During the night the wind died down and by the morning there was only a moderate breeze left. At the same time the wind had also veered to the North West and so we had following winds which made it chilly but pleasant on the outside decks. As this bad weather had been caused by a “warm” frontal system, warm relative in relation to the water temperature, fog patches developed overnight so during the morning we had to blow the whistle until the fog cleared around 3 pm. That was about the time that we re entered the Inside Passage. Perfect timing.
As mentioned before, when sailing the Inside Passage, everything depends on the slack tide time of the Seymour Narrows. As it was around 10 pm. this time, I had room for some extra sightseeing, so we sailed by the Indian Village of Alert Bay again. He was not there last week, but this time he came out in his speed boat. A few years ago, a local man decided to start serenading the passing cruise ships. Although the quality of his play depends a little bit on the steadiness of his speedboat sitting in the current, it has become a nice tradition. This week I saw for the first time a big sign in the form of an Orca on the boat, advertising his website. Here it is. http://alertbaytrumpeter.com. This time he played O-Canada, the Canadian national anthem and I also heard When the Saints go marching in. He got a cheer from most of the guests on deck, who where out in force to see the largest totem pole in the world.
With the sun brightly shining and not a bit of wind left it was a beautiful ride down Johnstone Strait. I had announced an approximate time schedule of when we were going to see what and it was good to see that the guests took the opportunity to take in all the sights. In the end we sailed through Seymour Narrows at the exact slack tide of 21.30 and as it was still dusk, everybody could see Seymour Narrows clearly and also how narrow it is. There was a lot of Barge traffic around and some Canadian Navy ships but everybody’s schedule somehow did not interfere with the other and we all sailed through the gap at our own preferred time.
Most of the time that is with a speed of between 10 and 12 knots. This gives good steerage speed but is still slow enough not to cause a wake. Just to the north of Seymour Narrows is an inlet called Brown Bay, which has a big camper park and a large Marina. It is protected by a floating breakwater made up of what looks like old oil tanks, once used on railroad carriages. Quite an ingenious idea but as they float they still will go up and down with the waves rolling into the inlet so it does not give docked yachts a full protection against wake caused by speed boats and larger ships. The Veendam creates the least wake by going slower then 12 knots, or going faster than 16 knots. But as nobody believes that a ship can have less wake when going fast, we have to go slow.
But it is indeed the case with the Veendam. If the ship goes faster it develops more squat and the hull, together with the bulbous bow, sinks deeper into the water. This changes the flow around the bow and when doing 16 or 17 knots the bow wave and the ships wake is much less pronounced than with 13 or 14 knots. However the layman on the shore side only sees a ship charging by and will complain about excessive speed. Thus we go slow and keep the wake down.
About an hour after Seymour Narrows the ship was in the open waters of the Strait of Georgia. Here the sailing became boring. We traveled all night at a speed of 10 knots, to line up for a Lions Gate bridge time of 06.15, followed by a 7 am. docking. If the Tide at the Narrows is later we have to go fast of course but with a 10 pm. slack tide it is a slow boat to Vancouver most of the way. For most pilots this is a normal speed of traveling as the majority of the pilots have a tugboat back ground. For me, used to full-cruise ship-speed it is as if I am watching paint dry. You see a light house and an hour later you still see the same lighthouse.
The weather in Vancouver is going to be gorgeous. Clear skies, 80oF and no wind. Maybe we can take that weather with us on our next cruise.
May 16, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Captain,
My wife and I want to thank you for the wonderful week we just experienced with you on the May 9-16th voyage. It was a pleasure to meet you and Lesley in person and look forward to seeing you both again.
Your ship was in excellent shape and your entire ships crew provided exceptional service which after meeting you comes as no surprise. It was great to see my friend the EO and also renew our friendship with your new Food & Beverage Manager.
Who would have ever thought that May in Alaska would have been so unpredictable. This was supposed to be my only cruise to Alaska as Barb prefers the warmer weather. She felt so bad for me given the weather problems and missing Ketchikan that she says we can do it again…in a couple years…maybe.
Again, it was a pleasure sailing with you and we look forward to meeting you again.
Terry & Barb Green
Marysville, Washington