So bright and early we arrived in Juneau. Although bright might not be the right word as it was decidedly overcast with a lot of dripping. I really want to use the word rain but it really does not cover it. Yes it rains but it is not a constant down poor but it is also not a constant drizzle, it is something in between. Maybe I should stay with drizzle and drip. Not that it mattered, whatever it was the guests streamed ashore and it did not seem to bother anybody.

The way it was a long time ago when the mine stretched down all the way to the water.

Most of our guests went ashore but some who had been here already several times opted to stay on board.  What was interesting is that I came across a couple who had spent their honeymoon here some 40 years ago and had come up with the Alaska State Ferry when it still docked at what is now the cruise terminal. They had taken lots of photos and were now trying to match the waterfront from those days to what they saw now.  Together with my memory from the early 80’s we were able to place quite a few of the photos in there right context but it was not easy as so much had changed after the cruise boom took place.

The way we saw it in the 70’s and 80’s.

Basically the mountain Mount Roberts was still the same, but one major landmark the gold mine had disappeared. The mine and later the defunct remnants of its entrance had long loomed over Juneau. Then a few years ago the mine was briefly reopened. Very briefly but just long enough to have all the visible ruins removed. Now when you sail in with the ship you cannot see anything of the mine any more from the water side.

Gold mine ventilation shaft. (Courtesy www. groovyoutdoors.us)

Except when you look to the other side; the Douglas side. There at the edge of the beach and the waters of Gastineau Channel stills stands a single ventilation house, which looks a bit like an oversized outhouse. It has been standing there since the mine was in operation providing ventilation to the mine shafts running under Gastineau Channel. The peculiar thing is it does not seem to deteriorate that fast. At least I cannot see it and I get a snapshot every year. It must do so though as I do not think it is being looked after by any preservation society. Gold is still being mined in the Juneau area but at the other side of the mountain. And of course the gold mining and panning is now a tourist attraction.

We docked today at the Cruise Terminal as the Volendam who came in at noon time, was assigned to the Alaska Steam dock, which is the dock all the way in the corner, with the nose into down town.  The cruise terminal is not a bad place either as it is still connected directly with the town, and all the shops, without having to walk a long way first. It is closer to Mount Roberts Cable Car and it has a visitor’s center right in front of the ship, which I had not seen before. Another new building but at the Franklin dock is the new office from the CBP. With so much business and most of it coming from the cruise ships, they moved closer to the port. As a matter of fact so close that their office is on the dock.

I had to deal with the CBP today as I was sending off some boxes to a friend of mine. I had just discovered that the US post office has this amazing deal for shipping a medium size box for the same price regardless of the weight. So you can ship 12 full size stone bricks for 12 dollars all over the States. I was not shipping bricks but something close to it………. old cruise brochures and menus. Those things weigh nearly the same. I wish they would have a similar offer for mail to Europe…………..  But before you can take anything ashore it has to be inspected and approved by the CBP.  Thus I presented myself with open boxes and my Customs form at the appropriate time. We have currently a very friendly CBP Lady but she is also very thorough and after I solemnly declared (and had verified) that I was not importing, food, seeds, wood and a whole list of other things that might threaten the USA, I could close my boxes and carry them ashore.  The US mail has a substation right in down town which is heavily frequented by crew members (maybe they opened it there for that reason) and stops us from having to make the 20 minute hike to the Federal Building at the outskirts where the main post office is located.

Tomorrow we are not going to Icy Strait Point, but to Glacier Bay. Holland America managed to get an extra Permit for the Statendam and that is a chance we do not let go. So on this cruise the guests get the chance to see Tracy Arm, Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier. Three glacial highlights in one cruise …………… …………….Only with Holland America.

Glaciers indeed have a micro climate around itself because as we sailed through the drizzle and drip during the early morning, it suddenly cleared and it remained dry all the time we were in the fjord. Luckily it remained overcast as well and the result was some incredible views of Sawyer Glacier. This Glacier tends to calve fast and sometimes it produces so much ice that we cannot even get into Tracy Arm. Because of the fast calving of the ice there tends to be a lot of blue ice, really compact ice, and if there is no sun light then it shows up very clearly.

Entering Tracy Arm

Tracy Arm is much narrower than the other fjords we visit and having the high mountains so close by on either side makes it a fascinating place to sail through. It is not so popular with cruise ships as Glacier Bay (which is permit regulated) as there is always uncertainty if you can get in and also because it does not fit so easily in a regular ships schedule.

