Icy Strait Point is a fairly new cruise port in Alaska. New compared to Ketchikan and Juneau where the ships have been calling continuously since the 1970’s. Holland America started to call at Icy Strait Point about seven years ago and anchored on the North side of Icy Strait and then used tenders to bring the guests to the other side. The anchorage was just east of the entrance to Glacier Bay. Main points of attraction were the small Indian village of Hoonah and the old cannery which was preserved by the local tribe and turned into a museum, visitor center and general tourist attraction. The feedback from our guests was positive and thus we kept calling. And what one company does, the other does as well and so more cruise companies send ships here.

The ms Amsterdam at the new cruise dock. Note the long covered walkway from the ship to the shore (and beyond)

That made it possible to build a dock for one cruise ship and leaving the option for another one to go at anchor. Today we were the only ship around and thus we went alongside. This is the first time I have seen the dock and it is very nice. Good bollards to make the deck officers happy for the ropes and a long wide and covered catwalk for the guests to walk from the ship to the Visitors center and the cannery museum behind it. The town of Hoonah is 1.5. miles from the dock area but if you do not want to make that journey, the area around the dock is more than enough to spend some quality time.

Part of the Cannery Museum. To the right the open door of the pasteurization process for the filled cans.

Apart from the cannery museum, which is somewhat morphed in the shops system in the big factory shed, there is a visitor center, various eateries and the largest Zip Rider with a 1330 ft. drop. It was in full operation and quite busy. It is not a Zip Line system, but a Zip Ride system the difference is that you do not hang on a pole and Zip down but you sit on a chair while coming down to the Drop Zone which is the end of the ride.

The whole complex of Icy Strait Point.

Hoonah has been an Indian Settlement for a long long time, as far as recollection goes there always has been some sort of settlement just outside Glacier Bay and when the Glaciers started to retreat the territory was simply expanded into the Bay. Now Glacier Bay is a National Park and as a Reserve restricted in its access, but the Indian Tribe still has fishing right there and not too long ago I came across a fishing boat fishing in the lower bay.

The visitors center has free WIFI so the crew were out in force during their break times.

The ship stayed here from 07.00 hrs. to 14.00 hrs. The early afternoon departure has to do with the fact that it is a high speed run of 18 knots to Anchorage. The ship will have to sail a little faster than 18 knots as we are expecting not so nice weather while en route. The summer season is ending and thus the period of the autumn storms are approaching. We are just on the edge of that period and thus it is not un-expected that the “wobbly-ness” of the Pacific is increasing.

So late this afternoon, when we left the Inside Passage near Cape Spencer we were greeted by a lot of wind, force 7 on occasion 8  and the always present North Pacific Ocean swell. The wind will abate during the coming night but it will have whipped up the waves enough by that time that we will have a lively ride until we are in the shelter of the land again.  That means for most of the next 36 hours the ship will feel like a real ship and not like a floating hotel.  Unfortunately a lot of our guests were not ready for this part of their cruise adventure and many cabins had the privacy sign in the key hole this afternoon, no doubt waiting for better times to come.

We will sail in the North Pacific Ocean until late tomorrow evening. We first have to pass Resurrection Bay, the entrance to Seward, then go around the Kenai Peninsula before we can sail into the Fjord at which end Anchorage is located. Weather for tomorrow, overcast, diminishing winds but still with waves present which can reach 15 feet and that will make the ship move around at bit.

For those who find the distance too long too walk, there is a little trolley system which runs to and from the ship.

We raised anchor at 05.45 when daylight was slowly approaching from the East. Winter is coming and the summer days where the ship was in 20 hrs. of daylight while in this area are gone, gone until next summer. The ship had dropped anchor on a bank made up of shingle, pebbles, mud and rock and when the anchor came up, the chain was nice and clean but we had about 1000 pounds of thick grey clay wrapped around the anchor. An indication that this was an excellent anchor spot to hold the ship in position even if there would have been a lot more wind than we had during the night.

One spot of grey, the bank surrounded by black, deeper water at the south side of Stephens Passage. Juneau is about 10 miles to the North.

