The ms Nieuw Amsterdam when new. (Holland America Line Stock Photo)

And thus I went from the “old” Amsterdam to the Nieuw Amsterdam by flying from Seattle to Ketchikan. As expected the plane was half empty while going up and very full while going down, as all fishermen, shopkeepers and other seasonal persons are leaving around this time of the year. And I cannot blame them as Ketchikan lived up to its reputation today as it was rainy and quite miserable. When I arrived, the Eurodam was also in port and thus we had the two sisters at one dock together. A bit strange to see as the Eurodam already has the new logo on the funnels while the Nieuw Amsterdam is still awaiting the change. That will come in dry dock next year. Then the ship will also get the “Koningsdam” revamp by installing the Music Walk. The casino will be reduced in size to make room for Billboard on Board with the two pianos, the Northern Lights disco will be removed and replaced with the very successful Gallery Bar and the Explorers lounge will be adapted to receive the Lincoln Art Centre for classical music. But that is still far in the future.

The ms Nieuw Amsterdam is under the command of Captain Jeroen van Donselaar whom I know since his day one as 4^th. officer with the company and who I last saw when I had my Navigator Class on the Noordam two years ago. He will take the ship two days from now on the Trans Canal cruise down to Fort Lauderdale after which it will start first with a short charter cruise to the Dutch Islands in the South Caribbean and then cruises to the East Carib. How the latter will work out nobody knows as it will all depend on how far repairs have progressed. The Americans are in Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, the Dutch are in St.Maarten and the British are in the British Virgin Islands.  Although we all want to know what we are going to do, the company can only but wait to nearer the date to see what is possible.  If all those islands are still off limits then the whole cruise industry has to revise its operations as there are only a limited number of ports with a limited number of berths as an alternative. Uncertain Times.

I will be making sure that the ship has no uncertain times with me and I have embarked on my regular program of inspections and training’s to support the Master and the ship as best as I can. At the end of the Alaska season, there is always a larger crew change and that includes a number of new- new crew members so I will not be bored. New – new crew members are those who are new to the ship but also new to the company. With the arrival of the Nieuw Statendam just over a year way, the company already starts to gear up for crew alignment for that ship and to find a 1000+ crew out of the pool of 14 ships to go there.

Thus the fleet will absorb a 1000 new crew, plus replacements for those who are wishing to continue their career outside the company. Holland America is blessed with a very low turnover in general but it becomes more and more the norm that crew born after 1995 do not tend to stay that long. I think they call them the Millennials and they are moving around much more than my generation. Even if you want to stay sailing, the cruise industry is booming and there is space everywhere. When I started sailing in 1981 for Holland America; switching company was considered switching allegiance and was very much frowned upon. You did not do that, it was considered a weakness. Now it is considered the norm and good for building up experience. ………But if they keep sailing, they always tend to come back to us.

We will now be sailing from Ketchikan to Vancouver. Yesterday the ship had some bumpy weather with an over coming frontal system, hence the rain today, but tomorrow it should be nice and quiet. Then in Vancouver we will catch the last of the rain, but after 13.00 hrs. it should be sunny. Temperatures not bad for the end of the season: 14oC or 58oF.

Today just a few photos, as I left the ms Amsterdam to fly to Ketchikan to join the ms Nieuw Amsterdam.  A few days earlier than scheduled. The Amsterdam will leave wet dock tonight around midnight and then sail for 3 days until it reaches San Diego. There everything has to be finished as the same day the Grand Asian voyage starts which will last until December.  I think the work will be nicely finished on time as the carpeting was and is going very fast. I am not technical so I can not say what is fast and not fast in plumbing but the ceilings were open everywhere.

I will join the Nieuw Amsterdam for 3 weeks, until October 21 and she is making a trans canal cruise to Fort Lauderdale so we will be going from Rainy Alaska to Tropical Panama to sunny Florida. More tomorrow. For now a few more photos.

Old carpet in the Lido

The underlay of the new carpet coming in. It was all finished just when I left the ship.

It was not only carpet and plumbing, we are also getting a new dancefoor in the Rembrandt Lounge and Amstel Bar, and if my polish was correct, a re-alignment of the piano there.

We were not the only ship in the shipyard. There was also a Pudget Sound Ferry and two USCG ships. the Walsche and the Bertholf.

The main reason we are in this shipyard is because it close to where we ended our cruise and because we need Crane capacity to get all the carpet and other spare parts on board. Thus yesterday, we imitated the local ferry and raced across the bay. Then in the afternoon the containers were hoisted on board, emptied and exchanged for new ones again carrying even more carpet.  Then there are the waste containers which get removed and replaced if and when needed. That whole process should be accomplished by late evening of the 27^th. and then the ship can sail; and it will sail as soon as it can.  From then on it will have 3 full days at sea to finish off all the work on board.

