As far as distance is concerned it is only a short hop between Victoria and Seattle. As far as the captain is concerned it is a very long hop to make. That has to do with changing pilots and the broken sleep on this stretch. The ms Statendam pulled out just before 23.00 last night and then disembarked the pilot outside the harbor entrance. Although in Canadian waters the area is so wide and is covered by VTS that it considered safe enough for all the ships to do their own thing. At least when going in the direction of Strait Juan de Fuca.

Thus for the next hour we sailed by ourselves to the south, crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca and ending up at Port Angeles pilot station where we embarked the Pudget Sound Pilot who guided the ship to Seattle. We have now arrived in American Territory. So the captain had departure, the crossing and then the pick up of the new pilot.  A soon as the ship is safely under way, there are about 4 hours of downtime before he has to be back on the bridge for arrival, as we dock most of the time around 05.30. By the time docking is finished it is nearly 07.00 hrs. and that is hardly a time to go back to bed as the whole world is waking up and demands attention.

If it there is some time, an early afternoon snooze might be available, but the ship sails already at 16.00 hrs. and at 15.30 there is the mandatory Guest boat drill which also requires the Captains presence and input. Then after moving off the dock and sailing back to the Port Angeles pilot station it requires the captain’s presence again. And if it were only the hours it would be just a day of regular routine but they are very intense hours as the bridge team is fully focused to ensure that everything goes according to plan.

Today the routine was upset a little bit as we had a change of command. Capt. Sybe de Boer went home and his position was taken by Capt. Vincent Smit. He will be in command of the Statendam for the next two months when Captain Chris Norman arrives who will take the ship first to Singapore and then to Sydney for the transfer to P&O Australia.

Smith Cove Cruise Terminal at Pier 91.

In Seattle we dock not in down town but at Smith Cove at Pier 91. Today we were at the West side of the dock, going Starboard side alongside. The other cruise terminal is at Pier 66 Bell street which is more down town. I spent some time trying to figure out what the better place to be is, as Smith Cove is quite a distance from down town Seattle. For the crew Bell Street would be ideal, almost in the middle of down town with Pike’s Market within walking distance. For the guests it is another story. There is much more space at Smith Cove for buses, taxis and for the loading of supplies. So operationally Holland America has the better spot. For glamour (being in every bodies* picture) maybe not so much.

What we also have in Seattle is Silent Disembark. Apart from a “welcome to the Port, we are starting now” there are no announcements. Guests are requested to stick to the times on their disembarkation paper. It makes sense to do that, as otherwise you will be stopped at the gangway anyway as your luggage will not have been offloaded yet into the terminal. So why should you leave if you can wait in the comfort of your stateroom? Holland America is the only large cruise ship company that gives this service. It puts a bit of pressure on the cabin stewards as it reduces their time do a complete clean of all the cabins before embarkation but it is a great service for the guests. To assist the cabin stewards help is called in from the dining room and with a concerted effort, all the cabins are ready by 11.30 hrs.

Seattle has a very well organized terminal with a lot of dedicated and friendly staff on standby who ensure that this silent disembark and effective luggage collecting really works. I saw this morning’s smooth routine with my own eyes as I was kicked off the ship as well for a short period; to help to reach “zero count”.

CBP wants to see a 000 on the security computer before they allow the flow to go the other way. I have to get off the ship as I live in limbo-land. I am crew according to the company but as I am not part of the ships complement, I am considered a guest by the CBP. (They call this a non-revenue passenger) So I have to get off, show my face to the CBP Officer, wait until the 000 has been reached and then I can return.  I use the waiting time to call my Lord and Master at home as they have a really strong Cell Phone signal outside the terminal.

Tonight and tomorrow we are retracing our route back north again. Staying West of Vancouver Island so we can make Ketchikan on time for the day after tomorrow.

Weather forecast for the North West Pacific: Not bad at all for the area. A light to moderate breeze with a low  (6 feet) swelling running from the North West, so we can expect a gentle movement of the ship.  Later on the winds are to increase but they will be following winds.

(*) nowadays maybe it should say not “in the picture” but more “in the selfie”.