By 07.00 we started the approach to the dock in Juneau and as we were the first ship in, we could just slide into the new dock at the Alaska Steam. This one was completed last year and now goes up and down with the tide. The locals have kept the old names for the docks although those cannot be reached anymore as the new floating docks lay in front of it.  Until the 1980’s the Juneau waterfront had three docks for specific use. 1.  The USCG dock to the west; 2. The Alaska Steamship dock on the town’s water front, where until 1964 the passenger ships of Alaska Steam used to dock and 3. next to it the ferry terminal which had the great advantage of having a car ramp for the cars and campers.  The USCG dock is still there and in full use, Alaska Steam became the main dock for cruise ships but was joined by the Ferry dock, when the Alaska State ferry terminal moved to Auke Bay. Auke Bay is located on the west side of Juneau on the other side of the mountain ridge. Here it had room to expand and it reduced congestion in downtown. This dock was renamed to Cruise Terminal and all the ships tried to get that spot as it meant that you did not have to shift the gangway for tidal changes.  We could just put the ships gangway on the car ramp and it followed the tide.

Ocean Liner Row in Juneau with the ms Volendam behind the ms Amsterdam and a Princess ship at Franklin Dock in the background.

With the expansion of the cruise industry and the size of the ships, then Franklin dock (on Franklin Street) and the A.J dock were added. Those two docks went up and down with the tide leaving the Alaska Steam a bit of a poor relation. Finally, last year Alaska steam and the cruise terminal were also upgraded with a large new dock but the west end is still called the Alaska Steam and the East end is still called the Cruise Terminal. Franklin dock is normally assigned to Princess and later in the day one of the Princess biggies came in and docked there; no doubt making the shop keepers at that end very happy.  We did not stay alone at our dock, later on in the morning the ms Volendam joined us and thus we had two of the four ships of the R class together.

The R class is not identical but they are near sisters with the Volendam and Zaandam nearly identical and the Rotterdam and Amsterdam quite similar. When you walk around inside there is not much difference in the lay out but outside it is quite visible. Rotterdam and Amsterdam have double funnels, a tribute to the old Rotterdam of 1958, and the ZADM and VODM both have a single funnel. The Rotterdam has heavier engines and can make 25 knots and the Amsterdam was the first Azi-pod ship in the company.

How about a this for a closing down sale !!! We will have to see what will be here next year.

As we are in the last days of the season, the closing down sales have started and all the shops are tempting guests in with discounts of up to 50%. I always question that as I was in a leather shop where I recognized some jackets which clearly came from Turkey and although reduced from $ 800,— to $ 400, there was still a markup of about $ 100. (Believe me I know, I have been dragged by my wife around all the leather shops of Kusadasi and introduced to the system of saving money by spending it because it is a bargain) However I did manage a bargain as well, the windbreakers were 75% off, and that I could not let go. The ms Amsterdam is going into wet dock in Seattle in 10 days and gambling on sunny, dry and warm weather in Seattle is too much to ask. It was a pity that the real good stuff was not reduced but will go in hibernation for a next season of eager shoppers.

The ms Amsterdam left at 21.30 heading for its next call, Icy Point in Icy Strait. They just built a dock there so we can now dock as we are the only ship in port. We will be docked by 7 am. and the forecast is a bit gloomy. Glacier Bay is just around the corner and the proximity of the ice will make it a chilly day if there is no sun to warm things up.

As mentioned yesterday we had Tracy Arm Fjord on our schedule today and I also mentioned that is was uncertain if we would get there due to the ice. This has been the case for most of the season and today was not different. When we go to Tracy Arm, we want to get to the face of South Sawyer Glacier and see the calving. Lately the Glacier has not been cooperating very much. It has been calving too much and as a result it has been retreating very fast as well. It produces so much ice that the ship has a hard time getting near the glacier and if the ice was not there then we still would have a challenge to get close to the face because the Glacier has been retreating. It has gone back by about half a mile in recent times and we do not know what is under water at this new half a mile stretch. But there was too much ice again to even contemplate going in.