The last time I docked in Tacoma was in 1980 when I was a cadet on board a container ship of a company which was once the Hal cargo side. Holland America sold off its cargo side in 1973 when it had to make a decision between investing in expensive cargo ships (= container ships) or also expensive cruise ships. I came over to HAL when I had obtained my license. Being a cadet on a cargo ship is much more hands on than on a cruise ship, as a smaller team means that the cadet is given much more responsibility.  I do not remember much from those visits except that it was always cold there.

Early morning view of the Seattle sky line.

Now we are docked a bit further in the Bay and from the bridge we have a spectacular view of the skyline of Seattle, especially as we had a very nice and sunny day.

Arrival of the Carpet. Containers landed on around the Lido pool,

Life on board goes on in full swing and today the replacement of the potable water pipes started. That meant we were out fresh water everywhere, except in the Galley, for the whole day. We of course need water during the night hours and thus the replacement sequence is carefully planned. All pipes are laid out in the corridors and the ceiling (what we call under decks) is completely prepped for the exchange from old to new pipe. About 20 fitters work in one corridor at the same time to ensure that the replacement gets done in the allotted time and that testing is done before the full pressure comes on again. And indeed by 17.00 hrs. we had our water back. This process will be repeated in the coming days until all pipework has been renewed.

High work going on in the Dining room. all the carpet has been stripped for renewal as well.

It is not all carpet, pipes and furniture which has the attention, complete scaffolding has been setup in the Dining room to clean and inspect the glass ceiling we have there. The ships crew can clean the glass to a certain extend by dusting it but a detailed clean with soap and water is difficult if one wants to avoid damage. Thus we have a contracting company doing that. Another item is fresh wall paper in a number of cabins as well. For that reason one of the penthouses has been given over to a wall paper man.

A very posh wall paper man. He is not just using a cabin, no he is using the penthouse. (I wonder if he realizes he is working in front of a very expensive 17^th century painting)

The crew is involved with all sorts of things, apart from supporting the needs of the contractors and doing their own work, a large number are also involved with trying to keep the ship as clean as possible. So as soon as carpets and underlay have been fully removed a whole Armada of sweepers moves in to make the area dust free. This is not limiedt to one group and this morning I saw Cooks, Waitresses, Housekeeping and a gentleman from the Front Office all busy with a broom to get rid of dust and small debris. And until the new carpet is down, they will have to repeat that every morning. Then the fight against the teak deck people will start. These gentlemen have now started with sanding the teak wood around the swimming pools and that creates dust everywhere. If it is wind still, then the dust stays where it is, but late this afternoon the wind started to pick up and that meant…………….

That wind is supposed to die down again during the evening. Tomorrow we are expecting a sunny day with noon temperatures of 24oC or 76oF. and that is supposed to last until we sail and even beyond.  The people of Seattle must wonder what has hit them. Summer in September. Maybe because we are in town ??

Late afternoon view of the Seattle sky Line.

We had a nice and early arrival and it gave the passenger terminal a busy time as behind us the ms Noordam slipped in as well. Our schedule was to have all the guests disembarked by 10.00 hrs. embark about 300 contractors and then sail to the other side of Elliott Bay just after 12.00 hrs. We will stay 2.5 days at Vigor Marine on Harbor Island as we need cranes to get all the containers with carpet on board and all the waste off the ship before we sail without guests to San Diego.  Sailing down the coast will take three days so the whole wet dock is just short of seven days all together.

A sort of unreal feeling pervades through the ship when it goes from the regular cycle of ending a cruise and starting a new one. Everybody is normally very busy to get all the work done between the last guest leaving and the first new guest coming and then the whole cruise cycle starts all over again. A wet or dry dock breaks that routine and although the work remains busy, for the Hotel Department the daily grind is replaced with a few new things. Although we have over 300 contractors on board Housekeeping can ease off a little bit as there is more time to do the work which is normally crammed into a very small time span.

The Bar Lounge and Deck Crew are suddenly out of work as it only takes so much time to clean the bars and pantry’s and do inventory and square everything away until the ship reaches San Diego. Their help is now needed in wet dock. Same goes for the Dining room. As everybody is eating in the Lido, a large number of Dining room stewards are out of a job as well. They all are now needed for wet dock work. I trained in the last week about 60 of the two groups in how to be fireguards; and to supervise all the welding going on for replacing fresh or potable water piping in the ship and a whole list of other steel work repairs.   Also the removal of carpet falls under their new job.

Carpet stripped and underlay and glue sanded off before New Carpet comes on.