By 08.00 in the morning, the ship lined up for entering Strait Juan de Fuca. Because it is such a busy waterway the strait has been divided into an ingoing route and an outgoing route. It is called a Vessel Traffic Separation Scheme. (VTSS) The peculiar thing with Juan de Fuca is, is that the VTSS scheme straddles two countries.  The outbound lane is in Canadian Waters and the Inbound Lane is in American Waters.

To make sure that everybody is behaving themselves there is also a Traffic Control system.   Again also divided between the two countries. The approach to the entrance is handled by the Canadians. It is called Tofino Traffic and named after the town where the Control station is located. All inbound and outbound traffic has to call in here to get cleared and to receive last minute information if needed.  They already know if a ship is coming as a pre-clearance message has to be sent a certain number of hours before entering the area covered by the system.

The message results normally in a pre-clearance when you are inbound. If the message is not received, there would be the option that you have to wait until clearance is given.   Once Tofino has approved your coming into the Strait, you can sail in and when about half way, you are handed over to Seattle Traffic which monitors the traffic further in the Strait and the traffic going to the Pudget Sound area.  At various locations you have to call in with a position report (To verify what they see on their Radars) and receive the latest traffic update.

Strait Juan de Fuca with the VTSS in the middle. The grey lanes indicate the routes all the ships are required to follow. There are even round-a-abouts in it to make it safer when crossing lanes. (Diagram, courtesy USCG)

Once through the Strait you stay with Seattle Traffic if you continue into American Waters or you are handed over to Victoria Traffic if you are turning north towards Victoria or Vancouver.   If you forget to call in, there will be quite quickly a berating voice on the VHF to ensure that you do not forget it a second time. Although English speaking on the ships has greatly improved in the last 20 years we still have occasionally ships that exhibit a very peculiar way of communicating and a very particular way of using the English Language.

I have heard conversations where one ship or the other was convinced that Seattle Traffic was a sort of messenger service with the result that an officer started reciting a complete shopping list to be forwarded to the ships agent. At another time a ship got really upset because it could not order a pilot via the VTS system. Normally the VTS is willing to help out with passing on ETA’s but it is not a booking service. They will raise the pilot station for you if you cannot get through. The dispatchers at the pilot stations are normally listening in anyway but their VHF antennas’ normally do not have the reach or the prominent locations of the VTS stations so direct communication can sometimes be challenging.

But the real duty of a VTS station is to ensure a safe flow of the traffic. Everywhere in the world we now have these vessel separation schemes, born out of necessity as there were too many accidents or close calls. They do not do anything directly apart from VHF contact but as they can inform ships of what is developing the result is that 99% of the time everything goes safely, day in day out. The remaining 1% is what cannot be controlled as there is no system which is completely fail safe. But VTS has of course the option to alert the Coastguard or any other law enforcement or support organization which has the capability of taking action. Either by dispatching patrol vessels or air craft or being on the dock when a ship arrives and investigate the issues which were reported by the VTS system.

The Statendam nicely called in at all the calling points and was allowed to progress accordingly. The Bridge gave their notice to the pilots for their boarding time and at the agreed time of 11.30 the Canadian pilot for Victoria hopped on board. We were the only cruise ship in today and by 12.30 the first guests proceeded ashore to start supporting the local economy.

The weather turned out as predicted. A chance of showers, one big one shortly after arrival and then it was dry for the remainder of the day.

This evening we will sail at 11 pm. for a quick hop across the Pudget sound to end our cruise in Seattle tomorrow morning.

Today the ship spent the day in the North Pacific Ocean, racing down the coast by following the western shore line of Vancouver Island.  If you are on a ship which goes to Vancouver you follow the Northern Shore line which brings you past Alert Bay and Seymour Narrows.  We are on a cruise which calls at Victoria which is located on the south side of Vancouver Island and then it makes sense to stay on the Ocean Side and return to inland waters via Strait Juan de Fuca. Going the other way, and doing both the Inside Passage / Seymour Narrows and then come south to Victoria, only works if the Tide at Seymour Narrows fits exactly in our cruise schedule. And as the tides change roughly 50 minutes every day it seldom would.

