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.

ms Zaandam docked at Haines during a sunny summers day. (Courtesy, unknown Zaandam deck officer)

Today we were back in Haines, named quaint by a lot of the guests on board. I reserve judgement but if it helps to attract tourists and the locals are happy with it, then quaint it is. But as explained 14 days ago, it looks different compared to other Alaskan towns as the houses we see here were constructed by the army. The army builds standard stuff and obviously they do not have an “Alaska standard” in their house design options.

Haines has been upgrading their dock through the years and can now accommodate a Vista Class ship and still has some space left so the ship can set regular mooring lines. If a ship of any longer length would dock, all the lines would be spring lines and there would be no head or stern lines as the ship would be overhanging the dock. Some companies have therefore tried/pushed for a second dock. But a longer dock would mean a longer walk to the town and it seems that Haines is not in a hurry. According to the security man on the pier, one ship is enough. He said, he was already making more dollars than he could spend. I wonder how much money he is making then. On the other hand I suppose in Alaska you might spend less as there is less to spend on, unless you shop via the internet.

Docking at Haines. If you put the brakes on on time, all will be well.

Docking in Haines consists of going around the corner when coming south from Icy Strait via the Lynn Canal and then putting the brakes on on time so you do not end up with the nose in the mud. Slowing down the ship in such a way that it stops exactly at the planned point is the hardest part of the whole operation.  Therefore it is one of the great ports for the Junior Officers to learn to maneuver the ship. The captain can always correct the speed of the ship, either slowing down or by speeding up, without anything drastic happening.

Normally the pilot initiates the turn, which is almost a 90o from a northerly to a westerly course and while doing so, the ship slows down. For the last 3/10^th of a mile we want to be down to 6 knots or less so you can continue to keep reducing gradually.  The pilot has to make the turn as it is still considered navigation. Once there is nothing anymore to navigate it comes all down to pure maneuvering, then the pilot is allowed to hand over to the Captain.   It works the same in Glacier Bay. The pilot brings the ship to the Glacier and once the ship is in position and stopped, the captain can then do his sightseeing bit. That mostly consists  of the Balcony maneuver. A full swing ensuring that each side gets the same amount of time facing the glacier.

In Haines the pilot does the same, when the ship is nearly there, there is nothing to navigate anymore so he/she can step back. We do not have to do the balcony maneuver here as we always dock portside alongside, with the nose to the west. Or better said with the nose towards the shallow area near the shore. You can dock with the propellers to the west, by going starboard side alongside but it brings those propellers very close to the shallows. Nobody likes that, so portside it is. Starboard side would be handier operationally. The R class has an extra gangway door on A deck on the starboard side. Not on the portside. One of those arguments between the practical people and the bean keepers. An extra exit versus the extra revenue of one more cabin; so a compromise was made. So in ports with a large tidal range we try to dock sb. As you have then the option for a gangway on B deck, A Deck, Main Deck and the Lower promenade deck. Here we have large tides as well and we constantly have to move gangways between the various decks to ensure that the gangways are not too steep for the guests.

Today we had nearly perfect Alaska weather, at least as far as we cruise people are concerned. The security man on the dock thought it was much too warm. It was overcast with a tinge of sun coming through, a moderate breeze from the East but the mountains shielded the town from much of this wind. Temperatures wer just around 60oF or 15oC.

Tomorrow we are expected to have a similar day but with less wind and thus the temperatures are expected to rise to a balmy 19oC / 67oF. I have seen it warmer in Juneau, but I am happily signing off on it as long as there is no rain.

It was a regular Glacier Bay day. Due to the climate / weather differences in the lower and upper bay, we had almost all variations of weather, except snow and sun shine. Not so good for the –picture perfect cruise image- but very good for the actual experience. Glacier Bay is not the Caribbean and today the guests saw the area as it was meant to be and what it looks like after all the cruise ships have gone when the season has ended.

To help us tell the story of Glacier Bay we embark the Rangers at Bartlett Cove where the Ranger Station is located. Once it was just the organizational office needed for administering Glacier Bay National Park, and when a cruise ship showed up a Ranger would hop on board and tell something about the area. It gave them an extra chance of travelling up the bay and to get a decent dinner. Bartlett Cove has an airport but the National Park budget in those days was not as such that a life of luxury could be lived there and all that was needed easily flown in.

