Nice to see faces I recognize from our North West passage. Ralph tell Brayden that Robin Aiello is on this trip.

First night there huge swells but since then it has been fine. Sunshine with little rain yesterday but did not rain on us during our excursion. This was a typical big cruise ship excursion with lots of bus time not the normal expedition experience. Robin saw our group heading for a bus and immediately jumped into action to get us on our own bus. Just two people who were not with us one was staff from the ship. So nice when staff understand our groups like to go on excursions together.

Highlight of the tour was the view of Hakodate from the mountain and also the soft cone ice cream. Amazingly no one selected the squid ice cream!!

So far the expedition staff seem to be pretty good. All came on stage with big personalities and been super friendly. They have four local Japanese guides sailing on the trip with us who will also accompany each zodiac group along with the expedition team member.

After our first briefing looks like we are going to see a bunch of volcanoes many active. I think that is quite exciting. We are right on the” ring of fire” Also a cyclone heading our way so we are keeping an eye on that. Right now blue sky, sun and just a very slight wave.

Do not expect us back online again after today until probably September 27th.