So we sail the western side of Vancouver Island and as the North Pacific was behaving itself we had a grand day at sea. Late in the morning the sun came out, the rain stayed away and on occasion there were whales around. There was still some following wind creating just enough motion to make you feel you were on a ship but not so much motion that it started to irritate. The daily program kept everybody busy and what I always find amazing is this wave that moves through the ship according to the items and times listed on the Daily Program. There is a group of guests who just relax and laze about but there is a larger group who want to partake in as much as possible, and they move with the schedule.  It is quite funny to watch this. When sitting in the Atrium where you can see both deck 7 and 8 where all the public areas of the ship are located. You see the whole ship on the move.

It starts at about 9.30am when rush hour Breakfast is over and when the church service comes to an end. Then people move to computer class, get ready for bridge and mill around the shops all aft of the Atrium. Just after 11 the wave goes to the front of the Atrium, into the Show lounge where the Location Guide is giving a lecture. By 12.30 pm. the wave goes the other way again, partly up to the Lido and partly to the Dining room, both located aft of the Atrium, as it is lunch time.

After lunch it gets complicated; at 13.00 there is a cooking demonstration in the Wajang Theatre with celebrity chefs, at 13.30 there is a tournament in the Casino, both aft of the Atrium but at 2 pm there is dancing with the Stars in the Show Room At Sea. Then towel folding is added in the Explorers Lounge, Computer lessons have started again, there is a mixology class, bridge and cupcake tea. Guests are now all over the place and the wave is dividing itself in small rivers. This continues until dinner and then the regular wave starts again as the restaurants are near the stern and the Ocean Bar, Crows nest and Showroom at Sea are near the bow area.  Wedged in between are the photographers who have set up “obstacles” everywhere to catch the guests going one way or the other.

In a way I have a deep respect for these photographers as they have to try to get clientele to pose and the time is not always to the guests liking. So a considerable amount of moaning and groaning goes on. Then at the same time I see the Photographers doing a very steady trade at their shop and that means that the moaning and groaning cannot be that heartfelt.

We should be entering Strait Juan de Fuca just after 8 am tomorrow morning and then sail in on the American side of the Strait. The Captain is aiming for an 11.30 hrs Victoria pilot time and then it will take about 30 minutes to get to the dock. Add another 30 minutes for putting the gangway in place and clearing the ship: so I hope that everybody will be able to go ashore by 12.30 hrs.

Tomorrow morning I am going to try and “upset” the wave as at 09.00 I will be giving my Holland America Line lecture. Fairly early but I cannot upset the wave “too much” as everybody has to go first to the stern for lunch before moving forward again to go to the gangway.

Weather for Victoria: Chance of Rain. Victoria is very British, so a bit of rain fits right in.

Ps. For those interested, the USCG has published a few photos about our Medivac off Kodiak Island the other day.

http://www.uscgnews.com/go/doc/4007/2565154/Multimedia-Release-Coast-Guard-medevacs-cruise-ship-passenger-near-Kodiak-Alaska

After a bit of a wobbly night the Statendam arrived in Sitka. Being the only larger ship in port it could anchor on the nearest deep water anchorage, reducing the tender distance considerably. I have been there with 3 ships at anchor in the past and the furthest one out was looking at a tender distance of nearly 25 minutes. Not fun, but nothing you could really do about it.  

When we arrived the weather was as I predicted misty mountain weather, low clouds between the mountains and looking quite gloomy. However it turned out that it was the last end of the weather system and in the course of the morning the sun came out and it turned into a real summer’s day. The guests were very lucky here and it showed as most of them came back to the ship quite late in the afternoon.  In the late afternoon even Mount Edgecombe came out of the clouds. Mount Edgecombe is a dormant volcano which dominates the area and is located at the entrance to Sitka. On the way in and on the way out you have to sail by it.

Mount Edgecombe as seen from the ship while sailing in

About 30 years ago, a group of what was assumed locals, dropped a lot of car tires in the cone of the mountain and on April 1^st. set it on fire as it was April Fool’s day. Well it was a good joke as a lot of people took it seriously and thought that the mountain had come to life again.  As far as I know, the pranksters were never found. They say the tires were brought to the mountain cone by helicopter which flew up and down on the sea side so nobody in the town had any suspicion. Must have been costly to do but the prank made quite an impact. Today I did not see any smoke and thus Mount Edgecombe was still in deep sleep.

