20 May 2012; Vancouver, Canada.

With wind still weather but threatening skies we sailed under Lions Gate Bridge. The weather forecast was predicting rain later in the day and it indeed started at 11 am. For engine maintenance I had to dock starboard side alongside today and thus I went early under the bridge. To swing around takes more time than to go straight in. Following us was the Celebrity Summit scheduled to dock behind us, and inbetween the Disney Wonder came in, docking on the other side at Canada Place East. So a full house today. All the ships line up for the bridge about 10 minutes apart so they can all have the first line at 0700 hrs. Docking earlier causes extra overtime for the longshoremen, and thus we are all counting down on the clock until it is 07.01 and then the messenger line goes ashore. In a way a bit silly but rules are rules and contracts are contracts. If one side would start to tinker with it, you will not know where it will end. Now the boundaries are clear and both sides abide by them. It means that we are fully docked by 07.20 then the gangway is connected and the day can start. On departure it goes the other way around; we have to ensure that all the mooring lines are off the dock by 16. 58 hrs. It is always a difficult decision for the captain to decide to wait past 5 pm for late buses and or luggage as there is quite a heavy penalty for the post 5 pm stay.

So we are now starting our Alaska season. With the standard cruise up to Seward; calling at Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Glacier Bay. Then a one day crossing of the Gulf of Alaska before we enter Resurrection Bay and dock in Seward next Sunday. Seward is a good port of entry for cruise guests as it has a railroad connection with Anchorage. That offers a scenic 2.5 hour trip up into the interior.

The Amsterdam calls at Anchorage itself but as a port call because the cruise is sold as a 14 day happening. Our cruise is partly meant as a cruise in itself but also partly as a vehicle to bring guests to the location where they can start their exploration of the interior. There are well over 30 different overland options possible and the furtherst one goes all the way to the North side of Alaska . That is nearly a four week trip. By the time they reach the ship, there is only one focus, Doing Laundry.
Because of our Sunday schedule, we can dock in each port as there are not too many ships on our cycle. Each Vancouver we will be in port with the Celebrity Century and in Seward we are scheduled to be all by ourselves. One other ship in Ketchikan and two ships in Juneau. Busiest day will be Skagway with four ships in at the same time. Tender service is normally not a problem but there is the rain on occasion. The ports have dealt with that in the best way possible by covering over most of the access ramps to the tender docks but still it is inconvenient. Based on this schedule, subject to change, we will dock everywhere and the only inconvenience we will have is the re-locating of the gangway every three to four hours due to the tide going up and down.

That tide can be quite extreme. In Anchorage located at the end of an inlet it can be as much as 20 feet. We will not have that much on our cruise but 14 feet can be expected at some time in the season. We just missed an extra heavy tide that happened two days ago. It caused 14 knots of current in Seymour Narrows and that is faster that a lot of ships travel. Because of that ships that have to go through the narrows adjust their time of passage for slack tide or near slack tide. As a result it looks like it as if there is a sort of convoy sailing through. First the group of ships that sails with the current and then the group that goes against the current until the tide changes.
We will be aiming tonight for a Narrows time at 00.00 Slack tide is at 00.40 but the velocity of the current will be down to 2.5 knots by midnight and that is just nice. It means that we can slip through before the ebb changes to flood and the ships on the other side get the right of way.
We left at 16.45 from Vancouver in rather miserable weather. There is a frontal system coming over and hopefully it will be completely past by the time we reach Ketchikan.