Arctic Circle

 

Crossing the Arctic Circle

We sailed north from Nome and at 8:10 AM crossing the Arctic Circle, about 8:30 we started heading east, and then turned south, leaving the circle a little after 9 AM. The wind was about 40 mph, the temperature was in the low 40’s so a very cold day. Mary woke up about 2 AM, I woke up at 4 AM and took a picture out our balcony door. Yes, it was light, but very cloudy, so not very impressive. We had a Arctic Circle crossing ceremony at 10 AM, where you could officially join the Blue Nose Club by diving into the aft pool which they filled with ice. Most everyone stayed in the pool for quite a while since it was 66 degrees, much warmer than the air outside.

Nome Alaska

 

Nome at 11:00 AM

I got up this morning to do a hike near the town of Nome. In 1898, gold was discovered here and the town grew to 10,000 people. Today, it only has 3700, but gold mining remains it’s primary economic driver. This is a tender port and the tenders started running at 8:15 in the morning. A few excursions made it to shore and then we were told that a tender had hit an unmarked dredging pipe at the mouth of the channel and was blocking the channel. They eventually towed the tender off the pipe, but then the fog rolled in. You could not even see the harbor from the ship, which made it unsafe to operate the tenders. At noon, they cancelled tender operations, but that left 14 crew members and 229 passengers in the town of Nome. The fog lifted about 2:30 PM, and we saw 3 tenders immediately leave for the harbor to ‘rescue’ the passengers. They had been well served snacks and well cared for in one of the churches waiting for the fog to clear. We caught a glimpse of the town, but within a hour the fog came in again. Two days later, they were doing some cosmetic repairs on the bottom of the tender. It was totally operational.

Rescue fleet for our Nome passengers at 2:30 PM

Dutch Harbor, Amaknak Island

From the fog to Dutch Harbor

 Since leaving College Fjord, we’ve sailed in foggy conditions until we reached Dutch Harbor, where the sun broke out and we were greeted by several sea otters in the water. The harbor is the top fishing port in the U.S. We walked 2 miles into town to visit the Museum of the Aleutian Islands. The winds were blowing and we could smell fish from the nearby canneries. It told the story of the native people and how they lived as well as the Harbor’s World War II story. The Japanese attacked the harbor on June 3^rd, 1942 to destroy the oil tanks here.  

Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor

On June 6 and 7, the Japanese attacked Kiska and Attu islands and occupied the islands. In August 1942, the U.S. established a naval base on Adak island and managed to block almost all the supply ships to the Japanese held islands. In May 1943, the U.S. retook Attu island and after bombing Kiska island, they found it deserted by the Japanese. Unfortunately, we moved most of the native population in this area to warehouses in the Juneau area. The roofs leaked, there was no heat, and the water was unreliable. Another terrible example of how we treat native Americans.

Cannery barracks 

On the way back, we encountered lots of bald eagles, feeding off the nearby waters as well as the leftovers from the canneries.

Eagles soring 

College Fjords

 

We entered the College Fjord with lots of fog around us at about 6 AM. I woke up about 7:30 and we were at the end of Fjord, staring at Harvard Glacier. (All the glaciers are named for U.S. colleges.) The blue ice burgs surrounded the ship.

Icebergs in the Fjord

Valdez

 

Coming into Valdez

Valdez is most well known as the end of the Alaskan Pipeline, which we could see across the Bay. The pipeline begins in Prudhoe Bay on the shore of the Arctic Ocean.  The pipeline is over 800 miles and crosses a major fault line. Because of the huge temperature variations, the pipe is designed to stretch and shrink without breaking. They also have radiators to disperse the heat from the oil in the pipeline without affecting the permafrost underneath the pipeline.

Horsetooth Falls

The town started thriving when the Richardson Highway was established connecting this ice-free port to Fairbanks, Alaska, providing a supply route to the interior of Alaska.  Since 1950 the highway has remained open in the winter. We did a bus tour along the highway. We stopped for two beautiful waterfalls: Horsetail Falls and Bridal Veil Falls in Keystone Canyon. Then we went over the pass to Worthington Glacier, one of the few accessible by road. This glacier has been retreating for the last 150 years. On the way back we stopped at Thompson Pass (elevation: 2600 feet) for a beautiful view of the Sawtooth Mountains.

