And so the good ship Statendam with 1,360 happy campers on board sailed for Astoria. Happy campers in the ship and a worrying captain on the bridge. Astoria, Portland, the Columbia River, great place to visit and great scenery to look at but to get there you have to cross the Columbia Bar at the entrance to the river. It is similar to what you can have at Corinto Nicaragua, only worse, as here you get the undampened Alaska swell. Pilots board ships with a swell of 21 feet running and literately rock-and-roll the ships over the bar. The rock & amp; roll is of great concern to me as it would not be the first time that a wheelchair, with contents, would take off from one side of the Lido and get smashed into the windows at the other side. A reason to be very careful. The ship was already slightly rolling when we approached the area as the swell was ¾ on the stern and then you get a corkscrew motion that is hard to deal with even with the stabilizers. However the pilot was attentive and came far, far out, to have sufficient time to set up a plan and not to delay our sailing into port. The shopkeepers were eager to receive us.

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For me the best part of an Alaska Cruise is still sailing into Vancouver. Together with Sydney and Hong Kong I find it the most impressive port to sail into. Plus it is nice and sheltered and that means that if it is really blowing in Georgia Strait, then most of the time there it is only a gentle breeze in the port. Such was the case today. Georgia Strait was suffering under a real “funnel wind” exactly in line with the NW –SE direction of the Strait. Over 40 knots of wind on the beam, which must have woken up the balcony cabins on the portside of the ship quite nicely. However as soon as we lined up for the bridge and had passed Point Atkinson on the north shore, it became flat calm. We had overtaken the Amsterdam during the night as we had to go to the Eastern side of Canada place and then it makes sense to go under the bridge first and be out of the way for the other ship which has to make a shorter and earlier turn. Thus we passed under the bridge at 06.20 hrs with a scheduled first line ashore at 07.00 hrs

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By 06.00 hrs we were well and truly inside Strait Juan de Fuca. Carefully being watched over by various VTS stations. When you approach Cape flattery there is a Canadian station near the entrance called Tofino Traffic that ensures that all the ships going in and out of the strait are behaving themselves and then when inside, Seattle Traffic takes over. To keep them apprised of what is going on, there are various reporting points along the route so that the operators know at all times where the ships are. When I started sailing, Seattle Traffic was fully manual. At the control station they had a model of the whole of Puget Sound and its ways in and out, and there were people moving ships around the model so that the controllers had an overview at one glance. Now there are Radar stations, the ships have AIS and everything can be done from a computer monitor. When you call in, you receive advice about what the other ships are doing and if any ships will be leaving a port. For us approaching, traffic from Victoria and Port Angeles are of the most interest, as they are approaching the VTS system and are not yet in the regular flow of traffic and thus can have unpredictable courses.

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This morning around 08.00 hrs we passed the border between Oregon and California. Now we are truly getting in northern waters. The temperatures remained today at a nippy 55o F but that is still a lot higher than what is going on in Alaska, where Skagway reported one degree Celsius today. No doubt that will improve greatly in the coming days but for the moment the change is hitting hard when coming from warm Mexico. The “low hanging” clouds lifted this morning around 03.30 and just after 4 am I could go back to bed again. The wind started to blow a bit harder and will cool down the ocean surface more than enough, so I am not expecting anymore hazy weather until we get a wind still period again. Since passing Cape Mendocino on the Californian Coast we are steering one straight course following the 125o 11’ West meridian. That keeps us away from all State boundary’s, exclusion zones, marine sanctuary’s and coastal traffic near Cape Flattery. That is the entrance to Strait Juan de Fuca. We will start approaching that area around 02.00 hrs and be inside the strait around 05.00 hrs Continue reading

For most of the night we sailed in the area under the Catalina’s. The navy was not shooting and thus we could take the straight route. By 05.30 we were in the open waters of the North Pacific and sailed North along the coast of California, at an average distance of 30 miles. This for a specific reason as there are numerous marine sanctuaries along the coast. Monterey Bay, the Farallones and Cordell Bank, just to name a few. Ships are requested to stay out of them if they do not need to be there. To comply we have put our courses a bit further out and that brings the distance to the shore up to 30 miles.  It also means that we do not see very much of the coast line. Right in the beginning of my Holland America career, when these sanctuary’s were not there yet or there were no specific rules that governed the area’s, the captains laid their courses closer to the shore and I even remember one occasion that we went close enough to see the Golden Gate bridge in the distance, without going to San Francisco.  But that is long time in the past and now we sail more out in the open. Continue reading