This was still the case in the early 80’s when I came for the first time to Glacier Bay on the good old Statendam. The Rangers, mainly Ladies, came on board and apart from doing their Cultural thing did not mind at all to combine it with a visit to the Hair dressers. Back packs came on board full of books for sale, backpacks left the ship full of other things “collected” at the Lido Buffet or given to them by a friendly crewmember.  One Ranger told me, that Holland America was always much appreciated as it meant a Cheese and Wine party after they all arrived back at the Ranger Station. She was less complimentary about P & O; she probably did not like the British Food or something like it.

Then the cruise ship boom started and more and bigger ships came to Glacier Bay. To service all the ships, more Rangers were needed and led by Holland America financial support came to the National Park. That support varied from direct – fee- payments to donating and maintaining a complete oil spill barge and related, just for the case of. The Ranger station put their educational approach on a more professional footing (all Rangers now use the same script while on board) and the program was extended by bringing an Indian Representative with the team. This person tells about the history of the Indian tribe in the area who for centuries lived (and still lives) right outside Glacier Bay. They really never lived inside the Bay because before 1780 you could not even get into the Bay as the ice reached all the way down to Icy Strait.

Glacier Bay National Park. It extends over a very large area. Well into the Pacific Ocean and encircles the complete Brady Ice field.

With the Glaciers retreating you could sail the full lower bay after 1860 and since 1907 you could get all the way up to the Glaciers we visit today. Lamplugh, John Hopkins (in September only), Marjorie and Grand Pacific Glacier. People did live inside the Bay, well into the 1950’s there were a few homesteads scattered throughout the area. I remember there was one close to Reid Glacier at the entrance to the upper bay.

Glacier Bay Park Ranger Station. Guests with the bigger cruise ships will never see this. I have only been here once in my 37 years at sea. And that was because I had to arrange for a Medical Evacuation from one of the ships. A Medivac airplane flew in, the patient was transferred and a life was saved.

The Ranger experience which is now offered on the ships was drawn up in close cooperation with the Cruise ship company’s. From their side the whole cruise program for the day centers around the Glacier Bay experience and from the Ranger side the program is setup in such a way that it fits in seamlessly with the route the ships follow and what the company likes to get out of it as well. One example is that I saw from nearby was to develop the Youth part of the program. We have on board, Club HAL for toddlers and teens, and during the day they participate in a small Ranger / Glacier Bay program.  One crew member normally the Travel Guide, is the program coordinator who acts as a liaison between the ship and the Rangers.  Altogether it makes for a very successful day and brings a lot of people much closer to nature. Sometimes people who did not even realize that such a beautiful National Park exists.

The Zaandam said goodbye to the Rangers around 19.00 hrs. and the continued its voyage to Skagway where we are to arrive at 06.00 hrs. in the morning. Early but then the first tour leaves at 06.30. Who said that being a tourist in Alaska is an easy job ??

As humans do something seldom in the simple way, they decided to give the northern top of the North Pacific Ocean a separate name. Called it the Gulf of Alaska. But really we are sailing in the Pacific Ocean and the weather generated here comes mainly from far away from the West or South Pacific.  Because of the high stretch of open water any bad weather can come over without any hindrance and often increases in “nastiness” while doing so due to relatively warm waters here.  There is a lot of cold water flowing out but it does not stand the competition with the warmer waters which come up the coast from the south. At some places where this glacier water comes out into the ocean, it almost looks like that the waters do not mix. I have seen that myself a few times and as the photo below shows, it looks quite impressive. The salty sea water has a hard time mixing with the sediment laden fresh water coming from the glaciers.

