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.

By 9 am the agent was waiting to take me to the Statendam from the hotel. Not much more than 3 blocks from the ship but as it was raining, it was handy as it kept me and my luggage dry. The weather was its regular Alaska self, a steady drizzle interspersed with bigger rain drops with real soaking capability. Luckily Juneau has invested in a large open sided tent on the dock where everybody gathering for a tour can wait and not get totally drenched.

As with all Holland America Line ships a lot of crew stays on the same ship for years. Especially if there are three or more in the same function so they can rotate through. On most ships I have now visited about 40% of the crew know me but here back on my old ship it jumped up to about 70% and that gave a nice homecoming feeling. Master of the ms Statendam is Captain Sybe de Boer who I have also known for a very long time as he was my Chief Officer back in 2001 on the good old Noordam (III).

Talking about the old Noordam (III) while waiting in the lobby at the hotel I came across a model of the Noordam. A builder’s model made by Chantiers de Atlantique were she was built in 1983/84. I knew that model and always wondered what happened to it. Now I wonder how did end up in the Baranof?  No good asking the staff as none of those around had been here longer than one or two seasons.  If Holland America ever decides to have its own little museum, then it would be nice addition.

As is known, the Statendam and her sister the Ryndam are leaving the HAL fleet in September as they are being transferred to P&O Australia, which is an up and coming company catering to the Australians. It started it with P&O, when they bought Sitmar cruises and they ended up with the Fairstar and the Fairwind that were sailing there. The Fairstar left but the Fairwind = renamed to Fair Princess served the Australian market for a number of years and P&O started to send more and more ships over there. Including the other Sitmar ships which became available when Princess kept adding new ships to the fleet. Eventually the capacity needed was big enough to sustain a more independent brand: P&O Australia was born. Being part of Carnival and being part of the HAL group, it is not much of a far reaching policy to transfer ships within the group where appropriate.

So two of our S class are leaving and they will meet up in Singapore where they both will go through an extensive dry dock to be adapted for the Australian Market. I will see if I can lay my hand on some artist drawings to see what they are planning.

Why am I mentioning all this? As it ties in with what I will do while here on board, as sort of a side job. The inventory of all the Antiques and to estimate the packing up.  I did the same when I sailed out the Rotterdam in 1997 and the Nieuw Amsterdam in 2000 so it was not difficult to agree with the Captains request to do this.  I can easily find every day an odd hour spare to deal with this.  It will be interesting to see what will be the final estimate of value by the time that I am done.

However the good old Statendam is doing what I think the best Alaska cruise there is. A 14 day round trip to Anchorage and back from Seattle, with no change over and quite a few ports which are not that “touristy” yet. For those who try to buy a T- shirt in every port, it might not be ideal, but for those who want to see some real Alaskan ports; this is it. On the Zaandam we called at Haines which would fill the requisition, here we have Icy Strait Point, Kodiak and Homer to make it interesting.

The Statendam will sail tonight at 10 pm. and arrive at Icy strait Point tomorrow morning at 07.00 hrs.  This is not really a town but more a location to visit and it is located just South East of the entrance to Glacier Bay.

We had a real full port today. When we arrived at 09.00 hrs. (Official arrival time was 10.00 hrs.) The Amsterdam was already in docked at the Cruise terminal, the Ruby Princess was at the A.J dock and we had the Golden Princess at anchor and later on the Grand Princess would arrive, scheduled for the Franklin dock. Together with a few smaller (charter) ships it was a real full house today.  Nobody in Juneau can complain that cruising is not good for the local economy with over 10,000 eager explorers milling around.

What hit me was the fact all the ships in port today belonged to one company, or better said one group. The HAL group; which was put together about a year ago when Andrew Donald the leader of Carnival Corp. started a complete review and revamp of the whole company.  Brands were re-aligned and a refocus was ordered to ensure that Carnival remained the biggest force in the Cruise Industry.  The secret of Carnival Corp. is to respect the integrity of its brands but that does not mean that you cannot tweak around the operational side: as a steak is a steak and a lifeboat is a lifeboat. How a steak is served is a different story. Leader of the HAL Group is Stein Kruse, who moved up from just looking after Holland America Line and his place was taken by Orlando Ashford, who came in from the outside.

So it was found desirable to bring 4 brands together which could thrive on each other’s success while not interfering at the same time.  Hence, Princess, HAL, Seabourn and P&O Australia were put together in the HAL group.  Best experiences are being shared and operational there is integration at office level. We went through such a happening before with the Alaska Overland Tours when the Alaska shore side operations of HAL and Princess merged. These two were the biggest operators and went head to head in competition while both owned by the same company.  That did not make much sense and the operation was aligned into one service group Alaska Tours.  The results were very positive and with grouping resources the service to the guests could be further enhanced. The Princess and HAL product remains separate; but a coach is a coach and it does not make much difference what logo there is on the outside.

So if it works for Coaches than it should work for ships as well and thus we now have the HAL group. And today the HAL Group occupied the whole port.  Still we are two separate companies and a very different philosophy of going about the business.  So while we are encouraged to visit each other it is not as if we go over for a quick cup of coffee. Time does not allow for it anyway, as the officers days are full.

