08 July 2008, Juneau.

Skagway had been on the sunny side of the mountain, as during the night when we sailed South East and passed Auke Bay, the weather started to get more and more miserable. By the time we ended the turn into Gastineau channel, rain was falling and wind was blowing from the South East and it looked more like the dark days before Christmas than high summer.

Sailing up the channel with the wind in the back is a mixed blessing, as yes we go faster but at the same time it is harder to control the ship when docking as the wind tends to fluctuate a little bit and sometimes pushes on the port side of the funnel and then sometimes on the starboard side of the funnel. With a big funnel as the Veendam has, it is very noticeable. It does not feel unlike trying to hold your dog while it is wagging its tail. You can do it but it needs constant attention otherwise the dog will wriggle away. It is more or less the same with the ship.

So while the tail of the Veendam wagged, we came alongside the Alaska Steamship dock in the most forward corner of the Harbour. We would later be followed by the Norwegian Star, the Celebrity Infinity and the Sapphire Princess, all which occupied the docks located further away. Right under our nose there were two very small cruise ships docked. A little Cruise West boat and the Sea Explorer. The latter I had not seen before in Alaska. It belongs to a company that specializes in Eco-tours all along the West coast of the USA and Mexico and their ships just look like mini-Holland America Line ships with a blue hull and white super structure. Just the piles of canoes and zodiacs at the back gave away the fact that it was not a normal cruise ship.

Although the weather started out quite lousy, after 11 am, it became better with the rain reducing itself to an intermittent drizzle which means for Alaska “that the weather is not bad at all”. Clouds were at various levels up the mountain range in a way I remember Tolkien describing the “Misty Mountains” in the Lord of the Rings. All flight tours were going and all day long the little float plane airport under the bow of the Veendam was busy with arriving and leaving water planes. With some ships staying longer in port than the Veendam, they were still doing that when the Veendam departed and for a moment we just looked like an aircraft carrier with these float planes buzzing all around us.

The float plane pilots are always looking for a thrill and or a good photo opportunity for the passengers on board, so they tend to fly quite close to the ship. Once in a while so close that I think, if I now poke a broomstick out of the bridge window, I am going to touch one. But distances are deceiving and they are always farther away then we think. No pilot will endanger his plane by coming too close and they are all aware of the turbulence that exists around the hull of a moving cruise ship which is of course the size of an apartment building.

Apart from airplanes buzzing around, we also had fishermen messing around right in the entrance of Juneau Harbor at the rock dump. This is the narrow part, were we get in and out of the port. For some un-explained reason this fisherman had decided to cast his nets right in the middle of the fairway, only to start hauling them in a great hurry after he was told by our pilot that the Veendam was on its way out and could not go around him due to the depth of the water. In the end we did not have to wait, his last length of net was just pulled towards the shore by the skiff when we started to gather speed for the turn.

While sailing south we saw an abundance of whales around the ship; some of them breeching repeatedly and one instance of bubble feeding. I had advised the guests about the time we were passing through this area, so hopefully those who were interested were close to a window and did enjoy the show.

Tomorrow we are in Ketchikan and the chance of rain is 50%. We have to wait and see where that 50% is going to fall.