Meeting of the Waters, somewhere near the Prince William Sound. (Photo courtesy: Ken Butland, professor of ocean sciences at University of California-Santa Cruz)

Other places where I have seen this occurring is in Germany where the Rhine and Mosel rivers merge and on the Amazon River, just outside Manaus. Here the Solimoes River (the main tributary of the Amazon) meets the Rio Negro coming from Manaus. The Solimoes River is sweet and has a lot of sand sediment in it and the Rio Negro is an acid river which carries very little in sediment. When these come together the water has a hard time mixing but eventually does of course. If we come across it somewhere and it is in deep water we try to sail through it right on the boundary so guests can see a different water color on each side of the ship. The mixing effect of the propellers then blurs the border line for a while. But it is amazing how fast this borderline is re-established. In Alaska I have not seen it for a long time, not since Hal pulled out of Prince William Sound.

Meeting of the Waters. Just outside Manaus where the Solimoes River and the Rio Negro meet to go downstream as the Amazon. (Courtesy: unknown photographer, somewhere on the Internet)

We used to call there for a long number of years, stopping at Valdez and then sailing up College Fjord. We could only do that when we did not go to Glacier Bay but to Hubbard Glacier. I like Hubbard Glacier but it is very unpredictable. Sometimes it produced so much ice that we could not even get in the Bay and then had to disappoint our guests. Glacier Bay is a bit of a calmer experience and Marjorie Glacier normally obliges with a bit of calving and you get a full day and the Ranger Experience thrown in as well. Thus with us calling at Glacier Bay has the knock on effect that we have to spend our last day at sea. To me that makes sense as well; if you are on a cruise then part of the experience is to enjoy the ship itself.

The Gulf is normally a quiet sea from May to the end of September when the first winter storms start to come through. Then it becomes very un-pleasant here. For those of you who have watched The Deadliest Catch will get the idea. The fishing boats are of course a lot smaller than we are and sometimes they are out in the open when a normal person would have sought shelter. But still the Gulf can cause the ship to get in a roller coaster experience if the storm happens to be in synch with the cruise schedule. The last time it happened to one of our ships was in 2012 when the Statendam under the command of Captain Consen had to cancel Glacier Bay and race to Seward to be inside before the approaching storm would hit the coast. Not very nice to cancel the high light of the cruise but he had to keep the schedule as a full ship of guests were coming down from the interior with nowhere else to go. Frans went home in Seward and was relieved by Yours Truly and the first thing I did was to cancel departure. The swell outside Resurrection Bay was over 25 feet high and not really safe to meet head on. Luckily I could make up the lost time the next day and we could call at Glacier Bay as planned. The ones that relly enjoyed themselves were the crew who had two over nights in Seward. And although Seward is not known for its night life, the crew always finds a way to turn things to their advantage. Even if it only using the free Wi-Fi in the terminal.

Tomorrow we are in Seward and the ship should be docked just after 05.00 hrs. The first guests will be leaving just after 05.30 and then the first new guests will arrive early in the afternoon. The weather looks good and I need that because the sailors need to train with the Tenders. It looks that I will need my sun glasses.

If you look at the map, sailing from Ketchikan to open sea is a sort of Zig-Zag happening in a vertical way. From Ketchikan we go down, around Cape Decision, and then up to Juneau. Then we have to go out of Juneau again and around the corner up to Skagway. From there we go down again around the corner and up into Glacier Bay. This afternoon we go down again out of Glacier Bay, sail westwards through the Gulf of Alaska and then up into Resurrection Bay to Seward. Nearly all the fjord and inlets in Alaska have a North South orientation and that makes sense as most of them have been carved out by glaciers. And the glaciers run North South as all the cold comes from the North Pole and stretches south from there.

So when we left Skagway we sailed south through Lynn Canal and then around the corner to Glacier Bay via Icy Strait. Not that we saw much of it as it was foggy all the way. As a result the captain was quite busy with letting the world know he was working by pulling the fog horn every two minutes with two long blasts.  One blast is the attention signal in the collision regulations or coll-regs. Then by adding a second one in a two minute cycle everybody around knows that it is a fog signal of a ship that is moving through the water.  If a ship is at anchor, then you ring the ships bell every minute for at least 5 seconds, for that reason the ships bell is always located at the bow, and with a longer ship you also beat a gong at the stern.  We seldom use those two signals. as we seldom are at anchor in the fog. While at anchor in the fog you are also allowed to give in addition, a whistle signal, the R in Morse code:  short – long –short.

