9/2/2010
Since today is an all sailing day, and I earlier promised to share our Cruise West-provided map, here goes. You can click and enlarge this map and see that we started at Portland and sailed east towards Bonneville day 1. We spent the night anchored somewhere on the Columbia River, east of Portland. We pulled anchor the next morning and saw Multnomah Falls in the distance as the sun was just rising. Day 2 we went ashore at Bonneville Dam and visited it as well as Multnomah Falls.
Then we continued sailing east on the Columbia River. We sailed all night. In the morning, we docked at Umatilla, Oregon. That day, we took buses to Pendleton, OR (which is not on the map!). The boat sailed on while we were ashore and we met back up with Spirit of '98 at Burbank, WA. The name Burbank appears in a fold on the map, sorry! But it is near the right hand side here, by the brown tent. That puts it just past the intersection of the Columbia and Snake Rivers, on the Snake River.
We sailed all night again tonight up the Snake River and docked in the morning at Clarkston, WA. We could see Lewiston, ID across the river and the border. Today we took 2 jet boats all day (80 miles) down Hell's Canyon and back to Clarkston, WA. We set sail as soon as we were back aboard that evening and sailed west all night back to the Columbia River.
The next day we were docking in Richland, WA as the sun rose. You will have to go back to 2nd map posted above to find that. I'll wait. It is the section of the Columbia River to the North of the split where the Snake River joins the Columbia. Confused yet? OK... well then, go back up to the map directly above to find Walla Walla, WA which is where we rode on the buses and spent the day today off the boat. We rejoined Spirit of '98 back at Richland, WA and sailed at 10pm. This is the only opportunity we have had to wander ashore in a town where we were docked! We sailed all night again and all day the next day. We sailed into the night and at some point anchored between Portland and Rainer. Rainer, OR is where we docked the next day. People had the option here of busing to Astoria for an included tour or busing to Mt. St. Helens for an included tour. Both options included a boxed picnic lunch. We went to Mt. St. Helens. I'll let you find it on the map. No? Oh, it's not on the map! OK, if you cross the river at Rainer, OR into Washington and head up Interstate 5, you'll find it just off the map. We all reboarded the ship by about 6pm and set sail west. We sailed until about 8pm until we could see the Astoria Bridge and then we turned around and sailed back to Portland overnight. We docked there around sunrise for a morning disembarkation.
OK. My onboard map insertion is complete. I return you to the day-by-day reporting continued below... where we left off last night in Richland, WA on the North Fork of the Columbia River...
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| Sunrise over the Columbia River |
So, we set sail last night around 10pm and headed back towards the intersection of the Columbia and Snake Rivers in the dark again! We slept through until just before sunrise again! I have no idea how we are sleeping so soundly through all the docking bumps and thrusters. Every day we eat meals with people who tell us how bad it was the previous night and here we are sleeping on deck 1 right on top of the thrusters and sleeping right through it! Good for us anyway!
Today is an all sailing day after sailing all night! We got a half-hour later wakeup call and a half-hour later breakfast. We woke up just above the John Day Dam. We went through The Dalles right after lunch. Since it is all about the boat today here, I will list the Adventure Update listing of events. They set up tables in the lounge for an up to 75% discounted Cruise West logoed gifts sale. At 8:30am they showed a 30 minute documentary on “York” the slave of William Clark on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Clay and I worked on a Lewis & Clark map jigsaw puzzle during this. From about 10:15am until about noon, Captain Peter Kay gave a talk in the lounge and took questions. 12:30pm Lunch followed by Practical Knot-Tying. 4pm Team Trivia in the lounge. 5:30pm Social Hour and Quyana Presentation, Daily Recap and Today's Highlights. 6:30pm Dinner is served. Evening enrichment program by Don Popejoy in the lounge. This afternoon they have taken several groups on bridge tours.