Although not everybody realizes it, Alaska is full of active volcanoes but as most of them are located in very remote areas they do not threaten the population very much. They are located on the same fault line as Mount St. Helens which of course did have an impact on the local area. When that volcano erupted, I was on a ship called the Incotrans Spirit as a cadet. This was a container ship which was owned by the company that had bought the Holland America Line cargo division in 1973. We had just left Portland Oregon and were on our way to Seattle when the bang came. When we heard that part of the Columbia River had filled with debris and was not navigational any more, the captain was not a very happy man. ……………3 weeks in port or longer would not have good for business. The four cadets, including me, had different thoughts as three weeks of fun in Portland was something we would not have minded at all. One of us said so to the captain and he was then tasked to hose down the whole ship of the ash that had come down during the night. Volcanic ash tends to be a bit sticky and my dear colleague spent a lot more hours than he had initially thought on hosing down all the containers and the decks.  We did not see the eruption but we did hear the bang, even while being 10 to 20 miles out at sea.

Later on I sailed on the Columbia River again with the ss Rotterdam (V) but as the Crater wall broke at the North side, there was not much to see from the river side. When I told the captain that the river had been closed for deep sea traffic, he did not want to believe me as the mountain itself is quite a distance away from the river. So I had to get the books out and show it to him.  Being the captain as he was, the conclusion was for him not ever to doubt me any more as I seemed to have proof for everything.  Later on that gave me a lot of work, as every time he had a question or a query, I was called for to present the undisputed answer.  It gave me a while the nickname: $@$#@$# – librarian on board. Which I considered more of a compliment than to be upset about.

As promised by the Captain, the Statendam stayed an hour longer and everybody had the chance to enjoy a real sunny day.  Sitka still has several remnants of the Russian days in Alaska and that heritage makes it a nice change from the other ports.

Tomorrow we are at sea, sailing down the coast of Vancouver Island and heading for Victoria where we will arrive around noon time the day after tomorrow. The weather is going to be “changeable” which means it can go either way. So we will just wait and see. Maybe rain, maybe not.

And then the good ship Statendam sailed from Kodiak and headed for Yakutat Bay. It turned out to be an eventful ride. First the Bright Star alarm went off, indication a medical emergency in one of the guest cabins, and it turned out to be a real emergency. Sometime later the Captain came on the P.A system advising all of us that the Statendam had slowed down and we were waiting for a USCG Helicopter from Kodiak Air station to air lift the patient to hospital.  In the meantime the weather had taken a turn for the worse and wind and swell were increasing. This is normally not much of an issue for a Helicopter as long as the winds are not hurricane force and as long as the ship is able to maneuver in such a way that the pilot can find a nice balance between the helicopter speed, the wind velocity and the ships speed.

Lift off can take place either from the bow or the stern and most of the time it is from the bow. This time the pilot opted for the stern. It is the pilot’s choice, as he/she has to make it happen.  The lift off went very well  and I like to think that I had a little positive voice in that as not three days earlier I had taken all the stake holders through a table top exercise about how to follow all the protocols for such an evolution. The patient is now in Anchorage and we all hope that a speedy recovery will take place.

But the slowing down and the adverse weather were not good for maintaining schedule and thus the captain had to speed up to make up time and try to make the most of it for our visit to Hubbard Glacier.  We arrived a bit later than scheduled today but in principle it did not matter as it is still day light until late in the evening and thus there is no cut off time as far as that is concerned. Then we had a bit of luck; the ice was very well spread out so the Statendam could go up the bay much faster than could have been the case.  To get to the Glacier is a distance of about 20 miles which means even at full speed it takes an hour. We normally plan for 2 hours, so if you can do it in 1.5 hrs. or less, you make up considerable time in the schedule.

The ms Statendam passing Point LaTouche and entering the upper bay.