Same view on the Radar

On the 7 day cruise you have to cut half a day off Juneau in order to do this, or you have to skip a port completely. We are on a 14 day cruise and that gives the time to allocate a full day to this scenic cruising and that works very well.  The captain has ample time to get in and out, can stay as long as he wants, and then go with a sedate speed up the coast to Juneau where the ship arrives in the early morning for a full day. 

And that is what we did today.  We were the only larger cruise ship in, there was one smaller one the L’Austral and for the rest a rich assortment of tour boats in all shapes and sizes. We do not like other cruise ships in at the same time as they tend to get in the way, certainly in this fjord which is very narrow but we do not mind tour boats as they help to give the guests a better perspective of how big everything is, including the ice cubes.

L’Austral. A sort of Seabourn Cruise as long as you Speak French.

It takes a good two hours to sail in and this morning we made a reasonable time as there was very little ice in the way. Then by 11.00 we saw the blue glacier when coming around the final corner and here we stayed for over an hour.  There was some ice in front of the Glacier and that did not allow us to go into the wide pool in front of the Glacier itself, we had to stay at the corner. Still the view was magnificent.

Face of the glacier. The black dots are tour boats

Although hard for us to see there were seals on the ice floats, in the same way as in Glacier Bay. Here they are safe from the Orca’s / Killer Whales which have fresh seal or seal pup high on the list of their favorite snacks. But they do not like the constant popping noises of the Glacier, caused by the cracking off the ice, as it upsets their sensing system. It drives them nuts as my wife would say.  So during the pupping season the ice floats are full of young life.

Same view on the Radar. As far as we could safely get in.

The Glacier has been retreating for the last 50 years, with about 45 meters (approx. 150 feet) that can be seen at the mountains on either side. At the entrance the greenery reaches the water line, while near the Glacier the rock face once covered by the ice is still bare.

Note: Closer to the Glacier there are no trees on the side of the mountains

By noon time, the Statendam started the slow sail to the outside again and spent the remainder of the afternoon sailing through Stephens Passage. By 06.00 hrs. tomorrow we will enter Gastineau Channel and dock in down town Juneau, for a long day.

The Bridge Team. Captain, two Navigating Officers, the Quartermaster between the wheel.  The Pilot and in the far window the Staff Captain.

Juneau Weather:  Overcast with rain showers and temperatures around 60oF./ 16oC.

The latest idea of making photos at the glacier. you have to commend the Ships Photographers for trying to make you cruise a memorable one.

Guessing the correct weather for Ketchikan is a lot easier than winning the lottery. The chance that you get it right is 332 (days) out of the 365 is quite achievable. During those 332 there will be some rain. Varying from Horizontal Rain, Torrential Rain, Steady Rain, to Showers, Drizzle & Drip.  Today we had drizzle and drip which they do not consider rain at all in Ketchikan and can thus be ignored and considered a dry day.

So we had a dry day for most of the day with only an occasional increase from drizzle and drip to shower. The good ship Statendam arrived at Ketchikan dock just after 07.00 and we were assigned the best dock in port again, dock 2.  Right on top of the Tongass Store, and with everything else right across the street. In port as well were the Pacific Princess from Princess Cruises and the Infinity from Celebrity. That left one berth, berth 4, empty for the day. Berth 4 is the berth the farthest from the town and is thus the least used.

I was up and about very early as I had offered to do a photo shoot for the company’s simulator. For a number of years now Carnival Corporation’s UK branch had a Simulator in the Netherlands (The company is called C-Smart) in the town of Almere. Almere is a new built city sitting on reclaimed land to the East of Amsterdam.  And as about half of the rest of Holland it sits below water level. However as long as the dykes are holding, everything is safe. And we have good dykes in Holland. The best in the world to be honest, we even export them all over the world.

All of us attend nearly every year one or more classes at this Simulator and the courses are based on Bridge Team Management in all its forms and possibilities. It is a busy training facility as with 110 cruise ships in the fleet there are a lot of officers who have to go through the classes. More recent is the addition of an Engine Room simulator and that means even more officers are in class. As a result the place became too small and now there is a new build coming in the same town about 4 times as big and with a complete hotel next to it. Until now C-Smart used three hotels in Almere, one in downtown and two at the outskirts but everything is now being brought under one roof. I do not think the hotels will be very happy about this but for us it is an improvement as we do not have the constant shuttle service to get to and from the Hotel. (The taxi company is probably not very happy either)

The bridge simulator as currently in use. The new one will be a lot fancier.