Glacier Bay, looking towards the Grand Pacific Glacier which is almost black due to all the debris it carries down from the mountain. The white ice in front comes from the Marjorie Glacier.

The past night and early morning we sailed and did not anchor, so honking the horn twice every two minutes was enough. As expected the fog cleared once we entered the bay and we could expect that because there water temperature changes due to could water outflow from the glaciers. In Icy Strait (that name stems from the day, that the whole of Glacier Bay was a Glacier and the calving ice drifted through this “Icy Strait” to open sea) the water tends to be a little bit warmer due to the Pacific Ocean water coming in. That is not a complete proof of theory because the moment the air temperature rises fog can occur due to other temperature fluctuations again. I have sailed into Glacier Bay with nice weather and the fog and haze did not lift until we were in the upper bay and very close to the glaciers.

But today the white clouds lifted and were replaced with a gloomy visibility until we came higher up in the bay and we had overcast but nice weather. The verdict will always be out there; what is better for Glacier Bay, sunny and warm, or Overcast and cool. I tend to vote for the latter, not because I want to deprive guests of a sunny Glacier Bay experience, but with overcast weather the photos tend to come out better. Sun reflects of the ice and then you need to be a good photographer to get a natural photo without glare. As most of our guests use their tablets or small digital cameras, overcast weather tends to work better in general.

To the left the tunnel for the water outflow. To the right the rock which has been visible this year for the first time because the Glacier has retreated so much.

I reported last week that Marjorie Glacier had a large pinnacle sticking out in the middle; well it fell the next day and now we can really see that the Glacier has retreated considerably since last year. Also the river under the glacier has moved. Each glacier has a sort of tunnel under it, through which the melting water from the underside of the glacier flows. This water is also helping the Glacier to move forward. The tunnel is normally visible at low tide and last year it was almost in the middle of the Glacier. Since then it has moved towards the South side and today we could see it as we arrived at the Glacier face at nearly low tide.

Tomorrow we are at sea and we will cross the Gulf of Alaska. There is a high pressure system building further up north and that means for tomorrow it will be nearly wind still in the Gulf. Then the wind will start picking up but only as a summer breeze. If it all works out we might even have a nice day in Seward.

The Zaandam led the way into port and docked at the rail road dock under the mountain ridge which separates Skagway from Juneau. It was a very early arrival as the other ships needed to be early as well. By 05.00 the Zaandam was well secured and the other three ships arrived with 15 minute intervals after us and so by 06.00 hrs. the whole happy cruise fleet was safely secured.  Normally cruise ships arrive between 07.00 hrs. and 08.00 hrs. as before that time hardly any guests want to go ashore. But Skagway has a special crowd puller and a challenge as a result.

Locomotive 73 going up and down the trail with guests.

The White Pass train. A large percentage of the 7000+ guests who were in port today wanted to partake in that experience but there is only a single track and the trains have to go up and down that single track. Which means: to facilitate all these eager train spotters more departures have to be offered and that means earlier departures. Nice thing for us was of course that we are docked next to the rail road track and guests only have to cross the dock to get on board.

The train departing for yet another journey up and down the trail. All that billowing steam has a certain charm, sorely missed in modern trains. Some of the ships graffiti is still visible at the far end of the rail road track. But you have to be on the dock to see the full walls closer to the Rail Road dock aft section.

The railroad company mainly relies on diesel locomotives to run the carriages which are all old and restored carriages from years gone by. Not of all of them are local but they are nearly all of the same design and after restoration were given names relevant to the area. But apart from the Diesel locomotives they also operate a genuine steam engine and that gives a special charm to the whole operation.  Somehow the steam and smoke billowing out, a real steam whistle being heard and the very distinctive sound when it gathers power gives an extra dimension to the tour. It runs in conjunction with the other trains and thus it is a bit of a gamble if your tour will be with the steam locomotive or with one of the Diesels.

What used to be a colorful tradition in Skagway was painting the company logo, ships name and company name on the rock wall overhanging the rail road dock. And it was easy to do before they upgraded the cruise ship dock to facilitate the mega liners. You just took a ladder, walked over, and started painting or used a cherry picker if needed to find a free space higher up. Then the dock was refurbished all the soil between the old dock and the rock wall was removed and now you cannot get anywhere near the rock wall anymore.  Which is a pity as there is still some free space left here and there, for a budding sailor artist to put another logo up.