Yakutat Bay is made up of three parts as far as our business is concerned. There is the town of Yakutat from where the pilot boat is dispatched, as the bay is in inland waters and thus pilotage is compulsory; and then there is the bay itself divided into a lower bay and an upper bay.  The upper bay part starts at Point Latouche a nick in the land which was named after a French explorer who ended up there. This point is for us sailors quite significant as often there can be a lot of ice there. The constant outflow of water from the glaciers (Hubbard is the biggest one but far from the only one) pushes the ice to open sea (and the ice pieces are much bigger than in Glacier Bay) and the ocean tide pushes them back again when the flood comes in. Then there is the wind which has a certain influence and for all of those reasons the ice seems to like to congregate around point Latouche, even when the rest of the upper and lower bay is almost ice free.

I think this also shows the vast size of the area. In the centre the old Sky Princess (ex Fairsky and long since gone) being dwarfed by the size of Hubbard Glacier.

But once we were passed this ice field it was open all the way to the face. We were not the only ship there, the Seven Seas Navigator was in at the same time but the area is so big and the Glacier face so wide that you could have 5 cruise ships there without bothering each other as long as the captains are cooperating with each other.  That is a lot better than it was in the past so today there was no issue at all. The Navigator kept to one side and the Statendam to the other side. Having another large cruise ship there has an advantage; the guests can see really how everything is on a massive scale here.  I always had the vision of having a mock-up Empire State Building on a barge and tow that in front of the Glacier Face during the season. Not feasible but it would show how puny even such a big building would be against the vast mass of Hubbard.

After a good look around, with a considerable amount of calving going on, we turned around and sailed back to the Gulf of Alaska. We made up some time, without it affecting the Glacier experience but we will still be late in Sitka. However there are no worries, the tours were moved and the ship will simply stay a bit longer.

We will have a bit of a bumpy ride towards Sitka but inside it should be calm as we will be sheltered by the mountains.

Weather: looking at the weather chart, I am predicting a Misty-Mountain day but good visibility below mountain level.  The rain might come or not. That will depend on how the rain clouds will bump against the mountains and how fast this weather system moves over.

Kodiak is for South West Alaska, what Ketchikan is for South East Alaska. The rainy City; it can rain a lot here. However we did not see any rain at all. They have dry days and those days are in the summer.  We had one of those dry days with even a ray of sunshine coming through. During the night the ship sailed from Homer into the southern part of Cook Inlet and then curved around Elizabeth Island back into the Gulf of Alaska. From there it was a more or less straight southerly course to Kodiak Island.

The town Kodiak is located on the east side of Kodiak Island which gives it shelter from the nasty Winter weather.  As it is an island everything has to go and come by either plane or ship and the island has its own container terminal. As there is a lively fishing industry the island has several other docks as well. A second source of income is tourism, with the emphasis on Eco tourism and fishing. Visiting cruise ships help of course as well.

Kodiak harbour. In the front the Ferry dock, then dock 2 with the Statendam and the Container dock in the far distance.

Thus we docked this morning at dock nbr 2. While dock nbr 1 is the container dock and then further up the port is a 3^rd dock for the Alaska State Ferry which is one of the connections with the main land. Because the port of Kodiak is directly connected to the open Ocean, the water is not pushed up a fjord as is the case with Cook Inlet. The tidal range is not as extreme as in Anchorage; where 20+ feet is not unusual. Here in Kodiak today it was a more modest 6.5 feet.  It made life a lot easier for the ship as it did not have to move the gangway around so often.

For the crew it was a busy day as there was a General Boat drill for everybody. This is a three stage alarm but with me on board giving separate fire fighting training and drills, the first stage was omitted and we started with the Crew Alert Alarm. This alarm indicates that everybody has to assemble (in an emergency Guests will be asked to return to their cabins and prepare for abandoning ship) at the location related to their emergency function. Then the General Emergency Alarm (GEA) will sound and everybody, Guests and Crew alike, will make their way to their muster stations at the lifeboats.

I normally pick one item to review during such a drill and will check something which the captain on the bridge may not see or monitor. So today I was a passenger with a broken leg; sitting in the cabin waiting to be rescued.  As soon as the (GEA) sounds the cabin stewards will start to help the guests to go to their lifeboat stations and then check all cabins if they are empty. So eventually they will also find a guest who has fallen out of bed, or whatever. It took only about 5 minutes before they came to my cabin and after some high-drama from my side, they fetched a wheelchair and rolled me to the Atrium.