As you can see there is not much difference, apart from Tracy Arm fjord being a bit more narrow. Both Glaciers come from the same ice field but for some reason South Sawyer is retreating fast.

But no worries: Holland America always has a plan B. And that is to go into Endicott Arm. So we went left instead of right into the fjord. The scenery is the same, it is just that Dawes Glacier calves a bit less. But that is exactly what we need. We like to see some action but we still have to get to the Glacier to see it. Too many ice cubes and we have a problem here as well.

This is how it looks on the radar screen. The yellow spots are the reflections of the mountains on either side.

Today we were in luck. The sun was brightly shining, the ice buildup only started about a mile away from the Glacier face and we could get just around the corner and see the Glacier at half a mile distance. It was a good day; it was a spectacular day, probably the best visit of the year. We entered the fjord around 10 am. and then it took with a speed of about 14 knots and slowing down all the time, until 12.30 before we were parked at the rim of the ice field in front of the Glacier. Our ships EXC host narrated the whole progress so everybody understood what there was to be seen and why it was there.

Approaching the face of the Glacier. The ms Amsterdam sailed passed all the large pieces and then stopped in the rubble where it was still safe to do so, approximately 0.5 miles from the Glacier.

By 1700 hrs. we were back outside again and our next stop is Juneau tomorrow. Juneau is only a good two hours distance from Endicott Arm and if we would have gone directly we would have been fully docked by 20.00 hrs. But then what? By the time the ship would have been cleared the town would have closed down for the night.  Juneau’s night life is not that sparkling that our Guests would run ashore to make a grand night of it. Some of the Bars still specialize in “low flying” locals when evicted late at night and that would be too much for most of our Guests. Plus when you dock the Shops, Casino and everything else which has the focus of the taxman has to close down. That takes away a lot of activities and thus not a good idea. So what we and most other company’s do, who are faced with this dilemma, we drop the hook for the night, just outside Gastineau Channel, the entrance fjord to Juneau.

The evening was wind still, there is a nice muddy bank on the West shore of Stephens Passage and by 18.00 hrs. a 3^rd officer was dispatched forward. He lowered 5 lengths of chain plus the anchor into the water and onto the ground. 5 lengths of chain is 800 feet, not counting the anchor. The anchor weighs about 13000 pounds, 800 feet of chain weights about 5000 pounds and so 18000 pounds of hardware was sunk into the mud to hold the ship safely into position for the night. If there is a lot of wind, then we can go up to 11 lengths of chain, but the weather forecast was good, so why bother to get more chain dirty.

We will raise the anchor tomorrow morning at 06.00 hrs. and then be docked in Juneau by 08.00 hrs. The weather calls for overcast skies and a temperature of 8oC or 47oF. and no rain. So not a bad day for shopping as long as you wear two pairs of socks. I know I will, as I will be on the mooring decks verifying the procedures that the officers and sailors have to follow to ensure a safe docking.

Today we had a glorious day in Ketchikan. One of the best, sunny, days I have seen in a long time. It was quite windy but who cares if the wind keeps the rain away. The wind blew straight through Tongass Narrows an indication of things to come for the town when winter descends upon the South East Alaskan panhandle. Ketchikan is nicely sheltered from the East and to some extend from the West but a North Westerly gale can blow freely through the whole of the Tongass Narrows. Creating on occasion a local phenomenon called Horizontal Rain.  Your face gets wet and your shoes stay dry.

A nice sunny day in Ketchikan. In the distance the biggest hotel in Ketchikan, the Cape Fox.

Another nice thing was that today we were the only ship in port. Some cruise ships have already left Alaska but the fact that we start our cruise on a Monday, helps a little bit. Most ships depart from Vancouver or Seattle on a Saturday or Sunday and that means a full house two days later. And that full house then moves along the coast from port to port.  The ms Amsterdam is sailing a day behind this cycle and thus we have less competition to deal with. And it will be a few days before we come across the ships which are southbound on the return leg of their 7 day voyage. We will miss most of them altogether anyway as we are on route to Anchorage. All in all it makes the shopping experience in downtown less hectic, if you feel the need to go shopping. The sales attendants have even time to talk instead of being sales processing robots. For those who shop, the season is coming to an end and thus there are bargains galore and huge discounts. Most shops sell off their stock before the season ends and the shop goes into hibernation until May of next year.  During the last week of the season you often find items on sale which go for cost without any mark ups at all.

