Days 4, 5 and 6 aboard the Regent Seven Seas Mariner (Alaska to Russia to Japan).
Yesterday was another sea day, there are a lot of those on this particular itinerary! We spent the day reading (I finished Lisa Unger's heart-thumping thriller Beautiful Lies. I couldn't put it down!), watching DVDs (we highly recommend the documentary Why We Fight) and working out in the fitness center.
We're still having trouble with the time change and the fact that we set the clock back one hour every night before going to bed isn't helping too much! Our goal is to sleep until at least 7:00 am tomorrow! We'll see what happens!
This morning we woke early and sat on our balcony for awhile. You would think we were sailing on a lake! The water was so placid and the breeze so gentle. It's not at all what I pictured when we first started thinking about cruising the Aleutian Islands.
At this point it was still dark out, so we went up to the Observation Lounge for breakfast. As the sun began to sneak up over the horizon, we were greeted by the majestic sight of the Aleutian Islands. As this chain of volcanoes rose out of the darkness, we were mesmerized!
Today was the day that we should have stopped at Dutch Harbor. Unfortunately, due to a problem with one of the ship's pods, we're not cruising at maximum speed. This means we have to pass this island by in order to make it to Petropavlovsk, Russia on time. It was such a shame because the day dawned to be just about perfect... crisp, clear and sunny skies. I'm told this is actually quite rare for the Aleutians this time of year.
As we watched steam rising from one of the volcanoes, we also spotted some whales! They seemed to be dancing around the ship... first leading us and then racing the Mariner. Just amazing!
We also saw a female peregrine falcon! In fact, this bird was a stowaway that perched on the deck and on several passenger's balcony railings! Staff anthropologist Terry Breen believes the bird either hitched a ride from Kodiak or flew to us from the Aleutian Islands. Not many people are lucky enough to see these falcons since the species was nearly wiped out by DDT. We felt blessed to see this lovely creature!
Later in the afternoon the pastry chefs went all out for a Viennese afternoon tea. Mmmm! This was probably the most impressive tea that was staged during our cruise. It's back to the gym for me!
The other highlight of the day was a showing of Destino, the "lost" movie that Salvador Dali and Walt Disney made together in 1946. Elias, the art director of the Park West Gallery hosted this event and led the discussion after the viewing of this 10-minute film.
Tomorrow is our last sea day before reaching Siberia. We'll be glad to get off the Mariner and stretch our legs on land for a bit! Tomorrow also marks another milestone: We'll cross the International Date Line! This means we'll actually skip a day. Today is Sunday, September 24 and tomorrow will be Tuesday, September 26. Freaky!
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