Ketchikan was indeed a dry day and had even sunny periods. Thus I saw, what I seldom see when arriving at Ketchikan lots of people on the forward deck enjoying the scenery while we sailed through the Tongass Narrows. With just a little bit of following wind it was indeed very pleasant on the outside decks and there was enough to be seen as well to keep everybody happily occupied.

We had the American Patriot, which is a king crab fisherman who went up and down the Tongass Narrows for a trial trip. She had been in the Ketchikan drydock for the last 4 weeks and was doing engine checks when we entered the Narrows. I did not see any black smoke or a sudden speed loss so it must have gone right. Than there was the Alaskan Queen moving about. This is a new comer to Ketchikan. It is a Mississippi style paddle steamer. The hull was constructed about 20 years ago but with an ancient Triple expansion Steam engine inside from 1884. She came to Alaska in the beginning of the season but it took a long time before she gained her USCG operating license. As far as I understand the story, she was licensed for inland waters but Tongass Narrows is considered coastal waters and that required different safety features. So it took awhile before she got going. It is not something that you see everyday, for a long time the Empress of the North was the only one around, but in the old days there were a lot of Paddle steamers sailing around in Alaska.


The Alaska Queen, newest Tourist attraction in Ketchikan

Coming closer we had numerous sightseeing planes buzzing around us and not only those but also the regular little float planes who where docking at the floating airport at the bottom of Ketchikan International airport. Here they pick up travelers and to take them further inland to hotels, cabins and fishing lodges. So it was a day full of commerce. Docked at the Ketchikan dry-dock company was the Spirit of glacier Bay, the little cruise boat that ran aground in Glacier Bay about 10 days ago. Luckily without any injuries or damage to the ship or the environment. She was waiting to go into the dry dock to get the hull checked out. We are all waiting to see what the USCG investigation report is going to say about why she ran aground.

By 1245 I had the Veendam floating in position in the middle of Ketchikan harbor, waiting for the dance of the cruise ships to commence. It all went to schedule this time. The Amsterdam was off the dock before 1 pm. and that gave great hope for speedy arrival as long as the Celebrity Infinity would follow quickly as well. In the end she did a fairly good job by not delaying us too long and at 13.39 I had the Veendam alongside and the gangway out. 20 minutes later over 700 guests where ashore.

For the chief officer this is always an exciting day as it is one of the ports where he can get a cherry picker to speed up his outside maintenance. Nowadays the ships are too high for regular Bo ‘sun chair work and we have the additional issue that we have an overhanging Lido restaurant. The Lido underside is nearly impossible to reach unless we have a long reach cherry picker. Today with the nice weather it was an excellent opportunity to catch up with some of the work on the outside.

By 5 pm. we were the only ship left in the port and that gave the guests an un-disturbed chance for some last minute shopping. At 19.30 we had our last tour back and we started letting go the lines and were on the way just before 8 pm. Tomorrow looks like a gorgeous day as well, with the wind coming up in force by the time we are back in the Inside passage.