Although Holland America has squatter rights in Ketchikan, we are the most senior company calling, and thus normallyentitled to the best berths but being the only ship in port makes it even easier. The captain can basically park where he wants to go and where he prefers to stop. That is of course as close to downtown as possible but if you want to set your mooring lines in a perfect position, then 20 feet more forward or aft can make all the difference and having the whole berth to yourself makes that possible.

The shadow of the ms Amsterdam looming over downtown Ketchikan. Please note how quiet it is with only one ship in port. The gangway is dealing with high tide and has a shore side platform under it. When the tide goes down, that platform will be removed, stopping gangway traffic for about 10 minutes. In the foreground the Ketchikan Visitors Center.

While Juneau now has all berths tide independent, which means that the part of the dock upon which the ships gangway rests goes up and down with the tide. Ketchikan still has docks which are fixed and the gangway to the ship has to be adjusted to the every changing tide. If the ship is by itself it could select to go to one of the new docks and would not have to face the hassle but it would mean a longer walk for the guests to town and back. So the convenience of docking in town always wins out over the inconvenience of stopping gangway traffic for about 10 minutes to have the gangway adjusted to the tidal condition by keeping the steepness reasonable.

Another advantage of this 14 day cruise is that we have more time in Ketchikan. The 7 day ships have a standard departure of 15.00 hrs. in order to make Juneau on time but we will be in Tracy Arm all day tomorrow and then time is less of an essence. Thus we stayed to 17.00 hrs. and then sailed with a sedate speed of 16 knots to Tracy Arm. We expect to enter around 10 am. and what happens then is anybody’s guess. I have been to Tracy Arm when we could get all the way to the face of the Glacier but this season there were a number of times where the ships could make it barely inside due to the large amounts of ice coming out. So we will see tomorrow morning what Mother Nature has in store for us.

Weather should be good again and I am hoping for overcast skies as it makes the viewing of the Glaciers much more pleasant. Less glare and more natural photos.

We had a bit of a bumpy ride today but the ship was still nicely riding the North Pacific Swell and luckily the strong winds were following the ship. That helped to make it feel not too uncomfortable here on board. Still several people complained about not being warned about the “severe storm” blowing and remained sequestered in their cabins.

From Seattle there are several ways to get to Alaska and the route taken is a decision made by the captain. It involves a large number of considerations, such as speed to maintain, weather outside, weather inside (very low clouds) time lost at pilot change locations and the most important factor: the time of slack tide at Seymour Narrows if the decision is going into the direction of taking the inside route.

Because of the extra distances in the Inside Passage the average speed to maintain from Seattle to Ketchikan can be up to 19 knots, especially if slack tide at Seymour is not in sync with the average passage time of the ship. From Vancouver is it easy, whether the tide is early or late you can easily adjust. From Seattle you have a lot of extra distance to cover before you even get to where the Vancouver ships start their journey. Plus you lose time at Port Angeles to disembark the Puget Sound pilot, then you lose time as you have to cross the traffic lanes near Victoria with slow speed and then hopefully the B.C pilots are waiting at Victoria and the pilot boat does not have to service another ship first. Also the point of seeing more of the Inside Passage is rather moot as with the Narrows tide and the average speed needed, the ship sails through the whole interesting part of the voyage in the dark.

Our route. Chart is courtesy of BC ferries, thank you, as it was the only one I could find which covered the whole area.

Thus for this cruise the captain decided to go outside around Vancouver Island as the weather was good and it gave a less hectic transit from Seattle to Ketchikan. So we left at 16.00 hrs.  Around 20.00 hrs. we disembarked the Pudget Sound pilot and around midnight we were in the open ocean. As the sun was shining yesterday, the guests had some nice scenery to look at (and some nice real estate on the shores of the Pudget Sound) which is not always the case as it can rain quite a bit here. During the night the Officers on the bridge had to pay for the nice weather as near the exit of Strait Juan de Fuca a thick wide blanket descended upon the ship.