 I arrived 30 minutes earlier at the pilot station than normal because we were going to the other pier. Long time experience has taught me that the moment you do something other than routine, you have to allow extra time, even if the whole world says you don’t. Murphy (always on board) jumps to the challenge when a ship goes out of routine and he will always find a spanner to throw into the wheel. (By the way, I wonder why Murphy is a HE ?) With a 05.30 arrival at the pilot station, we always have everything up and running by 06.30 at B street pier for an official 07.00 start. Now by arriving at 05.00 pilot station I hoped to achieve the same for Broadway Pier. Coming alongside by 06.00 and then having 30 minutes up my sleeve to let everybody fuss around and then still be ready to start around 06.45 – 07.00. It would not be the first time that bringing the ship in position alongside, that the bow suddenly has to go 1 foot forward and then stern 2 feet aft or that shore side has 4 feet in the meter and ships side only three. I was glad that I did arrive earlier as we needed those 30 minutes. As soon as we were inside the harbor entrance, coming into the shelter of Punta Loma, the wind died off and we sailed straight for the dock. 45 minutes behind us was the Amsterdam who was going to our regular dock as that ship is about 30 feet longer. According to the planning we were going to stick out already by 15 feet at the Broadway pier so if the Amsterdam had gone there she would have been sticking out even more. Getting into Broadway North is entering a much tighter spot as you have to go in between B Street pier and Broadway; while at our regular dock you have a vast open expanse of water to the North. Still nothing to worry about; I have docked in smaller gaps. Continue reading

Today we were under the influence of various weather and swell patterns. As a result the sea was a confused mixture of various waves and swells that made it even mind boggling for a computer. The last few days we had observed a long low running swell coming all the way from the Gulf of Alaska but now a wave pattern reached us from the south West. When two patterns come together they merge and sometimes that means they enhance each other and you get higher waves and sometimes they smooth each other out and the sea is almost flat. On top of that a wind that varied in strength blowing over it and you have a nice mixture that conformed to what we call “confused”. I am already keeping a close eye on the weather north of San Diego and the Catalina islands to see what we can expect during the two days that we sail along the American Coast going north. At the moment it looks very good. There was some nastiness coming out of the Gulf of Alaska but that has gone by now and it looks pretty stable. I am currently expecting winds not stronger than 20 knots off the coast and quiet waters as soon as we are inside Strait Juan de Fuca. Continue reading

With a happy smile on my face I sailed into Cabo San Lucas Bay because finally we could anchor on anchorage nbr 1., out of the swell and in the lee of the mountains.  First time in the season that we could do so and also first time in the season that we really did not need it as it was wind still for most of the day. Still it protected us from the low swell that was running around the Cape itself; whipped up by a lot of wind outside. Again wind that was not exactly in the forecast. And after departure we had that wind for about 6 hours full on the nose before the weather outside finally got into synch with the forecast. For the day we were happily tucked away in the best spot, nicely away from everything.  I dropped the hook at 06:00 hrs and that gave ample time to set up the tender service and to get everything going. Normally we have about 750 of our of 1200 guests going ashore as most have been there and some of them do not like the long tender ride. Today they saw that I had parked the ship almost in the Marina and we reached the top score of 1078 out of 1220 going ashore.  I had announced that our Amsterdam would be coming in around 09:00 and maybe some guests took that to heart and went ashore early. Continue reading

 Today we spent most of the day crossing the entrance area to the Golfo de California. The weather forecast had indicated nearly wind still conditions but we have become a bit leery of believing any predictions in this area. The forecast is most of the time right when it is blowing really hard and most of the time with a North to South flow coming out of the Gulf or a pure westerly wind coming from the Pacific. When it comes to lesser wind velocities then it seems to be less accurate. With a prediction of 10 knots we normally see 15 to 20 knots. For us not much of an issue but for a little boat that might have decided it’s crossing on a favorable forecast it could be. None of us can prove it of course as it would be long time measurements but subjectively spoken it seems to tie in with what we see in other areas. We see more wind in the Caribbean than forecast and when we cross Tehantepec we have to add about 10 to 15 knots to what is predicted to get it right. Also when sailing past Nicaragua again there is most of the time more wind observed than expected, so today we had the same experience again. The wind varied from wind still to 15 – 20 knots and I was looking at a weather forecast of a steady 10 knots all the way. It makes me feel more and more that the weather patterns are changing. Not a change with a discernible pattern but more leaning to the word “unpredictable”. I am just wondering if that will continue to be the case in the coming years. Continue reading

This is turning out to be a very good cruise, certainly weather wise. How much the guests are enjoying it, we will find out at the end of the cruise when the ratings come in. However everybody seems to be very happy and that is what we are aiming for.  Today turned out to be another glorious day. No wind, sunny and warm. The ship provided 17 knots of wind blowing over the deck, a gentle breeze to enjoy. With no real wind out there, the weather turned very hazy and by lunch time, when abeam of Acapulco 10 miles away, we could not see the land. We knew it was there as we saw a lot of six-pack navigators messing around with boats doing what some people would call fishing. Looking at the erratic behavior of some of them, I found that very questionable. Still it keep the navigators on their toes and we altered course a few times, just to make the margins a bit larger just in case their behavior would become even more erratic. It would not be the first time that these speedboats would think it prudent to cross our bow at a short distance just to get quicker to the other side. After Acapulco the next cluster of these boats will be off Zihuantenego at 19:00 hrs but that will be less of an issue as that is around cocktail time and then most of them are back in the Marina. Continue reading