With the new simulator (although there are several, so more classes can run at the same time) comes the desire and need for upgrades. The biggest challenge is to make a simulator as realistic as possible. The more real it looks, the easier it is for the team inside the simulator to get into the groove and forget that it is only a simulator.  One of the simulations that are being run is the approach to Ketchikan; as it is quite a complicated area (lots of rocks and currents).  Thus the idea was to take a continuous series of photos from the pilot station all the way to the dock with the idea to improve the view of the Simulator “scenery” when the Ketchikan simulation is being run.  As it is for a very good cause Yours Truly was in position the moment we sailed past the pilot station at 05.30 and then I happily clicked away for  a good 90 minutes. 3 photos every 30 seconds for the duration of the 90 minute transit should give the developers of the software enough material to keep them busy during the coming winter.

On departure I did the same again, although for a shorter period as the drizzle & drip changed into genuine rain, and getting pneumonia was not part of the arrangement.  So hopefully the next simulator upgrade will be even more life like than what it already is.

Tonight and tomorrow we will be sailing the Alaskan Inside Passage and tomorrow afternoon we will visit Tracy Arm to look at a few Glaciers.

Weather for tomorrow:  Most likely light rain but as glaciers have their own micro climate it is hard to predict.

Some links about C-Smart  as a picture paints a 1000 words.

www.csmartalmere.com

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nehlRhovbnE

Just after midnight we dipped into the North Pacific Ocean and there was even less wind than expected. It was nearly flat calm. However the swell was there, rolling in from the Gulf of Alaska and being slightly higher than expected. I observed 7 to 8 feet and that made d the Statendam gently move on the Ocean. Later on the swell increased to 10 feet and with the bow clipping into it made us move a bit more. Not bad at all but for a few people it might have been a bit too wobbly. I saw a few privacy signs on cabins doors at a time that I was not expecting it. Still the great majority was running around without having any worry what so ever.

Being sea sick is a strange state of affairs. As it is just part of your genetic make up. You cannot control nor train the balancing sensor in your ear, and it gets triggered for everyone in a different way.   Some people are never sea sick, some people always but the majority just need time to let their body adjust to a totally different movement than what you have on land. There you can have motion sickness as well. The school teacher I had in elementary school, final year, always got sick in the back of the bus. If he was sitting on the front seat, so he could see the road, he was fine. I have never been sea sick, except when I had to inhale fish being fried while in wind force 8 on the North Sea. Fried fish does not bother me, storm does not bother me and a moving ship does not bother me but my body did not like the combination.

For those who were not cooped up inside were participating in all the daily activities and there was a lot of wildlife to see. The whales were very active and several breached very close to the ship. Unfortunately we have not found a way yet to let the Whales announce what they are going to do, so we cannot advise the guests what is out there. We had some very excited guests today and some disappointed ones who had more or less expected that they would see whales at 10.45 when they had a coffee moment between the “behind the scenes kitchen tour” and the 11.00 On Location lecture. Well, we can do a lot at Holland America but we do not have (or want to have) an in house whale who will breach right at coffee time at the location of lifeboat 3.

My day was one full of variation. First we had the deck department in fire hose training on the aft mooring deck. We have four fire squads on board; two consist of deck personnel and two out of engine personnel.  I had the two deck teams today and the idea was to practice all the moves of attacking and retreating with a charged and spouting water hose. We can put 10 to 13 bars on a hose and that changes the whole dimension compared to handling an uncharged hose. I always end the training with a game of water ball where they have to try to use their hose to get a big Skippy ball in each other’s goal. Everybody gets soaking wet of course but they would do so as well during a real fire and then their wet fire suits would give extra protection. I also got soaking wet as aiming at the teacher has always been a primary reaction regardless of age.

Next was quartermaster refreshment training. Our Quartermasters are expected to do a lot more than only steering and keeping a look out and on a regular basis we go through a refresher training just to highlight the items which do not regularly occur on the bridge.

That continued with Touch drills with the junior officers in the afternoon. Touch drills are “dry” exercises where we go completely through the motions as if an emergency was occurring. If a fire report comes in, the first 30 seconds can be critical in getting the right teams on the road and ensuring that a minor item remains a minor item. So we rehearse and as even the best trained officer can forget something these drills are really useful.  Once the initial actions are out of the way, the officer can grab a check list to review if anything was forgotten.

Tomorrow we are in Ketchikan. By 05.30 we should have the pilot on board and by 0700 we should be alongside the dock. It looks that it is going to be a real Ketchikan day. High fifties, rain or drizzle but with little wind.

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

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

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

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

Smith Cove Cruise Terminal at Pier 91.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mount Edgecombe as seen from the ship while sailing in

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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