I had to pack up today and go to the hotel to wait for the Statendam to come in the day after tomorrow. So it was saying hallo to the Customs Lady, who beseeched me not to take any plants or fruits ashore, or wood products. So I solemnly promised to adhere to the Laws of the State of Alaska; I was deposited in the Baranof which is Juneau’s landmark hotel. It used to be owned by Holland America’s subsidiary Westmark. It has been sold since but Westmark still has the management. Therefore it is still the company’s hotel of choice for parking crew and others there who are going to the ships.

So what have I done in these last 3 weeks on the Zaandam?  Carried out a lot of inspections / fact finding on behalf of the captain to help prepare for audits; trained the officers, trained the crew and updated paperwork. The Statendam has asked for me to run a number of big drills and that we will then focus on. It will be good to see my old ship again. Only this time I will not be the Captain “on the bridge”, but the Captain “in the bar”. This also has its pro’s.

Today it rained considerably but tomorrow it should be dry with maybe a bit of a drizzle. It will be another busy day in town with the Pacific Princess, Oosterdam, Infinity and the Norwegian sun taking up all the berths.  I want to get to the Franklin dock, to take photos as I have never docked there as it is in principle a Princess Dock. But as we are now all belong to the HAL Group; who knows what can happen in the future.

16 July: In the shop at Franklin Dock.

The USA remains the country of infinite possibilities.  I knew about jelly beans and I like some of the variations. But I never knew that the humble jelly bean could be elevated to Gourmet status. I wonder if they are inspected by Michelin for a one, two or three star status?

I wonder what the difference is between a Gourmet and a non Gourmet Jelly Bean ?

Exactly as planned the cruise ship parade entered Ketchikan and docked at their respective berths. By 07.30 all gangways were in and approx. 8000 eager invaders could descend on the town. About evenly split out between those going on tour first and those going on tour later. A big attraction is the local lumberjack show which highlights how logging was done in the past with a sort of competition element added to it. This show has been around for a while and has so much appeal that Holland America has its own lumberjack on board.  I did not get the chance to see him in action but the one we have was a world champion axe thrower sometime in the past and part of his stage show is letting the guests have a go at it as well. 

Ketchikan lived up to its expectation of the rainy capital of the world and for most of the day a steady rain and drizzle ensured that the town will keep the record for next year as well.  My morning was taken up with organizing the weekly fire drill and as it was being held in port, we opted for putting a public room on fire — simulated — that is.  When we drill on sea days we use locations away from the guest areas but with nearly all the guests ashore there is the chance to train dealing with a public room emergency.  The drill itself takes about 30 minutes, preparing a lot longer. (The faster the drill goes, the quicker it means that the teams have secured an area and extinguished the fire, or whatever emergency we were simulating) My good friend Murphy has a representative on each Cruise ship in the world and one needs all his experience to be cleverer than he is.

So it starts a few days before by arranging with the Event Manager to have a space available. This time I wanted to use the Cinema/ Wajang Theatre/Culinary Operations Center, our multi purpose entertainment area. It would not do if there was a cooking demonstration going on and suddenly 5 guys with a fire hose were charging in.

With the room secured it was time to become my “nasty self” and start thinking about the scenario and what I can throw at the attack teams and the support behind it.  Make the fire location in the furthest corner and we will find out if their hoses are long enough. If not, then do they follow the correct procedure for getting longer ones? To simulate the fire location I borrowed flashings red lights from the stage crew. As it is a cinema you can switch off all the lights. This is different to the rest of the ship where the emergency lights (about every other light) stays on, and it very hard to switch off. In the cinema everything goes out, except the Green EXIT signs near the doors. Installing a smoke machine in combination with all the lights out, and it becomes nice and spooky.  I wanted sound effects as well but it did not work out. (See Murphy is here !!!!) Final touch was to put the dummy inside, our in house permanent casualty, in the middle of all the seats so it would be difficult to retrieve. When fire teams enter a large area, they move along the wall/bulkhead in order not to get lost. If there is a casualty in the middle of a large space, then they have to use a special technique to get there without losing the rest of the team in the dark as there is no visibility due to the smoke.

This is what the Fire teams saw inside the cinema. Apart from the smoke; not much

With the venue set up and the scenario in place, there was one last thing to attend to: guests milling around. Although most of them are ashore, there are still some on board and as with any crowd, they always want to be where we do not want them to be during the drill. So the Front Desk had to be advised that I was closing fire screen doors to keep the drill area sealed off.  They did not get any complaints so all the precautions must have worked.

The night before I had sent out a scenario and objectives email, giving everybody the chance to prepare and think about the drill, as our drills are always part learning, part exercise.  ……………Unless we do an un-expected one.

All in all about 5 hours work, for a drill that lasts 30 minutes. But those 30 minutes are really intense as it has to go fast. We do not have the option as you have ashore to evacuate everybody and to attack from a safe distance. No we are sitting on the fire itself and we have to attack from inside. So speed is of the essence to keep a fire from spreading.  And that we achieved again today.

The very final part of the whole sequence almost as important as the drill itself, is the debriefing. Here all the teams explain what they have been doing: Bridge, ECR, ( Engine Control Room) Fire teams, support teams etc. etc. There are so many people involved that only during a debriefing does every participant get the whole picture. That normally takes as long as the drill but it is of vital importance, as lessons learned can be applied to the next drill.

Debriefing in the Officers Mess / Bar which resembles an Irish Pub.

Tomorrow we will be in Juneau. That will be my last day on the Zaandam. In Juneau I will transfer to the Statendam for the next ship visit.