With only one day to go to the longest day of the year, we arrived in Seward in day light. It really did not get dark at all while we approached the most northerly point of our cruise. Somehow it looks a bit unreal to approach the pilot station at 4 am. in the morning and to do this in daylight. It was a bit gloomy but that had more to do with it being overcast than with the presence of darkness.
The port of Seward developed itself around the dock of the Alaska Railroad which used Seward as both and entry and exit point for goods and guests to the interior. If you look at the photo you can see that the dock that we use now is simply the ending of the rail road. Until the 80’s trains would roll onto the dock and goods would be directly discharged into, or loaded from ships docking on either side. The dock is now considered too weak for trains to stand on; otherwise we still could have the Holland America train come alongside the ship for a direct transfer. Now guests walk through the terminal towards the train.
We dock normally on the left, or west side of the railroad dock, where a gap has been made in the dock to push a conveyor belt directly into the luggage handling area of the Veendam. If you dock on the other side, luggage bins have to be used which are lowered between the ship and the dock. That is a much slower process, so we are really happy with “the gap”. The conveyor belt cannot move side ways and thus the ship has to park on the inch with the ships break door exactly in line with the conveyor belt. In Vancouver I have to dock the ship for the shore gangway with a margin of two inches, here I have at least three inches, so stopping in time and on the mark, with an inch extra, is quite a bit easier than in Vancouver………..
Courtesy: unknown source on the internet.
What can make my life difficult is the presence of a coal ship on the other side. If you look at the photo you can see a long white tube stretching all the way past the ship. This is a conveyor belt system to transport coal to a waiting bulk carrier alongside the dock. The coal comes by train from the interior and is than deposited in a holding area just north of the docks. When sufficient coal has arrived it is transported via a conveyor belt system to the waiting bulk carrier.
When they built the dock for the coal ship to come alongside, they built it a bit too close to the rail road dock. It is nearly impossible for a cruise ship to get to the west side of the railroad dock if a large bulk carrier is moored in position. On a windless day it can be done, but when it is windy which it often is in spring and autumn, it becomes very tight. According to the pilot, the coal export seems to be on the decline for reasons unknown to him, but for me that was good news. No coal ship that would hamper my approach. So we floated over a completely flat sea towards the dock and were all fast by 5.30 am. Ready for disembarkation to start at 6 am.
The pilot was all excited as he was planning to go fishing at midnight with his son. It is a sort of Seward/Alaska tradition to do something around the Solstice, so tonight he was going fishing and tomorrow night playing golf at midnight. As the sun barely sets, he would have no problem to see where his golf balls were going .Officially there is a sunrise and a sunset, with about 3 hours in between, but it stays light.
We pulled out just after 8 pm, heading for Hubbard Glacier. The weather forecast predicts sunny skies which is good news for the guests but with it normally comes that white stuff called fog and that is not good news for me.
July 2, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Lo and behold!! 🙂 Seward is around the same latitude as Helsinki and Tallinn. No wonder, Captain, that you can look for pilots at 4AM in bright daylight. In the old Viking territory it’s still called the “white (k)nights”. Celebrating the Summer Solstice over there is quite rowdier. No one is allowed to sleep. Even the birds have bags under the eyes! Those wanting a “night’s” rest go to bed with eye shields and ear plugs looking like Kamikaze pilots.