Then we sailed northwest, keeping the coast of Vancouver Island on our Starboard side and then bent inwards into Queen Charlotte Sound once north of Cape Scott the North West point of Vancouver Island. Technically Queen Charlotte Sound is considered Inside Waters but due to the width of the Sound, pilotage is not compulsory in the middle part. And thus the ship could continue its voyage without stopping for a B.C pilot and will enter Alaskan waters tomorrow morning around 04.00 hrs.

Although we are allowed to sail the whole distance without local pilots as the ship stays in open waters according to the definition, we are still monitored by the local authorities. The whole of the Pudget Sound is under observation by “Seattle Traffic” and we are required to call in at certain points. Then when we cross over to the Canadian Side we switch to Victoria Traffic, who then monitors our progress (and good behavior) while sailing to the open ocean via Strait Juan de Fuca. Once almost there, we are handed over to Tofino traffic which monitors all the ships that approach or leave Strait Juan de Fuca.

These monitoring stations were introduced in the 1960’s when traffic became denser and denser and when there was also an increase in ships who were “very creative” in the way they sailed all over the place. Traffic Separation Schemes were introduced and in the area around Victoria there are several real “round-about” areas where the ships have to sometimes make a ¾ turn to go from East to North etc.

We will be at the Ketchikan pilot station tomorrow morning at 06.00 hrs. and then expect to dock at 08.00 hrs. in Ketchikan. I hope the guests will take advantage of the nice, if chilly, weather as it is supposed to be sunny all day. We did not have much of a nice summer this year, so every good day near the end of the season can help to make up for it.

Tonight the slack tide at Seymour Narrows will be around midnight and thus the whole schedule between Ketchikan and Vancouver has been set up accordingly. For that schedule midnight is not a bad time. It means that you are back in the open waters by 00.45 hrs. Open waters is in this case a relative word as The Strait of Georgia is just a wider space between Vancouver Island and the Canadian Mainland. But relatively spoken it is an open space compared to the really confined waters of Discovery Passage where the Seymour Narrows are located.

The passage time also makes the Chief Engineer happy as it is about as perfect as you can have for an average speed voyage. We can do the whole voyage from Ketchikan to Vancouver with an average speed of about 16 knots.  Steady speeds are good for fuel consumption and speed of 15 knots is easily maintained with two engines and when going through the narrows bit with three engines. You do not need that 3^rd engine for power but it goes on line in case one of the other engines would suddenly get the hiccups. Transiting Seymour Narrows does not leave any margin for error and a failing engine while in the Passage would result in a new Holland America Line Hotel being established right on the shore side. No doubt offering a great view but not in line with company policy.

A: Pine Island Pilot Station. B: Blackney Passage. C: Race Passage. D: Seymour Narrows. E-F Strait of Georgia. F Lions Gate Bridge.

So we sailed down with an average speed of 16 knots to Pine Island where we embarked the Canadian Pilots and then had to maintain an average speed of 15 knots to get to the Narrows. The ship was still sailing with a speed of 16 knots but it normally slows down to 12 knots when making the turn at Blackney Passage (90o) and at Chatham Point (another 90o). In between there might be all sorts of traffic in the way and therefore we sail a bit faster than the average speed that is to be maintained. The big question always is, can we go through the Narrows at our preferred time? as everybody wants to go through at the same time.  In that situation we are sometimes lucky and sometimes not. It can easily make a difference of 30 to 45 minutes. A bit earlier nobody minds very much but 30 minutes the other way also means that the captain will be in bed so much later.

If this was followed by a sea day then that would be not be so bad but at 05.30 the phone rings again for standby for arrival as the ship goes under the Lions Gate Bridge between 06.15 and 06.30 for a 07.00 hrs. docking. Then there is a full day in Vancouver and the same evening it goes the other way again. One lucky thing is that Vancouver is a Sunday visit and that at least reduces the number of visitors coming to the ship. Some of them consider themselves “very important” and have little understanding for the fact that the captain might prefer to be in bed, than be entertaining or involved in meetings. I will find out tomorrow morning how the Captain fared this time with keeping to the time table.

