17 September 2013; Glacier Bay, Alaska.

The weather front which so nicely stayed to the south of us, giving us calm seas yesterday, curled up a bit further towards the Inside Passage. It produced a lot of rain but not in dense columns. That kept the visibility good and that is what I had hoped for, no visibility problems in Glacier Bay. We picked up the pilot at 07.45 and then sailed towards Glacier Bay. Ahead of us was the Westerdam and thus we were on schedule for a 10.00 Ranger boarding. In principle two big ships are allowed in the bay at the same time but it is preferred that they do not get in each other’s way. That made the company decide to have their ships come in nicely apart to avoid conflicts of interests (or feuding captains)

We sailed happily up the bay and as there was very little ice floating around, we were at Marjorie Glacier at noon time. Here Marjorie was in a more cooperative mood and showed off with some big calving’s. Each calving is preceded by a big bang, the final crack when the ice splits. That gives you a few seconds to quickly scan the whole face of the glacier and hopefully you can point your camera in the right direction just in time, while the ice comes thundering down. Most of that thunder is caused by the ice hitting the water. We saw one calving of about 6,000 tons of ice coming down to the sea surface and that ice does not slide gently into the water, but hits it like a bomb and it makes a similar roaring/crackling sound, caused by the impact and the water which then surges around it.

We had a few good ones of those and that made up more than enough for the rainy day. Strengthened by the fact that I saw very little ice coming out of John Hopkins Inlet, I decided to race in there for a good look. I have this cruise one hour less to play in the bay, as the days are getting shorter and we have to get the Rangers back before sunset. But that longer schedule is all based on going slow through lots of ice. If that ice is not there, I can gain time and still do what I want to do for the guests. So we raced from Marjorie to Hopkins and we had enough clear water to sail into the bay. As usual the ice of the glacier kept the low clouds away and everybody had a good view of the whole area. Glacier Bay is the largest area on earth that has been appointed by UNESCO as a place of outstanding beauty and a world heritage site. In the end we had a great day, even if it was a wet one. While in the lower bay we even had the Whales breaching and we saw Orcas on the chase. What they were chasing was not completely clear but it might have been fish otters.

While this was going on I was looking with half eye to the developing weather in the North Pacific Ocean, just off Sitka. The weather system there was deepening out and it looks like that it will reach 65 knots of wind and 24 feet of swell, just as we are going to be there. Not good. Thus our Seattle Office set up a command center as not only the Statendam is affected but 5 other HAL cruise ships as well. Plus several ships from other companies. On our cruises we all have to go for at least a few hours through that area, on the way up from Ketchikan or on the way down to Ketchikan. At Cape Decision we make a sharp turn into the Pacific Ocean and then come back inside again. Not good to do with that wind and swell.

So a decision was made about Cape Decision. The plan is now to go to Skagway tomorrow as normal, then out race the storm after departure by getting to Cape Decision while it is still quiet and then shelter in the Inside Passage above Ketchikan. Unfortunately that means cancelling Juneau. Not nice, but the best under the current circumstances.

We left Glacier Bay at 19.00 hrs. and then sailed up the coast to Skagway. Ironically, in Skagway the place where it is always windy, it will be wind still tomorrow. Mother Nature does have a sense of humor.