With the years progressing there is more and more vegetation growing on the mountain so a lot of the logos are now being overgrown. The highest one (Royal Viking Line, painted with the aid of a helicopter in the mid 1980’) is not visible at all any more but also some others, very old ones, are gone from sight. I have been told that the oldest one still there is from 1901 or 1909 but I have never found it. The oldest one still visible is from 1928 and depicts one of the old Alaska Steam ferries calling at Skagway.

Yesterday I mentioned that it was a HAL Group day in Juneau. Today it was less as we only had one other Princess ship in port. But we still had some extra floating HAL history present in the form of the small Glacier Queen. This little tour boat, sold by the company years ago, is still docked in Skagway. In the 80’s she was a regular sight first in Prince Williams Sound and later in the Skagway area. In those years employed by Holland America – Westours. And we all thought that this boat was a good size for sightseeing. Now it is small enough to dock in the regular marina.  I took photos of her docked here in 2003 and she is still there looking to be in very good condition but I have no idea for what she is currently used.

The Glacier Queen (I) docked in Skagway. for years it was a day tender for Holland America – Westours.

Today we had little wind but some rain and steady temperatures and that means that we might have a hazy arrival tomorrow in Glacier Bay. The most air rolling in from the Atlantic might start to condensate over the cooler waters of Icy Strait and will result in a white curtain being present. Normally it clears once we are in the bay itself.

Today we had a HAL group day. As mentioned before since about three years we have a sub group under the Carnival umbrella, called the HAL Group. This group consists of Holland America, Princess and Seabourn. Today the port was filled up with the fleet and only one other vessel in port, the Seven Seas Navigator which was at anchor. The Zaandam was nicely sitting at the best dock in the port the Cruise Terminal, and around her we had three Princess ships, the Emerald Princess, The Grand Princess and the Star Princess.  Altogether good for bringing ashore well of 11000 guests and not counting the crew. The T shirt sellers must have made a fortune.

If all the cruise ships come in at the same time, then there is a pecking order depending for which berth the ship is scheduled and which way it will go alongside. Shooting nose in takes a lot less time than swinging around and then docking. The Cruise Lines Agency of Alaska makes the schedules as it represents all the company’s in Alaska. There was never any need for other agents to try to get a piece of the cake as this works extremely well, ever since we started cruising here. Today the whole setup was a lot easier as all the ships arrived at totally different times. Star Princess at 06.30, Grand Princess at 07.00, Zaandam at 10.00 hrs. Seven Seas Navigator at 11.00 hrs. and the Emerald Princess at 13.30 hrs. So no traffic jams and nobody had to wait for anybody else.

As mentioned yesterday Juneau was going to have rain as well but it turned out nothing more than a sprinkle. Main reason, the wind remained from the same direction and then Juneau is sheltered from these westerly winds and rains by Mount Juneau and Mount Roberts. They catch a lot of the rain which is handy for the Residents as that rain goes into a big lake which provides the town with all the fresh water. So much fresh water, that the cruise ships can take their fill as well, and we do. Alaskan water is of such good quality that it is on par with what we produce ourselves on board, which is pure water made from seawater.  Sometimes it is almost a pity that we then have to chlorinate the water to ensure that it is clean. But the chlorination rules are there for a good reason.  Not every port in the world produces water up to Alaskan standards and you cannot expect legislation to start differentiating between all those ports.  So we get water from  Alaska where possible and then we chlorinate.  Roughly each ship loads about 500 tons of fresh water during the day, so with four ships that is at least 2000 tons. But such is the rain fall at mountain level that there is seldom an issue of not having enough water. Unless we have a long and dry summer and that is currently not the case.

