Vancouver to San Diego

We had the ‘good’ fortune to be leaving Vancouver on the same day that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were arriving, by floatplane, into Vancouver Harbour, a short distance along the shore from where we were boarding the MS Noordam. As well, there were two other cruise ships side-by-side in the harbour loading passengers on the same day. There were dire warnings of road closures, detours and delays for the downtown Vancouver area, so, we made sure to be there in good time. We arrived very early, but, there were still hordes of people. We joined the long lines streaming into Canada Place where we were herded into groups underneath the white fabric sails.

The crowd management was fairly efficient and we were processed through all the various checkpoints in a couple of hours and were able to board the ship. Our luggage (a lot) was delivered to our stateroom door within the hour. Our scheduled departure time was 1600 and we were underway on the dot. The last few days in Vancouver had been very autumn-like with rain and cooler temperatures, but, the sun had come out and a warm breeze was blowing to see us off. We had a wonderful view of Vancouver behind us with a clear view of Mt. Baker.

The next day we were welcomed to Astoria, Oregon USA by a Coast Guard armed escort which was a bit alarming, but, I suppose necessary these days.

Astoria is where the Columbia River exits into the Pacific Ocean and is famed for the difficulty of crossing its entry bar in bad weather. It was benign for our entry and no problem when everything is in your favour, but, you could see where horrific problems could develop in the wrong conditions with a narrow entry, a continuous strong river outflow of fresh water, a strong tidal flow, many fierce-looking rocks and shallow bars with very long, shallow waves breaking on them.

It was a lovely, sunny day and we took the opportunity for a long walk along the riverfront where were surprised to encounter a massive colony of California sea lions which had completely taken over a marina. Luckily, the marina was mostly empty of boats. It would be hard to find a place to put a boat with this crowd covering the docks!

The noise was unbelievable, but, their antics were a delight to watch. Eventually, a couple of marina workers came by and broke up the party, but, it was fun while it lasted. We also enjoyed quieter wildlife encounters like seeing this heron having a lunch break.

We pushed off to San Diego and had a sightseeing day there. There wasn’t much time to see anything in depth, but, we took a quick tour of the city on the hop-on, hop-off  transit to get a taste of what was on offer. The main reason for stopping was probably to provision the ship for the long Pacific crossing ahead. Next, we have five days at sea before we reach Hawaii.