Am back from my first cruise ship tour of Alaskas inside passage.

My internal compass and sense of direction seemed all out of whack
damn near the whole time. I know the cruiseship was headed North but
my sense of direction (internal compass) kept arguing that we were
heading south.

I want to blame it on the sun not rising the way I am used to.

sunsets seem to last for hours in Alaska.

Mostly I use a compass underwater these days in the keys and I never
thought to pack one for a trip to Alaska, If I ever do another inside
passage cruise I am bringing a Compass !

felt really disorienting to have my internal compass tell me we were
heading south when I knew we were heading north....

there were lots of side trips, kayak trips, float plane trips,
helicopter to glaciers etc etc. none of that stuff for me, I did not
really expect to go on any of the shore excursions and was caught
waayyyy off guard to see snorkelling offered.

Snorkelling in Alaska ??? My wife and I saw that and jumped at the
chance, it was great,
saw a humpbackwhale spout across the channel while we were in the
water, couldn't see that whale--just the spout. Star fish like the
sunflower star get really big, a couple feet across... also saw a
variety of starfish, fish, crabs, kelp and jellyfish. The area is
called a temperate rain forest (rains alot) and it was a little
overcast the day we went but vis was good,
the guides did a good job describing the sealife and pointing things
out.

here is snorkelalaskas site:

http://www.snorkelalaska.com/pages/725130/index.htm