12 September 2013; Skagway, Alaska.

The company is moving servers at the moment so this post fell out yesterday.

Sometimes you would just want to make an announcement at 05.00 in the morning, if it is a beautiful Alaska day. Especially if it is a perfect Skagway day. As number three of the convoy we arrived at the top of the Lynn Canal at 05.30 This was the moment that the nautical twilight started. The moment that it is still dark but when you can already see the horizon and the contours of the mountains without the need of moonlight. The lights of Skagway were shining brightly up the valley and in front of it there were the two Princess ships maneuvering to go alongside the Skagway Railroad dock. It was simply, very very nice.

With the two Princess ships moving out of the way, we could let the Statendam slide forward and right on the moment of 06.00 hrs. we passed our first mooring line to the dock. As soon as we were safely alongside, the last Princess ship came in and parked itself at the Ore-dock. That is on our portside and it is extending more into the Lynn Canal. Ships at that berth always dock last as it is very difficult for another ship to get by, if it has to go to the Broadway dock and the Ore dock is already occupied. As already mentioned in previous blogs, the docking order is arranged in advance and it is done by the ships agent, as a neutral party. That works the best for everybody and there is very little moaning about it from the ships.

When we are alongside, the ship is held to the dock by ropes or steel wires. In the past steel wires were more common as the ropes were not that strong in comparison with the strength needed due to the increase in the size of the ships. Nowadays we hardly use them anymore. There are now synthetic ropes made of materials such as Kevlar and Marlin that are stronger than steel, easier to handle and they float while being pulled ashore.

The headlines are on bollard 13, the breast lines on 12 and the spring lines on 9
A sailor deals with three sorts of mooring ropes. Well, the rope & hemp material is the same for all of them, we just call them different. There are the lines: Headlines or Stern lines. These lead forward or aft. Then there are the Breast lines, they lead sideways and then there are the Spring lines. They lead aft from forward and forward from aft.

The number of lines that we give out depends on the size of the ship and on the expected weather.
An S-class ship such as the Statendam pays out 12 lines normally. Four headlines (sometimes split up in two real headlines and two breast lines) and then two spring lines. 6 lines or mooring ropes at the bow of the ship and 6 at the stern of the ship. That is normally sufficient to keep a ship alongside during normal weather. During the day the ropes are then adjusted for the tides that push the ship up or down alongside the pier. Then if there is wind expected or strong current along the dock we might decide to pay out extra lines. Just as a little bit of insurance for the case something happens that is not in the forecast or the planning.

Sometimes you can only set short stern lines due to the bollards available.

I review this for every port and then during the pre-arrival meeting I advise the officers that go fore and aft to supervise the sailors with the ropes, how many lines I want to have put ashore. Paying out the lines we call that. For Skagway the issue is wind. Normally in the afternoon the funnel wind picks up from the south and can easily be wind force 6 or 7, sometimes 8. That can push the ship forward and that is not good for the gangway, (which will then move as well) and not good for the ship as we do not have that much room to go forward. The end of the basin is fairly close. So today the order was to pay out an extra forward spring and an extra stern line and thus we docked with 4+3 forward and 5+2 aft.

We had very little wind to day so the extra ropes did not come into play but it is always wise to err on the safe side. According to schedule we left as the last ship and followed the Princess Convoy down south again. Tomorrow we will be in Glacier Bay and we will share the day with the Carnival Miracle. So we will split up once in the upper bay and pass each other so that we are not at the same location at the same time.
The weather looks good; the weather gurus are not predicting rain, only low hanging clouds which should lift in the morning. But they predicted that last week as well and the low clouds did stay near Marjorie Glacier so we will see what we get. I am thinking positive thoughts; that might help.