09 July 2014; Sitka, Alaska.

Yesterday I left the Volendam after completing all the support that I could give. All but one of the trainees’s passed their exams and a whole pile of instructions, training power points and checklists were left behind to help the ship make a successful transition from a two alarm ship to a three alarm ship. Then came the journey from Vancouver via Seattle and Ketchikan to Sitka Alaska. For a reason unknown to me Alaska airlines maintains a Vancouver service with small planes and most of them are Turbo Props. It was interesting to see propellers warming up instead of hearing the whine of Turbines. The flight to Sitka is a sort of bus service with several stops. Most of the time a flight has a start and a final single destination. Everybody gets on and at the end everybody gets off. Not in this case, this was a flight from Seattle to Juneau with a stop at Ketchikan (20 minutes) and then Sitka (20 minutes) before flying to the final destination Juneau.

Alaskan people are very friendly, maybe because a lot know each other courtesy of the towns not being that big, and thus it normally does not take long before you are talking to your neighbor. First there was the interesting scene at Seattle airport of a group of men meeting up and going for a few days fishing together in Alaska. They came from various parts of the USA and I was not able to figure out what their connection was. But the plan was to go fishing, and having a good drink at the same time also scored high on the list of priorities. All seem to be glad to be gone from the daily scrutiny of “higher management” to whom they were all faithfully betrothed. The buddies were as excited about their coming adventure as a group of school boys.

In the plane I suddenly sat next to a colleague from the office, how that works I do not know. 200+ seats on the plane and the only 2 Holland America Line people on board end up next to each other. That gave us the chance for a good moan about all that could be better in the world. He left in Ketchikan for a visit to the Oosterdam and that meant that the Lady in the 3rd seat suddenly sat next to me as she moved inwards to give her outer seat to a rather large gentleman who joined in Ketchikan.

Now I got involved with what can only be described as the Great American Melting Pot. She was from Uzbekistan and had emigrated a long time ago to the USA. There she met a German and both became American and he ended up as a Doctor for the USCG. First on ships and he is now finishing his career for the USCG in Juneau shore side. As she cannot stand Alaska in the winter, she escapes to Seattle and is now studying law. He is close to retirement and then wants to settle for a while in Spain while she wants Italy, so they will probably end up in San Francisco as that is the only place they both can agree on as being nice. I always find it amazing to find out how diverse the background of most Americans is. Who says travelling is boring??

Things did not stop there as the big gentleman suddenly found out that he was in the wrong seat and his place was taken by a 54 year old grandmother who was flying from Ketchikan to Sitka to see her grandson play Base Ball. I had come across this before, where parents/ grandparents were hopping all over the state to see their children/grandchildren play in these (school) competitions. You can’t not drive here as there are no connecting roads and thus you go by air. That led all three of us to contemplate how much money Alaska Airlines must be making just on these family movements for these youngster tournaments. By 6 pm I had arrived in Sitka and 20 minutes later I was ensconced in the Westmark Hotel, which chain is owned by Holland America and thus the room fee remained in house. It just went from one pocket to the other, courtesy of me.

My exciting day did not end there, as opposite the hotel is a Chinese eatery. The Chinese-Japanese-Vietnamese – BBQ Restaurant to be precise. I had  never seen  those three names in combination with the letters BBQ so that had to be checked out. It was a good, simple and cheap (for Alaskan standards) restaurant but I never figured out the relation between the food and the BBQ.

While occupying myself with the local news flyer which is irreverently called “The Sitka Soup”. (www.Sitkasoup.com) a gentleman started talking to me announcing the fact that he was in Sitka for a mortar and concrete conference. Now I had never thought that Sitka would be THE town in the world where concrete makers would flock to, to discuss their latest mixing technology, but here he was. It seemed to be a very important occasion as well. Unless that was an excuse to go fishing with some buddies from the same background and this was the way to deceive “higher management” at home. I will have to ask the agent tomorrow if Sitka is indeed a major player in the Alaskan Concrete business. The Hotel is right opposite the fishing harbor of Sitka, so I can just roll my suitcase across the street and start my 17 day Amsterdam adventure.