This is my last blog for a while. I will be going home tomorrow for a 2 month vacation and will be back on the fleet by the end of September. Which ship is still a little bit up in the air, as two months is a long time in the dynamic life I am currently leading. But I will put my new schedule up as soon as I can.

To all my readers, thank you for keeping up with my daily ramblings, I hope you found it diverting at times. I also hope to work on the history side of the blog but I am still waiting for the company to trace some lost files which went missing earlier in the year with the server change. So I will be back again, most likely to Alaska to help with closing off the season. Keeping my fingers crossed for a nice Indian Summer.

All in all, it was not a bad day in Ketchikan. Mist and drizzle hung around the town but it looked like that most of it congregated at the Airport across the Tongass Narrows from downtown. Still I have not needed my sunglasses this season while being here in Alaska for the last six weeks. While on the subject of the Juneau outhouse of yesterday’s blog there is another anecdote about Juneau which has more truth to it. By the way the official name of the outhouse is the Treadwell Mine Salt Water Pump House, so obviously it was not all just about ventilation. This also happened in the 1980’s and it clearly indicates that Alaska is/was still a frontier state sometimes with highly independent thinking people. This is the story about the village of Lucky Me.

The Community of Lucky Me as it is called nowadays. (Photo courtesy: thoresons3ocean)

Somewhere in the 80’s a gentleman living in the town of Douglas fell out with the local council. Douglas is the town connected to Juneau via the bridge at the end of the cruise ship docking area. As the dispute could not be resolved, he was told he would start his own town and council and so he packed up his bags and moved down to the end of the island close to the entrance of Gastineau Channel. He built a log cabin (or something similar) and settled down and thus basically starting up his own town. In front of the house a big illuminated sign was erected with the name: LUCKY ME. Through the years more houses and buildings popped up and a sort of small community grew in an area hard to reach but still close enough to civilization if needed. Last year the sign was still there but due to growing trees it was very hard to see. This year I have not had the chance yet to look for it. What is the morale of this story: in Alaska it was, and maybe still, possible to setup your own town if you do not like what is going on. Try that in the rest of the world. For those more interested, if you do a google with” Lucky Me Juneau” then all sorts of interesting things will show up.

We had a full house again today with all docks filled and the Oosterdam leaving at 13.00 hrs. hot bunking with the Celebrity Infinity arriving at 14.00 hrs. If you think about something this simple for a little bit and take the logistics into account, then it becomes clear it is not that simple at all. Two different – competing – companies have to come up with a schedule that they can occupy the dock at different times to give its guests the best possible service. The Alaska agent who makes the docking schedules has to deal with these companies about 2 years in advance to get it all worked out so that the cruise companies can put it in their cruise brochures. This means that all the berthing arrangements are made about two years in advance. If now a company suddenly has a marketing brainwave and decides to send a bigger ship, then there is a fair chance that troubles arise. There are more and more large cruise ships coming into operation and some of those biggies could also see employ in Alaska.

Downtown Ketchikan, with cruise ships in port. somewhere from the internet.

Nothing wrong with that, if there are guests who are happy to sail Alaska that way then kudos to them; but that ship has to dock. As an example Ketchikan has 4 docks. Dock 3 and 4 can take ships up to about 120.000 tons and dock 1A/B – 2 which is the combined dock, also known as the Tongass dock, normally takes two ships alongside. Now move in a ship over the 120,000 tons and it has to go to dock 1 -2 taking up the space of two ships. But because it is not as long as two ships together, there will be some dock space left empty. Literally a waste of space. Finding then a little cruise ship which can still park behind this behemoth might not be so easy to find. Small cruise ships normally come in a few calls during the summer but not every week and also not always at the same time and same day of the week.  Ketchikan might need a few more docks if bigger ships are coming and so does Juneau………………. But where to go???

