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About eight days north of our homeport in Bellingham, on the British Columbia coastline is a secret cove called Bottleneck Inlet. The first time we entered Bottleneck, it was late in the day. We had to time our arrival for high tide so that we could safely pass over the 1 fathom shallow spot that’s located part way through the inlet.

The entrance to Bottleneck Inlet is tricky to find. As soon as we came into Finlayson Channel after cruising past the village of Klemtu, Jeffrey began watching the chart plotter to make sure we wouldn’t miss the entrance.

You can’t see it now, but the opening for Bottleneck is just up ahead, Jeffrey told everyone in the pilothouse as he steered the David B across the channel and towards what looked like a steep forested hillside.

We all strained to find the opening, but it was still invisible to our eyes. Jeffrey checked the chart again to make sure we were on course. As we neared the far side of the channel we began to see a small gap in the forest widen to become the entrance. It did not seem possible that it would open up enough for there to be a large anchorage just beyond what we could currently see. Jeffrey lined up the bow of the boat and made way for the entrance.

Everyone went up on deck to watch as the gap widened into a cut. Off the port and starboard sides of the boat the trees clung to the hillside that rose steeply from the water to a height of nearly 2000 feet. Where the trees came down to the water, their branches hung so low and even that it looked as if some gardener had come through with a hedge trimmer. It was a good sign that waves rarely came into the inlet and that our anchorage would be secure.

We continued into the inlet and easily passed over the one fathom mark with lots of water to spare under the keel. The cut opened into a spacious bowl with lots of room to anchor. As we motored through the inlet, curious seals started popping up around the boat. They watched us while Jeffrey circled around a spot he thought he liked. He took the boat out of gear, let it coast for a moment, then shifted in to reverse to bring the boat to a stop. When he was happy, he looked around and then over to Aaron who was waiting at the anchor.

One shot,he said to Aaron and suddenly the inlet echoed with the sound of anchor chain running quickly to the bottom. The sound stopped as suddenly as it started. Aaron, now finished with the anchor walked from the bow of the boat and then down into the engine room. In a moment there was silence.

With the anchor down we all gathered on deck to have a look around, the sweet upward spiral song of Swainsons Thrushes began to fill the air. It seemed like there must have been hundreds of them and every individual call echoed throughout the anchorage.

Later that night after dinner had been served and the galley was clean, I’d decided it was too nice to go to bed at my usual time and that I wanted to stay up late and listen to the birds on deck. Sean was also still up and we sat on deck together listening. It was 11:30 and the sun had just gone down. The air was cool, but it still felt good to be outside.

Do you hear that I asked.

Yeah, it’s an owl, Sean whispered. I think it’s over there, he said pointing to the hillside.

Yeah I think you’re right, I quietly said back to him. I can’t believe how lucky we are to be here.

Last week Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines welcomed their newest ship the, Oasis of the Seas to it’s homeport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While I usually don’t get wrapped up in the fanfare of the major cruise lines, I found this ship’s story to be a bit different. What got my attention is that it’s the world’s largest cruise ship and the complete polar opposite of what I enjoy about being on the water.

As I read about all the amenities on the Oasis of the Seas, I was struck by how much of the boat is a diversion to the natural world. To get their passengers in touch with nature the folks at RCCL have designed a garden with 12,000 plants and 56 trees called ‘Central Park’, I assume that there isn’t any natural beauty in the Caribbean otherwise they wouldn’t need have an over-sized garden. I hope they at least are growing herbs for their kitchens. Other on board distractions includes, a zip-line, mini golf, climbing walls, and a theme park.

‘Wow,’ I thought to myself as I read the Wikipedia description of the Oasis of the Seas. ‘There’s a lot you can do on that boat. How are we ever going to convince people to come with us? Is RCCL making our trips sound boring?’

Well, I know why people come with us. It’s because we don’t offer all those whiz-bang distractions. We go out into nature and we cruise around at about 6.5 knots. We take our time and we take in the real natural beauty of every place we visit.

The Oasis can cruise at about 22 knots whisking their record-setting 6,296 passengers and 2,165 crewmembers from port to port. When we cruise it’s not with a small city, it’s with 6 passengers and 2-3 crew. Since we carry so few people, passengers and crew become family and forge lifetime friendships. We don’t need mini-golf or theme parks to make a memorable cruise. We have good conversation, great food and real adventure in a natural setting.

I do have to admit that our main distraction is an exercise bike on the pilothouse roof. On our 7-day and 12-day cruises the bike is quite popular for anyone who’s over-indulged in homemade pastries and deserts. While I confess the Oasis’ on-board tattoo parlor is kind-of nifty, if the option of getting a tattoo while on your cruise vacation is the only thing holding you back from making a reservation with us, well then, let us know. We’ll be sure to help you find and consult with the right tattoo artist in one of our destination towns long before you set foot on the David B.

