To the utter delight of all the guests the weather forecast had it totally wrong. Not a rain cloud to be seen and the sun was present all day long. The temperature peaked into the 60’s and that meant that it was a warm day for the locals. While I was still comfortable in my (winter) blue uniform, the locals pranced around in their under wear so-to-speak. Thus it was a grand day for going ashore. With five large cruise ships calling during the day and two small ones, there where over 11000 guests ashore to enjoy Juneau.

Good news for the locals was that their electricity power has now been restored, after an avalanche took the hydro-power lines down in March. Since that time minimal power had been available by means of generators which sent the cost of electricity through the roof and or people had to improvise their own solutions. Mainly by means of individual mini power generators.

Now the summer has finally arrived in Alaska we see an increase in mega yachts coming for a visit. In the last 10 days we have seen one in every port and we meet them also in the Inside Passage. Today there was big here one in Juneau called the Polar Bear. Our lady pilot had to leave the Veendam to catch up with another one for a visit to Tracy Arm. I do not recall the name of that yacht but the buying price had been in the region of
$ 40 million so it could not have been a small one.

There is a trend in more and more super yachts being built, especially for Russian Owners at the moment and as a result there is a great demand for skilled navigators and skippers. Some of these yachts are so large that they are the equivalent of a small commercial ship and there have been several advertisements already for skippers with unlimited licenses such as I have. These yachts have all the latest toys and gadgets, quite often more than what is present on a cruise ship and as the owner has most of the time unlimited funds to spend on his or her toy, the latest is always available.

Some of my class mates from my Maritime Academy spend some time sailing on these yachts and always came back with mixed reports. The money was most of the time good to very good, way beyond what a commercial captain makes, on the other hand you had to deal with the vagaries and unpredictability’s of the owners. Some owners were great to work for, some viewed the crew as their personal slaves and hired and fired at will and without good reason. Main consensus was, money is not everything.

We missed the USCG escorts on departure this time, see my previous Juneau blogs. Maybe they will be there again next time. Sailing through Gastineau channel was as scenic as ever and now the summer is coming, there were a lot more boats out than before. Both sightseeing boats and private pleasure craft, all heading home for cocktail hour I suppose as we left a 6 pm. going the opposite way. We also saw the first kayakers of the season and they always merit close attention. Most of them stay close to the shore and out of the way but sometimes they decide to cross the open waters. This would not be much of a problem if we could see them. On a day when the sun is shining and the sea smooth, it is not such an big issue, but during overcast and rainy days with a bit of chop it gets much more difficult. The best thing that helps (apart from staying out of our way) is to wear real bright clothing, either yellow or fluoresant orange/pink as that stands out against the predominantly green, grey and blue colors of the marine environment.

Tomorrow we are in Sitka and it supposed to be rainy again. I will believe it, when I see it.