11 September 2013; Juneau, Alaska.

Due to the distance between Ketchikan and Juneau and the fact that we have a late evening stay, we arrive in Juneau at the decent time of 10am. As there were no low hanging clouds last night I could catch a decent night’s sleep and was ready for an approach by 07.30 hrs. The pilot had once again managed to find his way to Juneau so all was well in the world. The weather forecast had promised a dry day but I was not convinced in the beginning as it looked a bit gloomy and it had rained during the early morning. Wisps of clouds were hanging halfway up the mountains and that was not good either as then the tour flights cannot go.

But things improved when we came closer and by the time we docked, I saw the first patches of the forward observation deck drying up and that meant we would be in business for the day. A cruise ship is so warm that if it is dry for just a little while, then the wooden decks start to dry out, regardless of how much water has fallen before. As the wooden deck is not flat, due to the fact that it is made up from teak wood planks, it does not dry everywhere at the same time. The layer of water is at some places just a bit more than at others. Still we know that as soon as the first dry patches appear we are on the right track as the moisture in the air is not enough anymore to win the battle against the drying up process.

Today the two largest cruise company’s in Alaska dominated the sky line, with 3 princess ships and two hal ships in the port. Golden, Regal and Island Princess and the Ooster and Statendam. With the docks being full, the Grand Princess had to go to the anchorage. That meant that this morning I had to wriggle my way in. First past the ship at anchor and then squeezing into the corner, right behind the Oosterdam. It made for an interesting show for the guests, to sail by with a white wall on the portside and a blue wall on the sb side. It was wind still on arrival and so I could let the Statendam glide in with minimum fuss. A little push on the bow thrusters, a little bit on the stern thruster and braking on time with the main engines was all it took to park the ship in our little corner. The Grand Princess had to stop her tender service for about 10 minutes as the tender platform is located right under our bow at the beginning of the Alaska Steamship dock.

The Statendam bow looming over the ramp that leads to the tender float.

Continuing the tender service when another ship is docking is not a wise thing to do, as you do not want to get the tenders in the wash of the bow thrusters. A kick on the thrusters creates quite quickly a water flow of about 2,000 horse power and that can have a very startling effect on the movement of the tenders.
I had that experience once a long time ago in Ketchikan, when I was maneuvering the old Rotterdam off the dock. Unbeknown to us a number of kayakers had sought shelter under the wooden dock, totally against the rules and regulations and nobody knew they were there, as you could not see them from above. Coming off the dock, I gave the bow a nice push to port causing a strong bow thruster wash to go under the dock. To the big surprise of all of us on the bridge and also all on the dock, suddenly these kayakers came scooting from under the dock and were involuntary propelled straight into the Marina. The police on the dock were not happy either and called in the Kayak Leader for a stern talking to. (By the way, it does not make sense when you are in Ketchikan, to shelter from the rain, as it always rains in Ketchikan. You might be waiting for 14 days that way.) Since then the dock has been remodeled and it is not so easy anymore to get under it with a canoe or a kayak.

The crew is getting quite excited about Juneau now. We will be one of the last ships leaving and that means that we can get at the bargain sales of the last week. Juneau has an inventory tax that is applied in the month of December and that means that it is much cheaper for a lot of shops to flog most of their inventory at the end of the season, instead of keeping it until next summer. Last year we saw a few Indonesian crew coming back with thick winter clothing picked up in the 75% discount range. They must have been expecting a cold winter in Indonesia. Unfortunately the things I am interested in; the beautiful dolphin sculptures in one of the gallery’s never go on discount, so I just keep on dreaming.

Tomorrow we are in Juneau and all the ships of today expect the Oosterdam will be there. We are the 3rd in the pecking order and will have our first line ashore at 06.00 hrs. with a departure today in Juneau of 22.00 hrs. so it will be a short night tonight.