22 July 2008, Juneau.

Arrival Juneau was wind still and wisps’ of mist where floating over the water. Very scenic. I was on the bridge by 03.30 for the early morning arrival of the ship. As we docked at the Alaska steamship dock we were the first ship coming in and that meant an early morning. We are already halfway through the season and so the days are getting shorter again. No more bright day light a 4 am. Although it still is daylight by the time we dock, this was the first morning that we could see the street lights shining brightly in the distance as dawn was just starting.

It remained dry until about lunch time and than it drizzled for the remainder of the afternoon. Liquid sunshine is what the locals call it, I suppose due to lack of real sunshine. Thus far the whole summer has been very low on sunshine. On average we have been lucky with the number of dry days in Ketchikan but for the rest it has been mainly been overcast and very cool, with temperatures seldom peaking above the 60o Fahrenheit. Maybe August will be a good month with sunshine but until now it has been below average.

Although I always hope for nice weather for the guests, you will not hear me complaining about the cooler temperatures. The cooler it is, the less chance of fog and the more regular sleep hours I will get. Alaska is a tiresome season as it is with the early and late standbys plus the extra standbys for confined waters. Thus not having the extra fog watches is a blessing for me and the chief officer. Also inland it is less sunny than normal, Anchorage has had thus far 2 sunny days instead of the 17 that it is entitled to according to statistics and the pattern seems to be the same for most of the state of Alaska. It helps of course with keeping the mosquito’s away.

In the ports and along the route we do not have much issue with mosquitos, even during warm days, as the cool sea wind keeps them away. Inland they can be quite distinctly present when the temperatures start to rise. So for those who travel, the cooler weather might not be such a negative thing after all.

Juneau had some unusual visitors this time, in the presence of four light buoy tenders. Three from the USCG and one from the Canadian Coastguard. Three black hulled and one red hulled one. Every year there is a gathering of these tenders in Juneau as some sort of conference takes place. With Alaska bordering directly onto Canada and here in the lower panhandle, the Canadian border being only a few miles away, the maintenance of lighthouses and buoys is very much a cross border happening. While we were docking, we were conjuring up images of the American and Canadian crews sitting in the Red Dog Saloon and having heated arguments over red buoys and green buoys etc etc.

We had a good laugh about it, but the truth is of course that these tenders provide a vital service to the shipping Industry. Although the radars are much better than in the past and thus we can navigate with much greater accuracy than before, there are still situations where you prefer to “eyeball” the course change instead of being glued to the radar. To have a buoy at the right location in a case like that is of paramount importance. Plus the fact that there are many, many ships out there, big and small, who do not have on their bridges the same gadgets as we have. So I hope that they had a useful conference and a good time as well.

We left Juneau in the drizzle but the moment we sailed out of Gastineau Channel it cleared and remained dry for the rest of the evening. Weather forecast for Ketchikan indicates a dry day as well. So we are keeping our fingers crossed.