09 July 2008, Ketchikan.

Today we had a very elaborate “dance of the cruise ships” in Ketchikan, as there were more ships than normal. Through the week I had already received docking schedules, revised schedules and revised revised schedules about this day, although it did not affect the Veendam as such.

Everything was more or less caused by the Dawn Princess which was on a 10 day schedule from San Francisco. Thus she is never in port on the same day. This time the cycle resulted in the ship being in on a Wednesday, causing a revision in the arrival schedule of all the ships regularly calling. Apart from that she came in late due to bad weather on the way up from San Francisco. I saw the weather charts and they must have had very bad weather with strong winds and high seas. So she docked late and that affected the arrival/docking times of the other cruise ships. It also meant that the Millennium had to go to anchor until a docking space would come free.

By the time we arrived, the Coral Princess was on four, the Celebrity Infinity on three, the Amsterdam on two (our assigned dock) and the Dawn Princess at one, with the Millennium on the northern anchorage, destined to go to three as soon as the Infinity had left. A full house for Ketchikan with a total of close to 12000 guests ashore that morning and that is without counting the crew. The locals call it the “dance of the cruise ships” and it starts close to 1 pm. with the arrival of the Veendam, as we take the place of the Amsterdam. Thus I am in position off the dock about 15 minutes before the Amsterdam leaves so there is no time lost with coming in. Amsterdam and Infinity leave at the same time, both in a hurry to get to Victoria, and I try to match the speed of the Infinity when she leaves while moving forward towards the dock. From shore it just looks like as if there is slow procession of ships moving through. Two moving away from the dock, one moving in. A blue hull, a white hull and then a blue hull again.

This time there was an addition to “the dance” with the Millennium being at anchor and also moving to the dock once her sister ship the Infinity had moved away. Thus while I was waiting for the two ships to move, the Millennium raised anchor and lined up behind me for docking. The moment I moved forward, the Millennium moved as well and in a sort of synchronized maneuver we came both alongside our respective docks at the same time. I could not break my docking record from last cruise, the Infinity left the dock too slow this time, but still we had the gangway out 10 minutes ahead of schedule and at once the ship emptied itself out.

In the course of the afternoon all the other ships left and by 5 pm. we were all by ourselves and that gave the Veendam guests the freedom of the town and all the shops to themselves. It was a real Ketchikan day today as far as the weather was concerned, with rain and drizzle all day long. However all the tours were going and the guests who came back were all raving as there had been an abundance of wildlife present at the tour spots. Looking at the bags being carried up the gangway, the shops had been doing quite good as well. Just before departure we witnessed some local kid going into the water, pushed from the dock in a wheelbarrow. You see a lot of things floating by in Ketchikan but seldom a human in a wheelbarrow, so it was interesting to follow. The kid swam back to the shore and must have gotten his fathers motorboat as five minutes later a boat came speeding out of the Ketchikan marina to retrieve the wheelbarrow, which being made of plastic, was happily drifting away on the current. This was a good one for the ships logbook. Quote” observed wheelbarrow drifting by with human inside. Both safely retrieved by local help” Unquote.

Tomorrow is our last sea day of the cruise. The forecast is wind around Vancouver Island and that should blow the rain away.