There is a Medical Officer stationed at this location to be on hand if a guest would fall down the stairs, or would have issues while at the muster stations. So I was delivered into the capable hands of the ships medical department. Because I was injured I could not go to my own life raft but was taken to one of the Tenders which also acts as a sort of ambulance in the water.  We have four tenders and as we have four medical staff, each tender has one medical person on board. In case of a real emergency these tenders would be topped up with medical materials so that they could sail around all the lifeboats and life rafts in the water and provide care where needed. If there would have been patients in the ships Infirmary, like me with my broken leg, then those patients go with a medical person in one of the tenders, even if they officially belong in another lifeboat. We always have extra space in our lifeboats as we normally do not sell all the bunk beds in the cabins and there are quite a few cabins on board with a single occupancy.  So I was saved and am therefore able to tell the tale.

Crew BBQ on the forward observation deck. In two hours most of the crew were able to rotate through with free soda’s included.

Once the drill was over, something was arranged that also had the full attention of the crew. The Hotel Director had organized a crew BBQ on the observation deck on the bow. As it was dry, and as it was sort of sunny, it was a great happening and a good time was had by all.

By 2 pm. we were on our way again, heading for the Yakutat, where tomorrow afternoon we will do some scenic cruising in Yakutat Bay and hopefully see some spectacular ice falls at Hubbard Glacier. The weather is going to be chilly of course with all the ice around but hopefully the sun will make it pleasant and boost the temperatures up to a balmy 45oF. (12oC)

A new port on my list as I had never been here. Not a difficult port as such, the dock is just around the corner from Cook Inlet and shielded to a certain extent from the currents. It is not shielded from the winds as the area is completely flat and open. It cannot be cozy over there in the winter time.  The Statendam arrived nice and early giving the guests some extra time ashore. 

I always had the impression that Homer was a sleepy fishing town at the edge of the Gulf of Alaska. Today I saw a traffic jam caused by SUV’s and Pickup Trucks.  If you are into Pick-up trucks for a hobby then this is the place to be, I never saw so many variations in my whole life. All by owners who come here for the fishing. Rows and Rows of cars, pickup trucks and RV’s (from small ones to the big ones that set you back at least a $ 100,000 or more.)

The Spit. A large sandbank sticking out from the mainland. The Statendam docked at the end, where the deep water harbour is.

Basically the area is split up in two parts. I read it in the daily program and when I went ashore I understood why. There is Homer itself, laid back from the port and there is “the Spit” where all these fishing people gather. Holland America had of course its own tours going but there was a local shuttle service as well, in School buses. Another first in my life, I have never sat in an American school bus before and it directly puzzled me. Why are those back seats so high? I am 5’8’’ and I could just look over the rim of the seat in front of me. 

My view from the school bus sitting straight up.

The school bus – shuttle had two options, one called the hop on hop off which went around Homer itself and cost $ 15, — and the free shuttle to “the Spit”. As I wanted to know what all these parked cars were about, which I could see from the bridge, I hopped on the free shuttle and then found out about the fishing.

Part of “The Spit” restaurants, shops, etc. built on piles at the waters edge.

“The Spit” is basically a tourist area full of fishing restaurants, a few tourist shops and some regular shops geared towards the fisherman. With so many people coming in, these places do a thriving business even if they are located at the end of the world.

A little bit of England in Alaska.

Two of the restaurants offered “real Fish and Chips” and to outdo each other, one restaurant gave you the option to eat your fish and chips in a Real English London Double Decker, a Roadmaster bus. I wonder how they got that one all the way from London to Homer.

The Spit from the Air. Courtesy Wikipedia via Us Corps of Army Engineers.

To really understand this place, I had to look it up. We have an excellent Location Guide on board, her name is Wallis, but I have had no time yet to attend her presentations so I have to make do with Wikipedia. The Spit is a piece of land protruding from the mainland and that makes it quite convenient to have a marina there and a deep water harbor so that larger ships can dock as well.

The Marina and the deepwater dock with our Statendam.