Worthington Glacier

Icy Strait

Icy Strait was established as a cannery. Today, it attracts tourists to many outdoor activities. Our activity was to go whale watching. We first stopped to observe sea otters with their pups. 

Sea Otters and Pups

While searching for whales we came across sea lions playing in the sea. 

We continued the search for whales. Usually, you see them spouting in the distance and then approach closer, hoping to get there before their deep dive. After a deep dive, they will usually surface about 5-10 minutes later. But you need to estimate where they will surface.

Whale video

When we got back to shore, we walked into the shore facilities for the cannery museum and a beautiful eagle right above our heads. 

First sighting of a Bald Eagle

Sitka

 

Voyages of Vitus Bering

Sitka has been settled by the Tlingit clan for thousands of years. The name comes the native name meaning “people on the edge of Shee”, the name for this island. Catherine the Great of Russia chartered Vitus Bering to explore Kamchatka, the easternmost region of Siberia from 1733 to 1741. He discovered the Aleutian Islands and the coastal regions of Alaska.  In 1799, Alexander Baranov came to Sitka as head of the Russia America Company and created a settlement.  The Russians traded western goods with the Tlingit clan for “soft gold”, animal furs. He built a fortification and storage buildings, but the Tlingit noticed that the cannons of the fort were aimed at the Indian village, not the sea.  In June 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed the original settlement, killing many of the Russians. Baranov came back with soldiers in 1804. The natives had built their own fort and at first repulsed the Russians. After two days of bombardment from the ships and the chance destruction of their gun powder, the Tlingit deserted their fort. Sitka became the unofficial capital of Russia America. 

St. Michael's Cathedral

Today, you can see St. Michael’s Cathedral and the Bishop’s House as evidence of the presence of Russia.  Eventually, the fur trade declined, and Russia needed money to pay for the Crimean War. In, 1867, William Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State paid $7.2 million dollars to purchase the Alaska territory from Russia, approximately 2 cents per acre. 

Eagle Ceremonial Hat

We visited the Sheldon Jackson museum, filled with artifacts from throughout Alaska and were entertained by a dance troop that celebrated the history of Sitka.

Ketchikan, Alaska

 

We flew into Seattle on June 7^th and upon arrival had dinner with Dick and Char who live there and Carol, who is joining us on the cruise. We left the next afternoon from the port in sight of the Space Needle.

Richard, Char, Carol, John and Mary

Our lecture series on Alaska started with a history of gold in the territory. There were eight gold rushes from 1862 to 1887 in the Alaska/Yukon area. The Klondike gold strike of August, 1896, was the biggest strike. 24 million of gold was shipped to Seatle in 1897 causing people to rush to Alaska by sea to hike into Canada. Most had no experience with wilderness. To control the situation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police required a year’s worth of supplies (1500 pounds worth) to enter Canada. This meant that people had to walk up Chilkoot pass 30 to 40 times. In the Spring of 1898, 7000 homemade boats attempted to leave Lake Bennet down the Yukon. Of course, all the good claims were already taken. In 1899, there was a similar boom in Nome. Even today, many people try to make a living by finding gold.

The Routes to Dawson City

After two days of sailing through the inner passage along the British Columbian coast, we reached Ketchikan. I walked the short distance to Creek Street, the red-light district. During prohibition they made more money from liquor than prostitution. The town closed the houses in 1953 and today they are shops and restaurants.

Creek Street

In the afternoon, we went to the Lumber Jack show, a contest between Canada and the US. It was both fun and funny. It was amazing how quickly they could chop through the logs. Then we went out to Saxman Village to see the dancing in the Beaver Lodge and the totem poles outside the lodge.

Agadir, Morocco

 

Agadir is in the south of Morocco with a population of 346,000 at the foot of the Atlas mountains. It is quite a modern city since it had been destroyed by an earthquake in 1960. Andy took a tour of the city and its marketplaces.

The market place

Jim did a tour outside the city where he encountered this unique scene:

Goats in the trees

I took the ship’s shuttles to the hotels around the beach. The landmark of the city is the Kasbah which overlooks the city.

