Vancouver, B.C., CA and Transit the Seymour Narrows 

Vancouver is a city blessed with unparalleled natural beauty. Surrounded by mountains and water, the cityscape is a stunning juxtaposition of modern architecture against a backdrop of majestic peaks and the Pacific Ocean. Stanley Park, an urban oasis, offers a haven of lush forests, seawalls, and beaches, providing a perfect escape into nature without leaving the city. From skiing and snowboarding in the nearby mountains during the winter to hiking, biking, and kayaking in the warmer months, outdoor enthusiasts will find a paradise here. Grouse Mountain, a short drive from downtown, transforms into a winter wonderland, and the extensive network of trails in and around the city provides endless opportunities for exploration. Vancouver's multicultural population has resulted in a rich tapestry of cultures and cuisines. The city's diverse neighborhoods showcase a vibrant mix of art, music, and culinary experiences. Food lovers can indulge in a world of flavors, from Asian street food to Pacific Northwest seafood, making Vancouver a true epicenter of cultural fusion and gastronomic delights.

The Seymour Narrows is a 3-mile/5 km stretch of the Discovery Channel north of Vancouver Island, British Columbia that is notorious for the strength of the tidal currents flowing through it. The average width of the narrows is just 750 meters. During extreme tides, the current through the narrows is subject to severe Venturi effect, resulting in an increased velocity that can reach 15 knots. For much of its modern history, there was an additional hazard in the narrows called Ripple Rock, a shallow obstruction that claimed no fewer than 119 ships and 114 lives. In 1958, after months of tunneling and preparation, Ripple Rock was blown up in the largest commercial, non-nuclear explosion ever recorded in North America. Still, the navigation of Seymour Narrows is dependent on tidal and other conditions, and requires skill and technical accomplishment. 

Ketchikan, Alaska. Transit Snow Pass & Decision Passage 

Ketchikan is a picturesque coastal town with a colorful frontier history, standing at the southern entrance to Alaska's famed Inside Passage. It began as a salmon cannery in 1885, built by company employee Mike Martin at the mouth of Ketchikan Creek. Once dubbed the 'Canned Salmon Capital of the World,’ today government, commercial fishing, and tourism are its main industries. The renowned Creek Street, perched on stilts along the mouth of the creek, would bring lasting infamy to the area for the red-light district that burgeoned there during the Gold Rush.

In the passage between Sumner Strait and Clarence Strait in Southeast Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago, midway between Price of Wales Island on the west and Zarembo Island on the east, is a small cluster of islands with a picturesque passageway between them called Snow Pass. It makes a scenic up-close route for your Seabourn ship during the transit. 

Decision Passage is the western end of the Sumner Strait, which runs through the Alexander Archipelago into the Pacific Ocean in Southeastern Alaska, bounded on the north by Kuiu Island and Cape Decision, the location of a 1932 lighthouse. This is the route your ship takes when coming from or going to the colorful historic community of Sitka on the west coast of Baranof Island, which was originally the Russian fortress town of New Archangel. 

Cruising Yakutat Bay and Hubbard Glacier 

Yakutat Bay is 18 miles wide at its entry, and cuts from the Gulf of Alaska into Disenchantment Bay, the entryway to the huge Hubbard Glacier, North America’s largest tidewater glacier. As the bay narrows and the shorelines draw closer, the 400-foot face of the glacier exerts a luminous, ghostly presence, often from as much as 30 miles away. More and more floating ice dimples the surface of the water, and seals bob up and disappear again. The chilled air from the glacier flows in a downdraft of cold that gives rise to mists and gray clouds, through which the vivid blue of the ice wall shimmers. It is an impressive sight of nature’s immense raw workplace, shaping the earth itself as part of an endless cycle of water from the sea evaporating to the sky, falling as snow on the heights and inching over centuries back again to the sea.

Haines, Alaska and Cruising Lynn Canal 

Tucked in along the shores of the longest fjord in North America and surrounded by breathtaking scenery, Haines is an authentic Alaskan experience. It is an eclectic community and a truly hidden gem. Its rich culture shines brightly during the annual state fair that draws people from all over Alaska. Haines is home to the largest concentration of bald eagles on earth, and grizzly bears gorge themselves on spawning salmon in its rivers. It was originally named Dteshuh, which means 'end of the trail' in the language of the Chilkat natives, who used to portage across the peninsula to Chilkat Inlet as a shortcut to their trade route to the interior.

