At 07.30 we changed course from the South East to the North East and rounded Cape Spencer. Here we left the Gulf of Alaska behind and entered Cross Sound which forms the entrance to the Inside passage. Here we collect our American Pilots again who will stay with us until Ketchikan. They fly into a little village where there is a nice hotel run by a husband and wife and he also runs the pilot boat. I have never been there but the pilot likes the food and hospitality and I never hear them moan when the weather is too bad for the float plane to fly them out. I always offer breakfast as soon as they come on board and only when they board here, they refuse has they have been loaded up with sufficient food to last a week when they have stayed there. Needless to say that none of the pilots are really of the skinny kind. Good food in the hotel and good food on the cruise ships. Summertime pilotage in Alaska is not a bad gig. (I could not get a good photo off the internet, so here is the link: www.tanakulodge.com Continue reading

Today we were sailing the same way back as we went west the day before yesterday. A gloomy day with low ceiling clouds and a bit of wind from the South East. The weather front that was threatening to bring a lot of wind to the area decided to cancel its performance for the time being and thus it was a nice and quiet day. Recently I posed the theory that whales do not like rain, and I do not know if it is true, but today we had a lot of whales; and no rain. As they were humpbacks they were quite lively. Humpback whales are considered the clowns of the whale family and today they did live up to their reputation. Continue reading

After a smooth crossing of the Gulf of Alaska with only the occasional gentle movement of the ship, we entered Resurrection Bay at 03.00 in the morning. Again a wind still and clear night, with just a slight haze playing around the feet of the mountains. Rain was forecast for the morning but when I arrived on the bridge and looked outside, it did not look like it would for the morning period. Rain needs a little bit of wind to get inland and that wind was not there. Indeed we had a sunny morning and only with the afternoon wind, did some precipitation come in. By then all our guests were happily on their way into the interior. For the boarding guests it is not such a problem, as they come in small groups so there is no line of waiting people between the terminal and the gangway. Outbound about 300 guests stream off in one go, as they go with the train. Then we get slow downs at the gangway and at the train boarding area and then it is really good if it is nice and dry. Continue reading

Today we crossed the Gulf of Alaska and it was really gloomy. Drizzle all day, rain showers and low hanging clouds everywhere. But…..very little wind and that meant apart from some residual swell from yesterdays strong winds, the sea was nice and calm. That was all I asked for. A nice calm day to finish a very nice cruise. The weather on a last day is not so omni important as most guests are more concerned with packing, or with going through the daily program, to see what the ship has to offer. So if I can provide a smooth ride with the ship then 99 out of a 100 guests are already happy campers. With the low swell and our sedate speed of 12 knots I could do that and thus all was well in the world. Continue reading

By 06.30 we came around “the bend” and passed the southern most boundary of Glacier Bay. Ready to embark the Rangers at 07.00 hrs. So the pilot called the dispatcher, only to be advised, No Rangers today, the boat has broken down. That was not very good news; what to do next. I could go up the Bay without the Rangers as I have a very good On Location Guide on board who could do the job but the Rangers are an integral part of the whole Glacier Bay experience, thus that was not the perfect answer. What was perfect was the weather, wind still and only a bit of drizzle which indicated that it would nice and dry further up the bay. So what to do next. ? Continue reading

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