Today we had the Statendam and an Alaskan State Ferry in port.  It also claims to have the longest road in the world leading out into Ocean.

I am not an ornithologist, so if anybody knows what the real name of the little sea gulls is, please let me know.

Sticking out so far into the sea makes it a natural place for Sea Gulls (small version) to live and many were nesting on the foundation of our pier. As Seagulls are normally not potty-trained the smell is rather distinctive when you come off the ship and only relents by the time you come to the parking area. We had a sunny but chilly day today and I think that the guests really enjoyed themselves and this is a really interesting place to visit. I was glad that I made the effort to go ashore. Homer itself will have to wait until I call here again.

My day was spent training all the Concessions (Shops, Casino, Ocean Spa) etc. in how to be a proper Stairway Guide. The crew you see giving directions in the staircases during boat drill.  My main focus is on Crowd Control and Human Behavior so they learn how to deal with guests during a real emergency and not just during the regular passenger boat drill routine.

We sailed just after 18.00 hrs. and we are now heading to Kodiak. Kodiak is located on Kodiak Island just south of the entrance to Cook Inlet.  The weather is holding and we are supposed to have another sunny day or at least a dry day. Temperatures are supposed to be in the low sixties’.

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

And indeed there was a low running swell coming across from the Pacific which made the Statendam gently ride on the waves. Although for some guests they might not have called it gentle if it was a completely new experience to them. Still it was a gentle motion and not bad at all for the Gulf of Alaska.  What started off as a murky day with no wind, turned into a very sunny day with a stiff breeze in the afternoon. However by the time that this stiff breeze could whip up the waves sufficiently and make the ride rougher, the ship was coming under the lee of the land and going around the corner heading towards Cook Inlet.

Anchorage is located all the way up Cook Inlet necessitating an approx. 10 hour pilot time to get there. It is as the crow flies not that much more to the north than Seward where Holland America calls with the Zaandam but unfortunately there is land, with a mountain range in between called the Kenai Peninsula and you have to sail around that.  On the other side there are more mountains, called the Alaska Range and in between is a 180 mile long inlet called the Cook Inlet.  Captain James Cook surveyed the area in 1774 but it was his then time assistant captain George Vancouver who came back in 1878 and named the fjord after his former ship’s master. He also named what now is the city of Vancouver after himself. Vancouver was from Dutch descent as his family had emigrated from Holland to England some time before and came from the town of Coevorden. So they styled themselves Van Coevorden (Van = means coming from in Dutch) and it had got anglicized to Vancouver.

Cook Inlet. I pulled this chartlet from a geological site. The little named triangles are Volcano observation stations.

Due to the fact that cruise ships have to sail around the Kenai Peninsula when coming from Vancouver or the USA means that fewer cruise ships call here.  The port gets a fair amount of cruise ship calls but as a port of call during a longer cruise but not as a turn over port during a regular 7 or 10 day Alaska Cruise. The Statendam cruise can make it here as Anchorage is scheduled as part of the 14 day cycle. But for a 7 day up and 7 day down it does not work unless you forgo another port in the cycle to create the time needed for sailing up Cook Inlet. The sailing around the Kenai Peninsula just takes too long.  Thus Anchorage is mainly a cargo port for container ships and barges and it is the largest cargo entry port for Alaska.  In 2010 only 13 cruise ships called here against over 300 cargo ships. Of those 13 calls, it was the Amsterdam who made 75% of them during the summer season.

But we have to get there first, and that meant pedal to the metal from Icy Strait Point across the Gulf, around the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula and then up Cook Inlet. As it is inland waters it is a pilotage area and the ship was aiming for a pilot pick up shortly before 10 pm.   Two pilots are taken on board as the average transiting time for the 160 miles under pilotage is about 10 hours. If you have the (strong) current with you, then it can be less, if it against you it can be more. Official arrival time for the ship is 08.00 hrs. and with a rule of thumb it means that the ship normally approaches the dock just after 7 am.