Lynn Canal is a 90-mile long inlet into Alaska’s coast running from the Chilkat River in the north to the Chatham Strait and Stephens Passage in the south. Because it connects the towns of Skagway and Haines to Juneau and the rest of the Inside Passage, it is an important shipping lane for ferries, cargo and cruise ships, and was a crucial passageway to the Klondike gold fields during the Gold Rush. It was discovered by Joseph Whidbey in 1794 and named by George Vancouver after his birthplace, King’s Lynn in Norfolk, England. More than 2,000 feet in depth, it is one of the deepest and longest fjords in the world, and the deepest in North America outside Greenland.

Tracy Arm or Endicott Arm and Cruising Stephens Passage 

A short distance south from Alaska's capital of Juneau, where Holkham Bay cuts into the coastline under a dramatic back-drop of high snow-capped peaks and the verdant Tongass National Forest, lies the entrance to Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness.

One of the straightest stretches of the Inside Passage is the Stephens Passage just south of Juneau, a 105-mile channel between 5,000-foot peaks that cuts through the Alexander Archipelago between Admiralty Island on the west and the mainland and Douglas Island on the east. It is a good place to be on deck, because Admiralty boasts more bears than people, and the spruce and hemlock forests come right down to the water. The Passage is generally considered some of the best whale-watching water in Alaska, and also holds plentiful populations of huge Steller sea lions, as well as flocks of gulls and guillemots that clatter aloft as the ship passes. The passage was named by George Vancouver in 1794 after being charted by Joseph Whidbey.

Rudyerd Bay (Misty Fjords) and Cruising Behm Canal

Scottish-American naturalist John Muir compared the 2,294,343-acre (930,000 hectare) Misty Fjords National Monument to his favorite place in America, Yosemite National Park. Often shrouded in mist, Misty Fjords is a true wilderness.

Misty Fjords National Monument is a section of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska’s extreme southeastern Panhandle region. The monument consists of over two million acres of deeply cut fjords cradled in U-shaped valleys between mountain ranges rising 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level. The fjords themselves extend as much as 1,000 feet below the surface. These granite ranges are covered with virgin forest, and most of the monument is also a dedicated wilderness area. Misty Fjords inspired the explorer John Muir to proclaim them among the most beautiful places he had ever seen. Your ship will cruise among these spectacular forests, waterfalls and mountains. The onboard Ventures by Seabourn team will offer optional excursions including kayaking the fjords and a short sightseeing floatplane flight.  

Cruising Grenville Channel, Whale Channel, and Royal Channel 

Grenville Channel is a long, well-protected channel along the northern British Columbia coast between the large Pitt Island and the mainland. It is an important shipping lane, and you are likely to see ships of many different types and sizes as you pass through. The shores are mountainous on both sides, with two notable peaks about halfway through, Mt. Batchellor on the east side and Mt. Saunders on Pitt Island to the west. There are a number of Indian Reserves and Marine Parks in the mountains and narrow waterways off the channel. 

Whale Channel is a picturesque waterway separating Gil Island from Princess Royal Island in British Columbia’s Inside Passage. Surrounded by snow-capped mountain ranges and teeming with marine life, It is a diversion from the main shipping lane, located roughly halfway between Prince Rupert and the First Nations village of Klemtu.

The Princess Royal Channel separates the largest island along British Columbia’s coast from the mainland. It is located roughly halfway between Bella Bella in the south and Prince Rupert in the north, in one of the province’s most remote areas. Princess Royal island was named in 1788 by Captain Charles Duncan, in honor of his ship, the Princess Royal. The island is uninhabited, although there are two small villages in the channel, the First Nations community of Klemtu on Swindle Island and Hartley Bay on the mainland. Wildlife, by contrast, is plentiful, including Kermode, black and grizzly bears, deer, wolves and foxes. Golden and bald eagles nest in the region, as well as the endangered marbled murrelet. In the waters, there are abundant salmon, elephant seals, whales, orcas and dolphins. 

Vancouver, B.C., CA

Vancouver is a city blessed with unparalleled natural beauty. Surrounded by mountains and water, the cityscape is a stunning juxtaposition of modern architecture against a backdrop of majestic peaks and the Pacific Ocean. Stanley Park, an urban oasis, offers a haven of lush forests, seawalls, and beaches, providing a perfect escape into nature without leaving the city. From skiing and snowboarding in the nearby mountains during the winter to hiking, biking, and kayaking in the warmer months, outdoor enthusiasts will find a paradise here. Grouse Mountain, a short drive from downtown, transforms into a winter wonderland, and the extensive network of trails in and around the city provides endless opportunities for exploration. Vancouver's multicultural population has resulted in a rich tapestry of cultures and cuisines. The city's diverse neighborhoods showcase a vibrant mix of art, music, and culinary experiences. Food lovers can indulge in a world of flavors, from Asian street food to Pacific Northwest seafood, making Vancouver a true epicenter of cultural fusion and gastronomic delights.