The Kasbah and beaches

This was one of our better cruises. We were really happy to travel with Andy and Jim. Jim had invited us to join him on a Oceania, a cruise line none of us had tried, because of its unique itinerary. How else will you see this much of Western Africa?  We had dinner together every night and never seemed to run out of conversation. So much better than traveling by ourselves, where we are dependent on meeting people. We really enjoyed the time together and we had a great time winning at trivia with Pam, Bart, Eileen, and Jim.

Arrecife, Canary Islands

Today, we docked on the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands are a territory of Spain. Originally named the Islands of the Dogs, because monk seals or sea dogs are abundant. There are seven islands. Lanzarote is the eastern most island only 90 miles from Morocco. It has a population of 180,000. The island is very dry and requires a desalination plant for its water. The island has over 300 volcanoes.

Timanfaya National Park

We went to Timanfaya Nation Park and saw the results of the volcanic eruption that last from 1730 to 1736. We started at the hot spot on top of one of the mountains. They did an amazing job of demonstrating how hot the ground is here. First, we touched the ground to find the soil was at a normal temperature. Then they dug a few feet into the ground and gave us a few pebbles, which were too hot to hold in your hand. Then we sent up a little higher and they threw some weeds into a stone pit and weeds caught fire. Finally, they poured some water down some holes they had dug into the ground and in about 20 seconds, the water exploded into a brief shower of water.

Then we travelled along a road through the park, almost like riding a roller coaster on our bus. Because the wheels of the bus are further back then a car, it felt like we would go over the edge of the road at every turn. First thing we saw was wild goats (a rare sight). We continued to multiple viewpoints of the numerous volcanoes. The road cut into the soil where a lava river had once flowed and then past a moonscape – the Sea of Tranquility.

Wild goats give us the glare

We went onto a local winery. We sampled a very dry white wine and very sweet one. The vines are grown in a depression protected by lava stones from the winds that blow here. The depression collects the rare rain falls beneath the plants. No irrigation is used.

Sheltered vineyard

Mindelo, São Vicente, Cape Verde

 

The 10 islands of Cape Verde were discovered by the Portuguese between 1460 and 1462. At the time, the islands were uninhabited, but the explorers colonized the islands. The first European settlement in Africa. Today, the total population is 600,000. The islands have a strategic position off the West Coast of Africa, important to the slave trade. Manufactured goods, rum and cloth traded for slaves, ivory, and gold. The islands became independent in 1975.

São Vicente was the last of the islands to be permanently settled, population 83,000, 80% of the population lives in Mindelo. The harbor was shaped by a volcano, part underwater, part above water. We arrived at a brand-new cruise terminal completed in 2025. Tourism and services represent 60% of the economy. Driving through town, we immediately noticed how much cleaner this city is than what we observed over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, the island was hit with its first hurricane last year. Some of the roads we were on suffered damage, especially the bridges over what were now dry creeks. This island is the driest of all the islands. Santo Antão is just northwest of here and receives all the rain. Most of the produce in the markets comes from Santo Antão.

Mato Ingles

We began our tour at the village of Mato Ingles (English woods), but the woods are pretty sparce. We hiked down the valley for about an hour. Dry rivers were very eroded from the occasional flood waters. We visited the largest agricultural area of the island irrigated from several wells. Then onto Praia Grande’ beach not suitable for swimming, but the waves pounding in were great for surfing. The beaches and sand dunes in this area are primarily brought in from the Sahara Desert. 

Beaches of São Vicente

We traveled on to Baja das Gatas where swimming was allowed in a lagoon formed by an old volcano. Here is where the islanders have their annual music festival with a heavy emphasis on reggae music. After lunch, we climbed to the top of Monte Verde, the highest point on São Vicente. Unfortunately, on the steep climb up the mountain, we blew an engine hose. Thankfully, we were in a caravan of 3 buses. So, we crowded on to the other two to complete the climb.

View from Monte Verde to the harbor

Cape Verde was our 113^th country and the last new country on this trip.

Dakar, Senegal

 

Senegal is the Western most country on the mainland of Africa. It has a population of 18 million and is one of the most stable countries on the continent of Africa. While French is the official language, Wolof is the most widely spoken. Unfortunately, it is a relatively poor country.