Juneau is a sheltered port unless there is a strong South Easterly wind blowing and thus an opportune port for drills. And through the course of the day we saw lifeboats going up and down everywhere; fire alarms were sounded and tenders being lowered for extra exercise. Including yours truly who currently has another group of eager young sailors who want to be immersed in the finer points of tender navigating. Tender Operators have to be licensed to run a tender with guests in them and we can do that licensing (read training and exam) ourselves as long as our training courses comply with Flag State standards. With more ships coming there is the constant need to train more crew. Holland America has now decided that this flow is continuous that it should be done shore side. Thus the company has bought two tenders (a new one can cost close to $ 500,000, as they are also lifeboats) and they will be stationed at our school in Manilla. Here a lot of certification work already takes place before the crew goes to sea and Tender courses will now be part of it.

We will stay in Juneau mid evening and sail around the mountains to the other side to get to Skagway. That will be an early arrival as the Zaandam will lead the parade of four ships coming in which will mean all the docks will be full.

Weather forecast: overcast with a chance of showers around noon time and little change in the temperatures. 56oF / 13oC.

For those of you who want to check the ports for yourself, the whole cruise ship schedule is on line:

http://claalaska.com/?page_id=1250

It rains on average 332 days of the year in Ketchikan. And today we had one of those 332 days. In 1949 it recorded its wettest year with 203 inches of rain, which for metric people translates into just over 5 meters. So you had a watertight fence around your garden, it would have turned into a 5 meter deep pool or drinking water basin.

Luckily today’s variation was not a downpour but a constant drizzle with different variations in the size of the droplets. Still it is not what most would think that a holiday should look like, especially as you seldom see rainy pictures in cruise brochures. But it does give another impression of The Great Land. Due to its size is varies enormously in weather patterns. Especially in the summer.  Then the inland can be baking hot while the South East and South West coastal areas, also called the panhandle, remain quite moist and often continue to be so in the winter as well.

What causes all this rain? The North Pacific Ocean In the same way as the North Atlantic Ocean delivers lots of rain to Ireland. Rain clouds form above an open ocean and are then carried towards land by the prevailing winds. Those prevailing winds keep a constant circulation going around the world, often boosted by the Jet Stream located on a higher level. As a result we have all these winds with specific names such as the Trade Winds. In the hurricane season that wind helps to bring the hurricanes towards the East side of the USA instead of down to South America.

For Ketchikan the bump to the right would be called Deear Mountain.

Here in Alaska we have the regular sea winds blowing which come in from the West. They carry all that rain with it in the air as vapor. When it hits land it get warmed up or cooled down depending on the surface temperature of the land. If it is very cold, you invariably get snow. Ketchikan has something else. Mountains. It is very close to the  open Ocean and the rain clouds can drift in unhindered from the Cape Decision area (see my blog of a few days ago) over relatively low land until it comes to the Ketchikan area.  Ketchikan is open to the west but sheltered to the East by a mountain range dominated by Deer Mountain. Thus if a rain cloud has drifted towards Ketchikan it will bump into this mountain range. It is pushed up along the slope into the higher air, where the temperature is a little bit lower and condensation starts. And we call that rain when it falls down on our head.

Because the sea air is relatively warm, the winters in Ketchikan are not as harsh as elsewhere in Alaska. Although it gets cold, the warmer rain balances things out a little bit. What can make the winter in Ketchikan very un-attractive, although its 9000 inhabitants do not seem to mind very much, is the wind that comes with the rain in the winter. These are the autumn and winter storms which can whistle in unrestricted from the Gulf of Alaska. Ketchikan has the phenomena called Horizontal Rain. It rains but the raging storm wind blows the wind horizontally along for a large distance before it finally hits the surface. I have seen it once when it started; my face got wet and the pavement stayed initially dry. A very strange experience.

Panoramic view of Ketchikan and Tongass Narrows from Deer Mountain. (Diagram above and this photo both courtesy of Wikipedia)

Those autumn storms are the reason that the Alaska cruise ship season ends somewhere around October first. Sometimes ships stay a little bit longer but that can be a gamble. I have experienced the most beautiful Indian Summers but also cruises where I had to cancel 2 out of the 3 ports because I did not dare to sail with the ship through Gastineau Channel (for Juneau) or Tongass Narrows (for Ketchikan) as there was a 50 to 60 knot wind gusting through both Fjords.