Basically you could see this run from the South East Alaska Inside Passage as a sort of highway at sea. The motorway starts at Cape Spencer and if you select a North Westerly course you follow the coast on a straight line. First branch off is to go to Valdez /Prince William Sound , the 2^nd one is to head for Seaward / Resurrection Bay and the 3^rd one is for Anchorage / Cook Inlet.  At all three entrances there are pilot boarding stations of the Southwest Alaska Pilot Association (SWAPA) whose pilots then come on board and guide the ship towards the final destination.

So tonight the pilots will board us off Homer, at the entrance of Cook Inlet,  a port we will visit on the way down from Anchorage and we then will sail all the up the Cook Inlet.

The weather for tomorrow looks really good, sunny with temperatures in the high fifties maybe touching the low sixties.

By 07.00 hrs. the Statendam was at anchor at Icy Strait Point anchorage for a ¾ day call. The ship cannot really stay much longer as it is a high speed run to get to Anchorage. The city’s port area is tucked away deep in a (wide) fjord and the ship has to sail all the way up.

Icy Strait Point was created by the local Indian Tribe who live nearby in Hoonah. It is the only privately owned Alaskan Tourist destination. The Huna Totem Corporation is in turn owned by the locals, many of whom are Tlingit people, a tribe which has always lived around the Glacier Bay area. Originally it came in existence as an alternative for ships that did not have Glacier Bay permits. They could stop there and send local tourists boats in; which they still do.  As it was very successful, Hoonah & Icy strait Point developed into a destination of its own.  It is great way to immerse oneself into the Native Culture. Apart from that there are whale watching tours, (Sightings Guaranteed), Bear watching tours (Sightings Not Guaranteed) and there is even a zip line experience which lays claim to the fame of being the longest and highest in the world.

I mentioned already before in my blog that Holland America operates this cruise to offer an extra option to the cruise guest, many of whom are Mariners…… and have already bought the T shirt.  Thus on this cruise we do not call at Glacier Bay but at Hubbard Glacier and the cruise is a full 14 day round trip Seattle – Seattle without a changeover of guests half way.

Thus the guests can immerse themselves in the local folklore, either by staying near the tender dock, where there is a museum, restaurant and shops, and from where also the tours are leaving, or walk the one mile distance into Hoonah itself. This is not a tourist town but a fully operational regular town – all year around -. Although as half the local economy revenue comes from the Tourist Industry, the town is a bit busier and active in the summer months than in the winter months.

As the regular dock was not available to day, the ship anchored and it was a 10 minutes ride to the Landing Site

My interest was more professional as I had never seen the dock; always having been on the ships on the other routes. So I took the last Tender over to have a quick look at the situation. Of course as the tender dock was designed with cruise purposes in mind it was perfect for the job. More or less the standard that we now find everywhere in Alaska. No doubt partly due to the influence of our Agency who knows what the ships need and –good- standardization is a blessing for our operation.  It makes things go a lot smoother if you do not have to re-invent the wheel each time.

The old Fish packing factory, now the local museum, overlooks the tender dock.

Even a perfect tender dock has one glaring omission and that is not being able to deal with the tidal variation. A lot of water is pushed in from the Pacific and a few hours later pushed out again and the tender dock goes up and down accordingly. Also today a few guests were surprised. On arrival the ramp from the dock was nearly flat, by the time they came back from shore, it was quite steep. For those who have left their mountain climbing days behind, we have helpers on the dock side to give the supporting arm and /or carry the shopping so the guest can use both hands to make his/her way down the ramp.

Long time ago in Sitka, one of the guests came back with a scooter was scared to drive down such a steep ramp and asked the helper to do it for her.  He was really excited about doing that, too excited; he gave full gas and raced down the ramp and was carried by the continuing momentum over the edge and straight into the icy Sitka waters.  No doubt a very sobering experience which cooled his excitement considerably. We were able to help the lady with one of our rental scooters which we had on board and she was so impressed with that model that she bought it off the rental agency. So it all worked out in the end.

We had a nice a dry day while being here and a full day call would have been fun. But the captain could not wait to get the pedal to the metal and race into the Gulf of Alaska to keep the schedule.

The weather for the crossing looks quite good; overcast but no rain and wind and maybe even sun later in the day. But it has been breezy in the last few days and thus there will still be some swell left and that means that for one day we will feel like being on a real ship again.