Gorée island 

Our tour was to Gorée island just off the port of Dakar. This island discovered in 1444 by Diaz and has been ruled by Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain over the years. The island is only 300 by 900 meters but it controls this part of the Atlantic Coast. Our first stop was the House of the Slaves. Built by the French in 1780, slaves were imprisoned here and lost their names, becoming just a number. Small rooms held about 15 slaves each. There was a special room for pregnant women, now symbolized with a large water bowl. To be shipped to the Americas, a slave had to weigh at least 60 kilograms. Many children just died here, long before they weighed 60 kilograms. Many women became mistresses of the soldiers, while here. A unique aspect of the island was that some of these mixed blood children became signares owned ships and property. The house was owned by one of these signares after slavery was abolished. We were lectured that only the U.S., Israel, and Brazil voted against the March 25^th, 2026, resolution that declared the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement as the gravest crime against humanity, calling for reparations and formal apologies from member states.

Room for pregnant slaves

We learned that the Baobab tree is considered a spirit tree – your ancestors visit these trees. They bear monkey fruit, their sap is used as glue, and the fibers of the tree can form a waterproof container. The leaves of the tree provide the flavoring for the local brand of couscous. We went on to see how sand painting was done using the glue from the Baobab. 

Baobob, a spirit tree

Then climbed the hill on the island for the views and the monument memorializing the Africans who were brutalized during the slave trade. The history museum of the island is in the former Fort. Here were exhibits about the slave trade. The fort also served as a prison for blacks opposing the French colonization in more recent times. 

How slaves were packed into the slave ships

Why did the slave trade get started? Sugar. Sugar started in India and Europeans were introduced to it during the crusades.  As the Ottomans took over the middle east, Europeans started looking for other places to grow sugar and used islands off the Arican coasts and slaves from Africa. Demand increased with the usage of coffee, tea, and coffee. Brazil and the Caribbean had the right climate for sugar, but the native populations  were susceptible to the diseases brought from the Old World. Thus the Atlantic Slave trade was opened up. Slaves from Africa were shipped to America. 40% to the Caribbean,  40% to Brazil, while only 4% went to the US.. Sugar was shipped to Europe, then iron, guns, and fabric to Africa. The biggest traders were the United Kingdom (3.3 million slaves) and Portugal (5.8 Million).  An interesting side note, by 1860 the US had over 50% of the slaves in the Americas. While trade had ended in the early 1800s, slaves in the US had more children and lived longer than those sent to the Caribbean or Brazil. 

Senegal became our 112^th country.

Banjul, The Gambia

 

The Gambia is an unusual country. It runs along the Gambia river and is surrounded by Senegal and the Atlantic Ocean. The national namesake river demarcates the elongated shape of the country, which has an area of 11,300 square kilometers (4,400 sq mi) and a population of 2,870,553.

Rushing to help with car on fire

The island of Banjul is its capital. I decided to take a 9-hour tour to explore the family and story of Roots by Alex Haley, since it was a UNESCO world heritage site. We had several encounters during the trip. First, we drove into the wrong port to reach our small boat. Then while waiting at a stop sign to turn on the main highway, we witnessed a 3-car crash. One of the cars flipped over onto its roof and smoke began pouring out. A crowd of people immediately ran toward the car to pull out the driver. One fellow had the presence of mind to get a fire extinguisher and began to cut down the fire, while others finally righted the car so it could be pulled off the highway as traffic backed up. We made our turn and then our fanbelt broke. Luckily, there was a bus ahead of us and we weren’t far from our boat. It came to pick us up and we finally boarded the boat.  

Our tour boat

We started our 3-hour boat trip to reach the village of Albreda on the other side of the Gambia river from our ship. Here we saw a replica of the flagpole which according to legend would offer freedom to any slave who touched it after escaping from the fort on Kunta Kinteh Island. (Of course, few slaves knew how to swim that far.) Here also is a statue commemorating the end of slavery.  

