These are the Sawtooth Mountains south of Fraser. If the mountains still have their teeth, they were above the last glacier to go through. If the mountains are rounded, the glacier ground the peaks away, depositing huge boulders in its wake, up to 100 miles away.
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