One evening this past summer Capt. Jeffrey and I were sitting around a campfire talking about out-of the-way places with some friends. They brought up how great it is that what we do on the David B is specialize in taking to people to out-of-the-way places. This is especially true of our trips in Canada’s Inside Passage and in Southeast Alaska. With so many islands, fjords, coves and bays to explore, why would anyone want to spend time on a massive ship with thousands of other people going from port-city to port-city exploring the same old tired trinket shops and over trampled tourist attractions? We wouldn’t. While our cruises depart from the busy towns of Juneau or Ketchikan, it is the out-of-the-way islands, coves and bays we visit that makes cruising on the David B so different.

One of our favorite out-of-the places is Gambier Bay on Admiralty Island. We often make a stop in Gambier on our 8-day cruises out of Juneau or Petersburg. The entrance to this remote bay is though a maze of small islands.

A couple years ago as we were cruising through this maze, one of our passengers Yvonne, was watching the shoreline through her binoculars. Suddenly she and pointed and turned to Jeffrey, ‘Hey, I think I see three bears on the beach!’ She had found a mother with a couple of cubs. Jeffrey slowed down the David B and we were able to watch them for a few moments before they ambled back into the forest.

Admiralty Island is a National Monument with over a million acres of old-growth forest. One thing that makes this island unique is that it is home to an estimated 1600 brown bears, the largest concentration of such bears in the world. The Tlingit people have always recognized Admiralty as a special place for bears and called the Island Kootznoowoo, which translates to ‘Fortress of the Bear’.

Another time when we were heading into Gambier Bay it was raining hard. Jeffrey tuned to me and asked, ‘Could you grab the binoculars and tell me what you see up there?’

‘Looks like breeching humpback whales!’ I confirmed for him with some excitement.

Turning back to the folks sitting around the galley table, I said, ‘Guess what! We’ve got whales up ahead.’

Everyone dropped what he or she was doing, tossed on some rain gear and ran out of the galley door.

As we neared the whales, Jeffrey slowed down and stopped the boat. No one else was around. The only sounds were of us whispering to one another, the whales feeding, and the tinkling of millions of raindrops splashing on the water’s surface. Together we stood on deck in our rain gear with our binoculars glued to our eyes. There were two whales, a mother and her calf. When they would dive, their backs would arch up to the sky and slowly they would lift their flukes (tails) into the air and then gracefully descend beneath the surface. Sometimes we would hear the water falling from their raised flukes as they dove.

When they fully disappeared, our eyes would linger at the ‘footprint’ left behind. Each one of us wondering, ‘Where will we see them next?’

It was hard to put the boat in gear and leave the whales.

Once we are inside Gambier Bay and the anchor is down, I always grab the spotting scope and start scanning for bears. You never know when a big brown bear will come down to the beach. As I’m cooking dinner, I’m always waiting to hear someone shout, ‘Look, over there!’

Being in Gambier and other out-of-the-way places like it are what Capt. Jeffrey and I love the most about operating the David B.

I was wasting time on Facebook this morning and an ad for one of the large cruise ship companies came up. I only caught a glimpse of the headline before I switched to another page, but the headline went something like We take more people to Alaska than any other company. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it started me thinking that what we do is the exact opposite. We take fewer people to Alaska than most any other cruise company. In fact we only have space for 18 people to cruise with us in Alaska during the 2010 season. That’s not a lot when compared to the 3000 or so people that Princess or Holland America put on their boats most every day.

So why would anyone want to come with us when we have so few spaces available and the spaces we do have are expensive when compared to a bargain basement cruise on one of the big ship companies? It comes down to the quality of your Alaskan experience.

For many people visiting Alaska is a once in a lifetime opportunity and if you want to really make the most of it you should make sure the company you are going with is one that focuses the quality of your experience, not the sheer number of people it carries year after year. Yes, we are more expensive, but what you get when you come with us is a unique cruise with individual attention.

Each morning Jeffrey checks the weather, the tides and the charts before we raise anchor. He also chats with passengers to see which ideas he has for each day really excited everyone before we head out. Every day I wake up at 5am to start to wood-fired cook stove in the galley and begin to make coffee, pastries, breads and all of your meals. Before your cruise I will have talked with you to make sure that I know what foods you like or if you have dietary restrictions so that when you arrive on the boat I have a customized menu made especially just for your cruise.

We feel strongly that carrying only a few people each trip does add to the quality of your experience. Over the time that we have been going to Alaska we have made friends with our passengers and enjoy hearing from them and keeping in contact. They have become part of the family and it is something we are very proud of and something that is very different from the big cruise ship companies.