18 June 2008, Sitka.

Well, Sitka was not according to the weather forecast again, although we got some drizzle later on. Mainly overcast, it still proved to be a lot better than the weather guru’s had predicted. So all the guests took advantage of the situation and enjoyed the sights ashore.

We were together with the Oosterdam again, her occupying the inner anchorage. Sitka has four anchorages, with number one where the Oosterdam was today, being the nearest to town, but also being the fair weather anchorage. The latter means that during windy weather this anchorage cannot be used as there is no room to swing around on the anchor. The ship that uses this anchorage will either have to put down a stern anchor or keep the stern thruster going to keep the ship in the same position. For a ship as the Oosterdam with Azipods that is very simple of course. Azipods combine rudder, propellers and stern thrusters into one and with keeping one Azipod going the stern can be perfectly held in place.

Example of an azipod. The propellor,connected to the pod, can be swiveled around 360o (azi-mutal movement) so it can push or pull the ship and when flipped to 90o it can thrust the ship sideways.

The pecking order for the anchorages is that the biggest ship gets the nearest anchorage to town, as that ship has to transport the most guests to the shore. As the Oosterdam moved to the inner anchorage, the Veendam could move to the 2nd anchorage, which would normally be the all weather anchorage for the Oosterdam. The Oosterdam used the bridge float and we the dock in Crescent harbor and so the town was invaded from both sides by eager HAL guests. I think in military language they call it a two-prong attack.

When I came to Sitka for the first time in 1982, people only lived in the direct town area. No houses what so ever on the islands and none against the mountain slopes to the East. Since then, more and more houses have been built outside the Sitka town limits and since the last 10 years also more and more on the little islands in Sitka sound, there where our anchorages are. It is not cheap at all to build houses there; poles have to be anchored in the rocks to level out the rocky bottom of the islands so that a level house can be built.
All materials have to be brought to the building site by tug and barge and the same for man power. The house itself needs to be self sufficient with electricity, sewage, water and anything else that is needed to keep a house going. A floating dock is needed (to go up and down with the 10 foot tides) and you need one or two motorboats to get you to and from the town for shopping etc. All added costs which a normal house does not have.

A strange by-product of this Sitka-Suburban-Sprawl, is that it affects my announcements to the guests. Each day I make an announcement about “where we are and where we are going” so everybody knows what there is to be seen in the next period. I always used to do that 15 minutes before sailing time when everybody was out and about. In ports such as Ketchikan and Juneau the locals have already requested the ships to minimize announcements while in port, but this was never an issue in Sitka as the anchorage was way out of town. Not any longer, the town is now extended to right on top of the anchorages. This means that I now make my announcements about 45 minutes after sailing time, depending on the onboard activities. Before sailing time it was always easy, there were never any major activities going on that would be upset by a captain’s announcement. After sailing time it is different. The Cruise Director packs a lot of things in a day for guests to enjoy and I have to navigate through the various items, to find five minutes to do my thing. Today it was just before 5 pm, as we departed at 1600 hrs. At 5 pm. Catholic Mass and a lecture started and just before that, they got me.

The weather tomorrow in the Yakutat is looking like a mixed bag; it could go either way so maybe a little prayer during Mass might help to lift the clouds tomorrow.