It is a very tight schedule that we have to make to Haines on time and the distance does not allow us to arrive any earlier than 10 am. alongside. On the other hand we stay until late in the evening, so there is ample time for everybody to go ashore and enjoy the sights. The weather was as predicted, with the rain clouds remaining on the other side of the mountain and the day being overcast.

One advantage of a later arrival is that for those guests who are not early risers there is a bit of the Inside Passage scenery to enjoy. By the time that most guests are waking up and going for breakfast the ship is entering the lower portion of the Lynn Canal and the shore line comes closer and closer to the ship. Fourteen days ago we had to dodge whales here, today there were none around. However we had quite a few of them last night while going through Snow Passage. Four or five were right in the middle of the passage and we had to slow all the way down to give them the chance to move out of the way. One pair were bubble feeding and only reluctantly gave up their favorite pastime. They disappeared under the waves with what looked like a rather angry slap of the tail on the water surface.

No Orca’s in the area either but if the Orca’s are gone, the sea lions are present and as we passed quite close to the Red buoy, which marks the shallows, the guests on the bow had a good close up look of three fat sea lions sitting on the lower part of the buoy. I have never seen Sea lions in the Lynn Canal; maybe the fishing is not very good there. The only place where we do see them is all the way inside Skagway harbor where the creek ends in open waters. See last week’s blog about Skagway.

Haines is our stop where the emphasis is on the tours, although it is great to walk into town as well as it has a few museums and a brewery. The timely departure of the tours makes it necessary for the ship to arrive on time with the gangway out. As the dock is rather cumbersome in lay-out we have devised a special routine to get things done quickly. When the ship docks, we stop with the gangway door in the middle of the main part of the dock. Then we give out a few short ropes that can be put on bollards on the main dock and then the linesmen can run over to hook in the shore gangway. Custom and Border Protection is waiting at the gangway and clear the ship as soon as they step on board as all relevant paperwork has been already electronically submitted. Thus without any delay the first tours can stream off the gangway, while we continue to tie up the ship with the longer ropes. These go to bollards at the end of a catwalk, for the stern and for the bow they go to a dolphin standing apart from the main dock so the linesmen use a little boat to get there and that costs time. Thus the short ropes first and then gangway in.

Departure is as if we are lining up for joining a convoy. One by one the ships from Skagway come down the Lynn Canal and because of our late departure from Haines, the last one is just coming by when we are letting our lines go. This time there was an extra ship coming down, the Amsterdam of our company. She normally does not call at Skagway but as she is making a charter cruise, she has a different route. So I maneuvered the Veendam a bit slower off the dock than normal and in that way we could nicely line up behind the Amsterdam who was in turn lined up behind three other ships. A whole convoy sailing down beautiful Lynn Canal. At the end of the fjord we all went our different ways and we headed for Juneau for an early arrival as there we are the lead ship of the convoy coming to Juneau for the day. Tomorrow’s weather is still unsettled but should be more dry than wet.