25 June 2017; Seward, Alaska.

Seward is located at the end of Resurrection Bay and used to be the Ferry connection to the interior.

We had a glorious day today while the temperatures remained under the mid-sixties (18o Celsius) Just low enough not to cause restricted visibility and just low enough not to get hot and bothered while pulling suitcases. But high enough to enjoy a gentle summer morning while travelling. This is a very early morning arrival for everybody and certainly for the ship’s crew. The guests coming from the overland tours mostly arrive in Anchorage the night before, so do those who fly in for the cruise only experience do the same. They all converge on Anchorage, which is a 2.5 hours’ drive from Seward. How to get 2000 people down there and the same number back is logistical tour de force. And thus you have to start early.

The dock is to the left of the cargo ship which is docked at the Coal terminal. We do not like a ship at that location when we are in, as it makes it difficult for us to get in. But the Marina is nice for tender training. Wintery stock photo from somewhere on the internet.

The ship has to be docked by 05.30 and the first wave of disembarkation starts at 06.00 hrs. This means that the Bridge and Engine room go to battle stations around 03.30, when the ship approaches Resurrection Bay (*). The pilot comes on board at the entrance at 04.30 and then the ship will just be docked at 05.30 hrs. with the gangway out. Contrary to other disembarkation ports, most guests do not have to take their luggage with them on the coach. They either find it back at the airport or at their first hotel stop while going overland. So when the first wave leave at 06.00 hrs. to take the train to Anchorage, the luggage is still being offloaded and is following in a truck.  The system seems to work very well as I seldom hear about problems with a suitcase ending up somewhere else than where it was supposed to go.

(*) And I do not even mention the hotel department, as breakfast starts at 05.30. which means some of the cooks are already running around at 03.30 in the morning as well. If to boil an egg takes a lot of planning let alone to set up the complete lido buffet and be ready for 300+ guests who all show up at the same time.

We use the local train service from Seward, but they do have Panoramic Cars, before the guests move to our own trains to Denali.

Then for the remainder of the morning, groups are being called out, they call them “waves” here in Seward, as soon as the busses are available. These busses or coaches take some groups to Anchorage where they change to our inland trains or to other buses which go up into the interior. These shuttle buses then bring back the new guests to the ship. The result is a very staggered and non-rushed operation with the last guests arriving around 18.00 hrs. at the ship and the last luggage being on board by 19.00 hrs. The follows boat drill and then we are on our way south again. While a whole port call in Ft. Lauderdale takes (pilot to pilot) from 05.30 to 18.30, here the whole evolution lasts from 04.30 to 21.00 hrs. Although the pace is less hectic.

Today we also had the end of the Ramadan for our Muslim community and that is normally celebrated with an Idul-Fitri meal. Because of change over day we had to postpone that until tomorrow as such a celebration should not be rushed and the special food for the feast meal needs more time to prepare. In the same way as we sometimes move Christmas dinner for the crew as well, if it is too close to embarkation day.

I took my school class down in the tender today, for their first practical lessons of tender driving and a lot of the conversation was about if the Cook would get the fried rice (Nasi Goreng) exactly right. That seems to have been an issue in the past. I always like it when they are nattering away in their local language as you pick up interesting tid-bits of information and sometimes they are quite shocked that I understand much more than they think. 37 years of being involved with Indonesians gives you a good insight in the language even when they speak a sort of sailor slang.

Teaching a novice how to drive a tender and make him understand what is better is not so easy, as most of the trainee’s think that speed solves all problems. Either full ahead or full astern. This is not the case as it only makes the tender harder to control so I try to explain that driving a tender is like dancing with a very big and tall lady. You cannot get your arms around her, she is much taller than you are, and if you push her, you cannot stop the momentum. So you have to nudge her gently to sway with her over the dance floor in the right direction. So we spent a whole morning dancing around the ship and in and out of the Marina.

Tomorrow we are at sea again, retracing our steps to Glacier Bay. The Gulf of Alaska is to remain quiet for the coming days with only a low swell running from the South West. It should be a nice ride with a gentle breeze pushing in the back.