Today there was a little bit of a breeze from the South East which might have helped to keep the rain down to a drizzle but it was a real Ketchikan day none the less. The only person who was sort of happy of about it was the Captain as he had all his guests back on board on time. We need a prompt departure from here as Ketchikan to Juneau is a tight schedule and lots of fishing boats are expected on the way, as the fishing season has opened.

Tomorrow we are in Juneau: And here less rain is expected instead of 90% it is now down to 50%. Temperatures will remain low, in the low fifties or around 12oC.

With the Seymour Narrows transit being around 1 am. in the morning, it unfortunately means that the majority of the voyage through the Inside Passage is during the darker hours. At least the part where it is narrower. By the time most of our guests awaken we have just passed Pine Island and enter Queen Charlotte Sound. Although it is inland waters, the Sound is more than 25 miles wide at places, and when there you can just see the Canadian Mainland to the East and the Queen Charlotte Islands to the West. In summer time it is nice sailing and often a lot of wild life to be seen as long as you take the time to look for it. In the winter time is this is a very nasty place. You might think as it is enclosed at all sides, it would not be as bad as the North Pacific Ocean itself but in some aspects it can be worse.  Much worse.

The Sound is practically North to South orientated and then continues up north into Hecate Strait which ends up in Dixon Entrance. This separation zone between Canada and the USA runs East to West. So all the bad weather from the North Pacific can roll straight in. If the bad weather is coming from the South then it blows directly into the Sound and up to Hecate Strait. So whatever the bad weather is, it can find a nice place in Queen Charlotte Sound to play around in. Even if the bad weather comes from the East, from the Mainland, then the surface area is big enough for an Easterly wind to whip up the waves and those waves have nowhere to go as to the West there are the islands. Roller Coaster Times.

Over view of the Queen Charlotte Sound. (Courtesy of Wikipedia) In the old days we could slip inside just North of Cape Caution, now it is just passed Day Point for most ships.

The other challenge with this area is, is that the Sound is not very deep and the open area open enough to have the wind whip up sufficient high waves. When waves are created by the wind, they have to carry the wind energy somewhere in one way or the other. In the ocean that results in long and high waves of great length. They can be nasty but normally the ship can ride them by adjusting speed and going into a sort of surfing mode. Our Prinsendam is a ship which has a perfect length for that and is therefore a very good sea ship and is much less affected by bad weather than other- larger- vessels.

On shallow water things change. The waves have nowhere to put the energy as no long rolling waves can be created. A wave has a part that goes up and a part that goes down. On shallow water the wave cannot go down, only up. This results in shorter and sharper waves which are very difficult to ride. The ship almost at once starts pitching (slamming of the bow on the waves) and it becomes very uncomfortable for those on board and it can become very dangerous for the ship itself. Many a captain who decided to go in the open during the winter time was caught by an un-expected storm and lost his ship. Either the ship took on too much water or the wooden hull cracked due to slamming onto the waves.

So in the winter the only option is, to stay all the way inside. That is possible but it size dependent. The regular steamer route which we follow takes us part outside and part inside. Depending on the time available a few variations are possible. To stay completely inside is depending on the size as there are a few locations where the turns are very tight and you cannot see what is coming from the other side.  Well known for this are Hiekish Narrows and Boat-bluff. When we still had our previous Prinsendam (1973 / 9000 tons) it was possible to stay “behind the mountains” all the way. Later with our Statendam IV of 25000 tons, we had to forego one area and with the arrival of the Rotterdam V of 38.000 tons we had to forego another route. Now the ships are all 55000 tons and over and although the ships offer a lot more inside the ship, we are a bit limited for where we can go to show things outside the ship.

Still, there is lot’s to see. I was cooped up inside the ship all day for trainings and inspections but the one moment I stepped outside I saw both a Minke Whale and a group of small porpoises quite nearby.

Tomorrow we are in Ketchikan and it looks like a real Ketchikan day. 11oC / 51oF. and 90% chance of rain and drizzle, plus a cold wind blowing. But the wind is supposed to be from the S.E so maybe the mountains will provide some shelter. There will be three ships inn port but we will have the best dock with the shortest walking distance into town. (Basically ——- Cross the road and you are there)