— by Ed Sutton —

Un-Cruise Adventures brings small cruise ships to East Sound on Wednesdays through the Fall. Photo: Lin McNulty

Did anyone notice that a cruise ship was in East Sound on Wednesday afternoon? No, really!

It was anchored just off Indian Island. From a distance, it looked to be a paddle-wheel vessel like one might see on the Mississippi River.

So, it comes to be that a local cruise line “Un-Cruise Adventures,” moored at Fisherman’s Terminal in Seattle does, in fact, have a fleet of modest-sized cruise ships that travel to Alaska in the summer. And, this is the second year that the company is having cruises into the Salish Sea on Wednesdays during the Fall. The vessel in East Sound had left 60 passengers at Rosario earlier on Wednesday who then went to the top of Mt. Constitution, and returned to Eastsound in the later afternoon to rejoin the ship.

According to the Captain who was on-shore at the public dock near the Odd Fellows Hall, the company offers weekly trips in different areas of the northwest including up the Columbia River to the Canadian border. Each vessel has 30 staterooms and a dining room. The rear of the ship has twenty kayaks stored on racks which are available to the guests for forays onto the Salish Sea.

Un-Cruise Adventures’ fleet of eight vessels travel to such diverse area as Hawaii and the Galapogas Islands. Their tours tend to emphasize outdoor activities like kayaking and hiking.

The ships will return to East Sound on Wednesdays through October.

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