After Ketchikan the ms Zaandam heads south back to Vancouver, where we will at 07.00 on Sunday morning. A very important arrival as Yours Truly will be signing off to go home to England for a vacation. Luckily it seems to rain there at the moment so I will not have much of a culture shock. That is if I make it there. My airline has just informed me that they have cancelled my flight from Vancouver to Amsterdam and are in the process to find me another flight which goes the same way.

Either the weather gods were in a good mood or the forecast guru’s had excelled themselves but the weather was in accordance with the forecast. Even the wind did exactly as was announced. Gentle in the morning, breezing up between 1 and 3 pm. and then dying down again. Everybody happy and no worries for the shore excursion department. Even the whale tours were in bonus, as they offer this thing of money back if no whale is seen.  Mother Nature helped today as a whale swam conveniently into Gastineau Channel and then into Juneau Harbor. The exercising Lifeboats of the Princess ship docked ahead of us had quite a hard time staying clear of the whale, as it was quite interested in the boats. I do not know if whales can see color but if so, then I would have been curious as well as you do not see everyday orange things pottering around in your private bathtub.  I was in the water as well with my sailor class and I kept my orange thing far away from our inquisitive whale as it always results in paper work if you do otherwise. The sailors were mostly interested in the fact if you could eat whale. When I explained that it is supposed to taste like cod oil they lost their interest and continued to focus on how to dock with one engine if the other one was broken.

Although Juneau is the Capital of Alaska and thus home to a lot of civil servants and politicians it was always more or less the same size until the cruise ship boom started. And although a lot of people say that the cruise ships do not add much to the local economy I beg to disagree because since 1982 I have seen the city expanding with lots of large nice houses going up. That money has to come from somewhere and politics has not expanded, fishing has gone down and the Gold mine closed again after a brief reopening. Thus tourism must help and today we continued to do so with another full house with 4 ships sending over 10000 guests ashore, who were no doubt spending money all over the place. The cruise industry side estimates that each guest spends at least 125 dollars while ashore and that times 10000 is an amount that should make some people very happy.

And I think that some of those people have built new houses along Gastineau Channel, the entrance fjord which leads up to Juneau harbor. It is the only way in and out as just past the cruise ship docks they have built a bridge to connect the town of Douglas with Juneau and not far past it, the fjord becomes by shallow.

The port of Juneau with the connecting bridge to Douglas on the other side. (sourced from unknown location on the internet)

Getting and out is not that difficult as it is a straight channel, with only one bend and that bend is before we enter the port itself. It is not a natural bend; it is caused by all the rubble from the gold mine they dumped into the channel. In principle a good idea as it provides a natural breakwater for the port and on it they built docks and related. Everything that does not come to Juneau by airplane comes by barge and this is where the containers are loaded and off loaded. Just that the ships are much larger than when they built the rock dump as it is called.

The “outhouse” of Juneau Castle. Ventilation shaft remaining from the Goldmine days in Juneau. (sourced from unknown location on the internet)

That Gold mine gave rise to a nice story. Although the entrance is high above Juneau itself and now almost overgrown, the labyrinth of mine corridors goes all the way under the Gastineau Channel to the other side. When you come in you suddenly see a strange concrete little house sticking out. It looks a bit like an out house with the real house missing. In the 80’s we used to tell everybody that it was the last remainder of Lord Juneau’s Castle which was swept away during a heavy winter storm and indeed his outhouse was the last part left standing. 99% took it for gospel and were happy after taking a photo. The real purpose was that it was and is the top of a ventilation shaft from the mine all the way below. I only came once across one person who said: I did not know that they built castles from re-enforced concrete in the middle ages? That person was partly right and also completely wrong as Juneau only sprang to life in 1880 when gold was found.  Joe Juneau was only the first prospector here and was not much of a real Lord, being a French Canadian laborer who had come west to get rich.

Tomorrow we are in Ketchikan for a late morning arrival. The weather is supposed to change to what the town is famous for: rain and showers. But also the temperature is supposed to hit 16o C. or 61oF. and that is positively balmy for the locals.