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| Entering lock with Mt. Hood in the background |
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| one of thousands of wind farms |
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| Mt. Hood from the Columbia River |
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| More wind farms! |
We, of course, looked at scenery without commentary this time, since we cruised this our first full day aboard. They had a guessing contest on who could come closest to the amount of time from lock close to lock open at The Dalles lock. Neither Clay nor I entered. The winner will be announced during predinner Social Hour. Alison promises it is a “substantial” prize. Lunch was supposed to be topside but due to expected wind, they had it split instead between the lounge as a hamburger buffet and same food plus minestrone soup and chicken Parmesan in the dining room. The lounge was already crazy packed and hot and stuffy from the long Captain’s talk. We went with only a couple dozen others to the dining room. The people we sat with said that they had asked and been told Spirit of ’98 could only accommodate 96 passengers and that all cabins were full on this sailing, but that there were 2 singles and that Nancy and Alison were also taking a passenger cabin. So, the jury is still out on exactly how many passengers are onboard, other than that it is a full ship. At 12:30pm there was a practical knot-tying demonstration in the lounge while souvenir sales continue. At 5:30pm will be Social Hour & Quyana presentation. I guess we will have to go to the lounge again soon for that to find out what they do or say. (It was a sales pitch; live with Q&A, and also with a pre-recorded video.) Dinner is at 6:30pm again. We are just starting back through the last lock, Bonneville again. It is 4:45pm.
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| Mt. Hood and Indian fishing platform |
It has been a brilliantly sunny day today, even more beautiful and clear than our first day through here! Mt. Hood has been spectacularly visible. We continue right on sailing, I believe because we are supposed to be in Astoria tomorrow. We confirmed today that we will take the tour to Mt. St. Helens. So, after dinner, it just says evening enrichment program by Don Popejoy. I believe he said he would speak about the extraordinary life of Pomp. Pomp was the infant son of Sacajawea, the Indian woman who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition. It should be interesting if we can stay awake. Clay has napped for hours today, so I would hope he can make it, but I wouldn't bet on it! Time to go for now. More later. Man, I hate short cruises. It seems too much bother and fuss to me for so little reward. It is exhausting. We barely get settled in and tomorrow is the last day!
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| Indian fishing platforms |
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| Another Indian fishing platform |
I realize now that I have failed to write about the Indian fishing platforms. We have seen these all up and down both rivers but this is the first time we got good photos of them. Evidently, Lewis and Clark described these platforms in their journals. Not these same exact ones, of course, they have to build replacements from time to time. But, they are grandfathered in and passed down from one generation to the next. They are used for catching salmon.
I wanted to make a point here about how very casual Cruise West is. There is no changing required for dinner. Shorts, jeans and T-shirts are seen in abundance at every meal. Even pajama bottoms at breakfast. Anything evidently goes. It makes things very easy! Had we realized, we would have packed even lighter and better.
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| Beacon Rock, again but with afternoon sunlight |
We went to Social Hour and I had a $2 Thomas Kepner Root Beer brewed with honey in Portland, OR. It was very sweet and tasted of honey! Clay had a local Portland beer called Sessions and I think it was $3. We did stay up for Don's talk about Pomp, or Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau. It was interesting. Oh, the winner of the time guessing through The Dalles lock was Carole Beaulieu with a guess of 17 minutes, I think I have all of that right!
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| Multnomah Falls from the Columbia River |
Oh, last passenger count I heard from a bus driver was 92. So, I have heard from Cruise West employees or contractors that we are a full sailing at 92, 96 and 100. You can pick whichever one you like! That has raised the question of the number of staff/crew. They put out a list of them so, I can answer it. Crew of Captain through Asst. Eng, the number is 9. Guest Programs is 3. Deck Hands is 5. Guest Service Representatives, who wait tables and service our cabins is 6. Galley staff is 6. Bartender is 1. A total of people working on Spirit of '98 of 30.
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| Misty Falls - notice the bottom fall is only mist! |
