15 July 2008, Juneau.

Thus we lead the convoy into the port and were docked by 5 am. at the Alaska Steamship dock, as far into down town as possible. We had to be early; to be out of the way of the other ships and it has the advantage that by the time that the guests wake up, they can walk directly off the ship as we are already there. We arrived with a bit of drizzle but for most of the day it was dry, cool and overcast. A regular day for Juneau; and one with weather that worked out very well for the tours and the sightseeing.

As this was an uneventful day, I have some space to answer some questions. One left over from last cruise, why did Ed not make it on the ship in the Yakutat and why was it a problem that he forgot his ID card. About a year after 9/11, the international shipping community adopted the ISPS, which is the International Ship & Port Facility Security code. This is a frame work law that sets minimum standards for all countries and ships to adhere to in regards to security in the maritime industry. One of the rules is that each visitor should have a picture ID card with him/her. Visitors should be announced at least 24 hours ahead of time, for some countries, ports it is up to 48 hours. The request for a visitor boarding comes in and is approved or not approved by a checking process. How we do that and what we do is and remains a confidential matter. With a positive result, the visitor is put on the visitor boarding list.

This is also the case with Service Technicians, Pilots, Rangers and Indian Interpreters. We receive in advance via the ships agent a list with people who are supposed to board, with their ID details. When they arrive at the gangway, they are checked against this list. If the ID details provided by the visitors are the same, they are let on board and are escorted to their place of work. Last week Ed forgot his ID while coming to the ship; no ID, no boarding; even while we have known Ed for years already. The rules are strict and strictly adhered to. The ships are audited on a regular basis by the company, Lloyds and also the Port State Inspectors (which for the USA is the USCG). Ed will be joining us again in Yakutat coming Thursday and hopefully he will have his ID card with him, otherwise he will miss breakfast again.

Pilots onboard. When we leave Vancouver, we have two Canadian pilots on board. They join together and leave together and they split their watches, so none of them works longer then 8 hours in a stretch. On arrival Ketchikan only one pilot joins the ship, to bring the ship to the dock. The 2nd pilot joins during the day in port and they split the watches while sailing from Ketchikan to Haines and Juneau. In Juneau the 2nd pilot quite often leaves as the stretch Juneau- Sitka has less then 8 hours of pilotage. (There is no pilot on the bridge when we sail the North Pacific part heading to Sitka) This one pilot stays with us while going to the Yakutat, as we do not spend more than 6 hours in the Yakutat under pilotage. He/she then leaves the ship and we pick up the next pilot near Seward for docking and undocking. Only one pilot, as it is only an hour in and one hour out. Southbound we pick up one pilot again in the Yakutat and the second one joins in Sitka as the next stretch to Skagway can be longer than 8 hours. That second pilot will stay until Ketchikan and then leave again. On departure Ketchikan we have only one pilot as it takes only 2 hours to get back to open sea again. On the last sea day we board two Canadian pilots again for the run to Vancouver. So the confusing bit is this second Alaskan pilot who hops on and off, and is only on board when the pilot watch times are going to be longer than 8 hours.

We left Juneau just on time, after we found one missing guest still sitting in the Red Dog Saloon and had herded him back on board again, and headed for Sitka. Sitka promises to be a sunny day. There is hardly any wind in the Gulf of Alaska at the moment, so we should have a very smooth ride with just a gentle swaying of the ship due to a low wave system coming all the way from Hawaii.