In most ports we are leading the cruise ship parade into town, here in Skagway we are the last one coming in and that means that we can set our own pace sailing up the Lynn Canal. With an official arrival of 0800 hrs we can approach the dock around 7 am and be all fast by 07.30. That gives the shorex department enough time to check if all the buses are there and take action if they aren’t.

We docked again at the Ore dock and although it does not look like the best dock in town, I am starting to appreciate this dock more and more. For navigational purposes it is exposed to the wind and thus more difficult to approach but also it is easier to abort in case something goes wrong. Every captain likes a plan B in case something happens and here you can just give full astern and get out of there. The distance to the town is about the same as from the other docks with maybe the exception of the Broadway dock but we are talking yards here, not miles. It is definitely easier for the tours. It is 200 yards from the gangway to the apron where the buses load and the Skagway Mountain train pulls up very close as well.

We are docking every 14 days next to a paddle wheeler which is a strange occurrence in Alaska. The Alaskan rivers used to have paddle wheelers in the past If you take one of the Holland America inland tours, you have the option to visit one in the Yukon but they were never used much in south East Alaska. Mainly because to the open waters. It might be called the Inside Passage, but it does not mean that it compares to a river. This one is the Empress of the North and is even more curious as it was built in the vein of a real Mississippi paddle wheeler. Somehow the company that built this ship decided that; what Alaska needed was such a boat. Every time I see the Empress come by, I have to shake my head and remind myself that I am not in New Orleans. It looks on the inside as a Mississippi boat as well with a décor reminiscent of the musical Show Boat. The only thing is that its low freeboard (the height of a ship between water level and there were the first openings in the ship start) is quite low, so it is not really suited for open waters. It docks in Skagway just under our bow so guests can over see the whole boat and it offers an unusual twist to the local scenery.

Although a paddle wheeler, the paddlewheel is only used for going in a straight line forward. The boat also has two Z drives that hang under the ship for manveuring

It was a regular Skagway day and in the afternoon the “funnel wind” coming from the south through the Lynn Canal started to blow again, causing low waves to run into the harbor all crested with white caps. With the Veendam docked with the stern pointing to the South, these waves run under our squat stern. When the waves are high enough, which happens with winds of more than 20 knots, they started to slam under the stern and cause the ship to vibrate. The more wind the louder the vibration and the crew who has been for awhile on the ship, can more ore less figure out how hard it blows by the intensity of the slamming under the hull. I could avoid it by docking the ship the other way around but for the gangway setup, nose in is easier. Thus on a windy day we hear the waves slam under the ship and from the dining room it is quite interesting to see the white capped waves rolling into the harbor as if it is an open sea. Near sunset the wind abates and the waves disappear again.

This also happened this time around 7 pm. and as we were scheduled to sail at 9 pm. the strong wind had reduced itself to a gentle breeze. We swung around in the middle of the harbor entrance and set sail with a sedate speed for Juneau. If there would be a canal or fairway between Juneau and Skagway we could do the journey in about two hours. Now we have to sail south around the mountain range and that takes all night. Still it is only 90 miles to go and thus we can make an early morning approach to Juneau; tomorrow we will lead the cruise ship parade into port.