Freedom Flag Pole

We visited the slave museum here (underwhelming), though I learned that George Washington Carver’s family was enslaved from here. He later became the first black graduate of Iowa State University. He was known for encouraging crop rotation and his work on peanuts and sweet potatoes. Then we walked to the village of Juffureh, the birthplace of Kuna Kinte, the central figure of the Halley novel. Here we were supposed to meet the 10^th generation of that family but never did. We did here the story of the family. We enjoyed our lunch as we cruised around Kunta Kinteh island, home to the wreckage of the St. James Fort that protected where the slaves were held before transport. The fort also was used to stop slave runners from the Gambia river, after Britain abolished slavery. Then we had our 3-hour boat ride back to the ship. This time with waves splashing into our boat as we crossed the wide mouth of the river. Unfortunately, this was one of the most boring tours I’ve been on. Too much transportation time for just a few sights.

St. James Fort on Kunta Kinteh Isand

The Gambia was our 111^th country.

Sea Days on the Sirenia

 We had eleven sea days on this trip. What did we do? Of course we ate delicious meals. The food was top rate. We ate together almost every night. There was a lot of variety and always the option for a steak, salmon, and a souffle each night. 

Jim, Andy, John, and Mary

We had lectures from several speakers. The most interesting series was from Adam Tanner, who gave us our history lessons about the African countries, the slave trade, and cruise ships. Some people joined this cruise because he was a speaker here. Dorik Stow had a series about geology, especially about the oceans over time and the major events leading to the major extinction events in the earth’s history. I found his talk about the dinosaur extinction event to be especially enlightening they had been dying out for several hundred million years and either a volcano or a asteroid caused the final decline. Christopher Beckett  brought us general history topics, particularly interesting was the talks on the American Revolution from a British point of view, pointing out that our ‘taxation without representation’ from the British viewpoint was American helping with the huge debt that Britain had after the long war with the French including in America. The taxes were significantly less than Brittons were paying at the time.

Geology and the Oceans

We also played a lot of trivia. Jim and Andy are particularly good at trivia. We gained four other players on our team: Tim, Eileen, Bart, Pamela. Each had their expertise and as a team we took one of the first 3 places almost every time we played together, usually first or second. At the end of the trip, we came in first for the daily trivia. There were also lots of games: shuffle board, golf putting, etc.      

Pam, Bart, Eileen, Andy, Mary, John, Jim, and Tim

We also had a Equator Crossing ceremony. We crossed the equator after Sao Tome, but we only rain storm during the planned ceremony. So it was held on April 14th instead. 

We enjoyed almost all the entertainers. We had 5 shows from the production team and band. Almost all the guest entertainers were superb: violinist, singers, comic, and classical guitar. It was also nice to have the show people lead the games, we got to know them well. 

Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

 

Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) has a population of 30 million, primarily consisting of five ethnic groups, though it has over sixty groups with 78 languages. The country is 42% Islam and 40% Christian. The country gained independence from France on August 7, 1960. The leader of the independence movement ruled as President for the next 33 years. After a couple of civil wars, the country regained peace in 2011. The country has a strong economy primarily based on cocoa (40% of the world supply) and coffee (5^th largest in the world). The economy is the second fastest growing in Africa (7.1%).

Local group enjoying the forest preserve

Our excursion was to the Banco Forest Reserve, the first National Park in the country. Traffic was a nightmare in the city – we had a police escort to get us through faster. The Reserve forms one of the borders of the city. It is the second largest urban park in the world. It has both native plants and many plants brought in from elsewhere, especially in its arboretum. We entered through a thick forest of bamboo just wide enough for our bus to travel. Cars going the other way often had to park with their wheels in the ditch in the few wide spots of the road for us to pass. (Our police escort helped!) The park provides about 40% of Abidjan’s water. 

Azize explaining the uses for a tree

Our guide, Azize was born and raised in the village at the center of the park. He explained the medicines that were derived from the various trees or leaves. We walked a little over 5 kilometers mostly stopping to see various tree species, and a few butterflies. We could hear birds on occasion but never saw one. The park is home to the Forestry school where students spend six months to become rangers in the park system. The most interesting part of the hike was when we saw huge catfish in the river running through the park.

Côte d'Ivoire was our 110^th country.

Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana

 

Ghana was formerly known as the Gold Coast and was colonized by the British. The population is 32.1 million people. Most of the nation speaks English and is Christian, but they drive on the right side of the road to avoid confusion with their neighboring countries. Most of the land is owned by the chiefs and their families (tribes). The hierarchy is great chiefs, chiefs, elders, and the general population. While there is a national parliament and government, people most closely relate to their family. In fact, you can ask to stay with anyone in the family, sharing shelter, food, and money. If you get married traditionally that is a marriage between families, not just individuals. The majority of who live in Cape Coast are Fante.

 

Along the road to Cape Coast

We bussed for a little over two hours to go 38 miles from our dock in Ghana to the Cape Coast Castle. We encountered lots of speed bumps on this major two-lane road. Anytime we entered a village, there were speed bumps to control how fast we traveled, because of course there were lots of shops and people next to the road. This road was in the process of being expanded to four lanes, so many of the structures along the road were marked with X’s to indicate this building would be demolished. The people living there were compensated but imagine that they no longer would have the presence of a major road right in front of their building.

Cape Coast Castle

The Cape Coast Castle was built by the Swedes, it was subsequently used by the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English. This was one of 30-40 castles built along the Gold Coast.  Slaves were marched here from all along the coast or from the interior of West Africa. The slaves were auctioned to various ships in the main courtyard and then the males were separated from the females, and each were ‘stored’ in the dungeons. The dungeons were underneath where the church was. Up to 150 slaves were in each room. We noticed a small trench where they peed and a larger trench for defection. The dungeons were quite dark and very hot and humid. We toured both the male and female dungeons and then walked through the ‘door of no return’ which led to the ships. Today, the beach is covered with fishing boats flying various flags.

Fishing boats outside the Door of No Return

Of course, females of nearby villages became ‘wenches’ for the white soldiers and officers. Many mulatto children were born in the castle, and a school system was started for their education. I’ve been reading “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi and the story revolves around this castle, and the family that starts when the Captain of the castle takes a woman as his wench. One branch of the family continues to live in Ghana while the other branch is shipped to America. Both sides of the family struggle with their blackness in a white man’s world. An interesting read while we were visiting.

The Dungeon in Elmina Castle

We then proceeded to Elmina Castle, built by the Portuguese in 1482. This was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea, concentrating on shipping gold and other goods out of Africa. Later it became involved in the slave trade and used by the Dutch, and the British.    

Ghana was our 109^th country.

Cotonou, Benin

 

Amazon Warrior

The kingdom of Dahomey existed for 300 years until the French colonized this area in 1878. The Amazon statue represents the bravery of women warriors of that age. Benin gained its independence on August 1^st, 1960. Cotonou is the largest city in Benin. As we entered the city, there was construction everywhere: new buildings and new highways. The president of the last 10 years has focused on investing in the country. Agriculture is the largest sector of the economy: pineapple, cotton, and cashews. But they are trying to broaden the economy to manufacturing, services, and tourism.

Voodoo God of Fertility

We drove to Ouidah, the center of the Vodún (Voodoo) philosophy/religion. Vodún teaches of a single divine creator being with many spirits who govern different aspect of nature and society. We started at the Sacred Forest to see representations of these spirits. gods, the temple of the earth. 

John at the Python Temple

We went on to the Python Temple (opposite from the Catholic Church). The python is a sacred animal here. Inside is where parents learn the name of their newborn from their ancestors. At 3 months the baby is scarred on the face with the fang symbols of the python. This tells everyone that they are from Ouidah. Then the villagers danced the Sakpata traditional dance for us.

Five forts were built here by Denmark, Portugal, France, England, and Holland to gather slaves from the interior and hold them until the Slave ships came. They were fed two meals a month to see if they could survive the three-month trip to the Americas. Thirty percent would die on the passage chained together lying in the ship. The Gate of No Return commemorates their final departure.

Gate of No Return Memorial

While we were learning about voodoo, Tim was exploring Ganvie lying in Lake Nokoué on Stilts. The Tofinu people live on the lake in wooden houses on stilts. They sell fish raised on small fish farms or fish they catch on the open water. There is a hospital, school, and government buildings. Produce and other items are brought in from the 'outside' by vendors in small boats.

Fishing Village of Ganvie