20 July 2015; Anchorage, Alaska.

Docking in Anchorage is not for the faint hearted. Cook Inlet is not the end of the fjord, it continues past Anchorage, where it turns into Knik Arm.  And thus the tidal influence continues unabated as nothing slows it down. The only thing that happens is as soon as the water has passed Homer, the fjord / inlet slowly but steadily becomes narrower and that pushes the water height up. It gives Anchorage a tidal difference of about 20 feet but also a continuous flow along the dock. A water flow which can reach a velocity of 5 to 6 knots. Not unlike what happens on the St; Lawrence River at Quebec. 

Lots of current, caused by lots of water being pushed in and out

To alleviate any problems with docking as much as possible, the docks are built along the river bank and in line with the river. That gives the option to dock with the nose in the current and keep the ship in position with the main engines until the mooring lines are safely secured ashore.  Pushing against 4 knots of tide or being pushed by 4 knots of tide and then trying to control this sideways movement, even with strong tugboats, is not so easy. Better said it is nearly impossible.

We arrived on the flood tide and thus the ship swung around and docked nose out.

Based on that situation the Statendam arrived this morning around 07.00 hrs. near the dock, swung around and docked with the nose into the current alongside the cargo terminal. Anchorage does not have a cruise terminal as there are simply not enough cruise ships calling here as I explained yesterday. The cargo dock is about 2 miles outside the city and the city laid on a free shuttle for everybody who wanted to get into the city.

The City skyline on the Horizon.

I took the bus in the afternoon and I was really impressed by the organization. Dispatchers at the ship and in the city all nicely in uniform; two gophers at the city stop to help with putting wheelchairs and scooters away; and I could even do it in Dutch as one of the Ladies in the dispatch team was from Flemish Belgium. What more can you ask for?? Anchorage is certainly doing its best to get and to keep the cruise ships. I wish other cities would run such a professionally set up shuttle system.

Simulated a Collision & Fire in the Show lounge

Before I could go ashore we had the largest drill that Holland America has in its repertoire at least as far as complexity is concerned. A general boat drill involves more crew; but a mass casualty drill involves groups of crew members doing more complicated things.

Fire squads, Damage Control teams, Medical, Hotel support teams all have to work in close coordination to get a large number of casualties from a danger area to a safe area. While the casualties are coming out, triage takes place and each casualty is re-directed to a treatment area depending on the type and severity of the injuries sustained.  If we would have a larger number of (severely) injured people on board then it would be hard for the medical team to deal with this. Thus we train and drill to save as many lives as we can and put those in a holding pattern until we can get outside help. Either by disembarkation or by getting extra medical support on board. Today we made it even more difficult by having the regular Infirmary area affected by the emergency, forcing us to set up an alternative Hospital. We have equipment for that purpose but it is of course limited.

15 Volunteers were carried out to the alternative hospital

Apart from saving the ship it is really all about coordination using a very large number of Hotel crew whose normal focus is on their regular work, serving guests and not running around with stretchers. But as it could happen, we have to train for it and thus we do.

So I took the shuttle bus to Anchorage, during a glorious day with the pleasant temperature of 59oF / (15oC) without wind and full of sunshine.

Down town Anchorage

Anchorage is compact in its layout and really built for the harsh winter; so it has a nice shopping mall and you can see by the size of the sidewalks that they do get some snow in the winter.  I had a look for port postcards with cruise ships on it and found to my utter amazement the same cards as they sell in Ketchikan and Juneau. I missed a few of those in my collection and with 7 for a Dollar; this Dutchman had a very good day. (They are 4 for a dollar in Ketchikan…………. I wonder why) As less and less postcards are sent, people now send selfies, less new ones are printed and as a result you still see cards for sale with ships on them from the 1990’s.  I missed a few of those and thus it made my day.

The Statendam will sail tonight at 10 pm.  and then arrive around 0900 hrs. off the dock at Homer for an official 10 am. arrival.  Weather: little change is expected.

“Family Transport in Anchorage ” as seen from the Shuttle Bus