02 July 2008, Sitka.

My modified Sitka forecast turned out to be right. Overcast skies really meant glorious sunshine; and for the whole day. It was accompanied by hardly any wind so the guests really enjoyed a true Alaska high summer day. At least the guests of the Veendam and the Oosterdam enjoyed it; the locals were complaining about the warmth and were hoping for cooler weather.

Sometimes people really amaze me, especially in some of the Alaskan ports. When there are no ships, they complain that the economy needs improving, when there are ships they complain tourists are over running the town. When the weather is nice, they want rain for their water supply and when it rains they want a dry day as the customers are staying away from the shops. Go figure. The only one who had reason to complain yesterday was me. Sunshine and warm temperatures together with little wind can only mean one thing, Fog during the night. And yes in the afternoon, Mount Edgecumbe which had thus far been visible in all its snow topped majestic glory, slowly started to disappear into very low clouds and by the time we sailed an extensive fog bank had established itself about 5 miles from the anchorage area.

By 6 pm., we were in the thick of it. For fog we have standard protocols as I explained before. The chief officer augments the bridge team from 6pm. to midnight and then it is me from midnight until 6 am. etc etc. until the fog lifts. As it was formal night, I cancelled the Captains photo shoot and went to bed, only to be called just before midnight; with the wonderful words: It is still a small world out there. Indeed it was; visbility was no more than 150 feet as we barely could see the little mast on the bow. The fog horn was sounding its bi-minute message of “Here is the Veendam” and the bridge and the engine room teams were on heightened alert.

On the bridge, the work is divided as follows: The Officer of the Watch (OOW) does the navigation, e.g. “cons” the ship. The Assistant Officer “runs” the bridge. He/she answers telephones, keeps the logbooks, plots the ships course and checks out the alarms. One of the quartermasters steers the ship, we do not use the automatic pilot in the fog as it reacts too slow to emergency situations and the 2nd quartermaster maintains a sharp look-out. As we have an enclosed bridge, we open up a window, so we can also listen out at the same time. (We have listening microphones as well) The Captain sits behind his personal radar and just watches and keeps the overview. He will plot targets on his own radar and checks on a regular basis with the OOW if the same targets are also on his/her screen. The captain does not take over the watch nor does he gets involved with the normal watch operation.

There is a good reason for this. Example: The OOW decides to change course to avoid an echo, e.g. another ship. He advises the captain and initiates the course change. He monitors the radar to see if the target-to-avoid does not do anything while he is changing course and he gives orders to the quartermaster how to change course. While he is concentrated on doing this, he might miss one of the, maybe, multiple others targets on the screen and not see what they are doing and that is where the captain comes in. He maintains the overview of ALL that is going on and as he sits next to the engine control stand he can at once start maneuvering if something un-towards suddenly occurs. That is also the reason the engine room is on standby with the Sr. watch engineer behind the controls. If an emergency maneuver would be needed, then he can supply extra power at once (switch on an extra engine) or regulate the continued safe operation of the ECR in case a crash stop has to be made.

We sailed through a large fishing fleet during the night; we counted approx. 110 vessels, all just floating along, not a single one was moving. Once out of the fog it was a cloudless clear night with the Fairweather mountain range crystal clear off-set against an orange colored sky and beneath it the twinkling lights of a 100 fishing boats. I was tempted to make an announcement but thought the better of it as it was 1.30 in the morning.

However with the fog lifted, I could catch a few more hours sleep, as at 06.15 on the 3rd. of July we will be at the Ranger station of Yakutat Bay. The Oosterdam advised us that yesterday there was heavy ice in the upper bay with Hubbard being very active, so it will be ice-cube dodging in order to get all the way in. The weather forecast predicts rain…………..