It is always an early arrival in Skagway but for once I did not mind as it was a glorious day. No sunrise to enjoy as that all happens behind the mountains but it just went from a very clear night via a beautiful dawn into a great day in the Lynn Canal. We had our regular line up of cruise ships and we slid into position as ship number three, going to the Broadway dock. It was a pity that it was so early in the morning, meaning that there was hardly anybody around, as it had an almost Christmas like atmosphere with the well-lit cruise ships against the backdrop of the majestic mountains and the lights of Skagway. Yes, the lights of Skagway. The season is ending and we are already starting to arrive in the dark and soon we will be leaving in the dark as well. Continue reading

We did pay for the nice weather outside Ketchikan. We had hardly dipped our nose into the Pacific Ocean, when a big white woolly blanket covered Stephens Passage. We were sailing in tandem with the Golden Princess who had caught up with us from Ketchikan. She was just over a mile away in a blaze of lights but we could not see anything of her. It was dense, very dense. Various fishing boats and the Celebrity Solstice coming down from the North, kept us from being bored on the bridge but it was not until 4 am. before visibility improved. Still with an approach planned for 08.30, I could get a few more hours of sleep. Continue reading

When you do the same run every week or every 14 days, the whole sequence turns into a sort of fixed script, where only the weather and the fishing boats are the variables. For the rest you can almost predict from minute to minute what will happen, what we have to do and what will happen if we don’t. The arrival at the Ketchikan pilot station is one such an event. The pilot boarding area for the approach to Ketchikan is located some 20 miles to the South East of the town. Why exactly there is anybody’s guess, it could have been 25 miles or 30 miles as well, or 15 for that matter as it is well inside Alaskan waters anyway. Continue reading

According to plan we arrived at 02.15 at Cape Mudge which is at the entrance of where it gets narrow and which leads to the Seymour Narrows. It was quite busy and the pilots had a lot of work with getting some tugboat captains to comply with the necessary passing arrangements. We were coming up with the current behind us and so we had the right of way, but there were a few tug and tows waiting on the other side that were not exactly planning to wait for that. However wisdom prevailed (plus the fact that the Canadian Coastguard is listening in as well on the VHF channels) and all was well in the world. We had a beautiful wind still clear night and as soon as we were away from the glare of Campbell River we could see all the constellations lined up in the sky. A great night for the cadet to figure out where the Big Dipper and Orion was and what that bright star in between was. Which turned out to be a planet. Continue reading

It turned out to be a real Vancouver day. Nice and sunny with hardly any wind. A perfect day; a Sunday for us but also for the people of Vancouver who in great numbers were parading up and down the promenades of Canada Place. It gave the navigators on watch something different to look at, a nice change from just wind, sea and water. We are at the moment entering and leaving Vancouver at the maximum tides. 4 knots under the bridge when coming in and going out. That gave on arrival the interesting situation that we made the turn around the East end of Stanley Park (Brockton Point and Burnaby shoal) and then let the current set us towards the dock. With 4 knots of current pushing on the portside of the ship, that sideways movement is quite fast but it diminishes when coming closer to the dock and thus it is a matter of regulating the movement to make a safe docking. As the current off Canada place is never exactly the same it remains necessary to play close attention to the movement of the ship. It never becomes a real routine here, or anywhere else in Vancouver Harbor. By 07.15 hrs. we were safely docked and our change over day started. Continue reading

After the wind still and sunny weather in Ketchikan you are bound to pay for it ome way or the other and so we did. As soon as we were in Canadian waters it started to blow. Up to wind force 8. Off Vancouver Island a small disturbance had parked itself right in the corner of the Queen Charlotte Sound and had decided to blow itself out there. So for most of the morning we had a very windy, wet and bumpy experience. By 1 pm. it started to ease off and by 3 pm. we had good weather again, with the occasional shower. Continue reading

The season is now so far advanced that the land and sea have slightly warmed up and that” slightly” is just enough to throw things out of balance and let the low clouds come down all the way to the water. Then only a bit of wind can help but we did not have any. So by 22.30 in the evening a low white woolly blanket descended over the Alaskan Inside Passage and reduced visibility to about 1,000 feet. That meant standby for the Staff Captain and me. Him until midnight and then me from midnight to 0600; and then him again. The hours are split up in this way, as he has a department to run with officers, sailors etc. and they work mainly day service, so it is handy that they can reach him. As a captain I can assign my hours the way I want and as long as I am there when necessary, it normally works well. Continue reading

UPDATED ENTRY. IT SEEMS THAT DUE TO OUR INTERNET ISSUES TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS WENT OUT. SO SOME READERS GOT MY DRAFT WITHOUT PHOTOS AND SOME GOT THE FINAL VERSIONS. I HAVE RE -EDITED AND NEWLY POSTED THE PHOTOS. SORRY FOR THE INCONVINIENCE.

Posting sligthty delayed as the internet was down on board.

If there was no mountain range, it would take only 3 hours from Haines to get to Juneau as the crow flies. But there are mountains in between and thus we have to sail south through the Fjords like inlets and channels to get there. First out of Lynn Canal going south, then through Saginaw Channel going east and in the end going  north through Gastineau channel at which end Juneau is located. We can do that with the slow speed of 12 knots and still arrive at 04.30 at the entrance of Gastineau channel and approach the dock by 05.30. That is very early in the morning but it is needed to deal with a whole parade that comes in during the day. As we had to tuck ourselves away in the corner of the port it made sense to be the first one going in. Then came the parade: Norwegian Sun, Island Princess (going to anchor), Grand Princess and Celebrity Century. All in all, almost 12,000 eager shoppers being let loose in Juneau during the day. It was a dry day, so it was a good day. Continue reading

I have always had a soft spot for Haines. Maybe because it is still so original without all the tourist shops and other happenings caused by the cruise boom. Haines became more prominent when it became an army base and until the current day the white clapboard army houses dominate the skyline. As there were no great tourist attractions such as the train in Skagway, it never gained much prominence in the cruise business. As a result Holland America is one of the few, and I think this year the only cruise company calling there. Guest’s reactions are always mixed; those who need to be entertained in order to be happy complain about the lack of activities but those who come for the real Alaska love it, as this is still a real Alaskan town. (For those who need more stimulation, we do run a tour to Skagway from here with the Fairway Explorer) I love the place as it is nice and sheltered for the ship to dock and also as it is the home of the world famous Hammer Museum. (There is not another one like it in the world) Continue reading

We had dark, rainy, clouds looming over the valleys east of the Fairweather mountain range but they remained where they were and it did not rain. Instead it became sunnier and sunnier while we approached Bartlett Cove Ranger station. Which was an interesting happening as the tides, and thus the currents were completely out of synch with the tide tables. It is a phenomenon that occurs occasionally, when the moon and the sun and the earth together are not exactly behaving as the calculations expect them to do. Last year we had a similar situation when there was the period of the “blue Moon” and the tides were more than 90 minutes off from what was predicted. That is a lot if you plan a safe passage through the Seymour Narrows and you find out that you are 90 minutes late. Today it was less dramatic but at the time that we were supposed to have slack tide (the change from ebb to flood) the ebb current was still running with 2 knots of velocity. It changed in time for our passage up the Bay and that was nice as a following current saves fuel. Continue reading