The moment the last guest was off the ship; was the moment the first strip of carpet was ripped off the deck. We have a contractor company on board who will replace the carpet in nearly all the public area’s and also refurbish a lot of chairs and sitting areas. The ship’s crew is transporting all the lose carpet to the aft Lido Deck from where it goes into skips and is then hoisted ashore.  It is amazing to see how fast the carpet gets lifted and removed. The next challenge is then to get the underlay or padding off the steel decks. For that they use a sort of sanding machine as not all the underlay is easily scrapped off.  Everything has to be glued securely to the steel deck as with a moving ship the steel can flex and it also has to withstand the onslaught of daily vacuuming and wet shampooing on a regular basis.

The Upholsterers have setup shop in the Library and are in progress of re-upholstering all the settees in the area.

The Deck department runs the same watches as usual but now has the added challenge of the most dangerous situation a ship can be in: dry or wet dock. A lot of non-shipboard people are on board and all working hard but not all of them are necessarily working safely. Also a lot of work can be done that is hard to do when there are guests on board. One of them is the yearly life jacket check. Maybe hard to believe but life jackets travel from cabin to cabin for some unknown reason. Maybe guests are sleeping around and take their life jacket with them? I do not know but we always find life jackets from one cabin, sometimes 10 cabins or more down the hallway.

A small job but the work of experts is touching up the wear and tear to the railings of the dining room.

The by far the busiest group on board are the engineers. Wet and Dry docks are to a large extent technical happenings and apart from overseeing what the contractors are doing, there is also a lot of engine work which they want to do themselves as well; work that is difficult to carry out with paying guests on board. This time with all the pipe work going on all over the ship, it will need a lot of supervision and checking of all the work carried out to ensure that everything will work again by the time we reach San Diego.

So the big projects are this time, replacing piping in the corridors to the cabins, replacing a lot of public room carpet, refurbishing furniture, wooden deck repairs, upgrading a number of officer and crew cabins and carrying out a lot of small repairs to the guest’s cabins.

The Weather Gods are with us, it remained dry today and the weather forecast for tomorrow is similar. Not a bad way to start a wet dock.

Today we spend most of the day in “hazy Weather”. Sometimes good enough to see the mountains of Vancouver Island and sometimes worse enough to only see the mast on the bow of the ship. Still I consider this a “ can be worse situation” as the ship offers enough diversion to keep everybody going and on this stretch of open water there is a limit to what you can see anyway. So the guests had to be a bit more inward looking, that is looking inward into the ship.

First of all the day started later than normal, as we had an hour forward during the night, so the ship could get in sync with Canadian time again. By the time breakfast was concluded there was quite a bit to do on in the ship.

Fitness, Shop sales (end of season T shirts going like hot cakes), Computer training, Americas Test Kitchen (with flavors of the Mediterranean), Art Auction, Black Jack tournament, Ask the Captain (now there are no longer bridge tours, the Captain gives a presentation and does a Q & A in the show lounge), Daily Movie, Games including Trivia, Afternoon Classical Music, High Tea and ………….. Bingo. And by the time you had participated in all those things, it was time to change into formal and to go for Cocktail hour.

I held my Holland America lecture on Hubbard Glacier morning and was blessed with a full house. 400+ guests in the main show lounge. If everybody sticks to one seat we can get about 600 guests in the show lounge but our guests like to spread out and for some reason shopping bags need a seat as well and thus I was fully booked, with guests and shopping bags………………. Because I only have 80 minutes, I leap frog through 143 years of history and I have to leave a lot of our colorful history out of the presentation. That always results in a number of guests stepping forward who want to know why I did not mention their ship. As Holland America had over 200 ships in their history, it is simply impossible. So I have a little Q & A session afterwards to focus on my omissions.

The ss Groote Beer departing from Rotterdam in 1952 for an emigrant voyage to Canada.

It is amazing that 50 years after we stopped carrying emigrants to the USA and Canada, there are still guests stepping forward who emigrated to the new world with Holland America. We must have done something good in those days as they are now willing to come back and cruise with us. One peculiar part of that emigration business which confuses most people were the emigrant ships of the Dutch Government. After WWII the Dutch government bought three victory ships with Troop accommodation and used them for taking military to the Dutch East Indies before they went independent in 1948. The government then wanted to use them for regular immigration and soon found out that running ships is totally different than running a government. So the three ships were given into the management of the three largest Dutch Shipping Company’s. The Groote Beer (Big Dipper) went to Holland America, the Waterman (Aquarius) went to Royal Rotterdam Lloyd and the Zuiderkruis (Southern Cross) went to the Netherlands Line. Holland America later on bought the Groote Beer and operated it for many years specializing in emigrant and student trips.

The ss Groote Beer had been built as the American Victory, then ss Costa Rica Victory. She was later on extensively rebuilt. Here she is seen in the 1960’s docked at Hoboken where the Holland America Line had its piers. For some reason the ship always kept the funnel colors of the Dutch Government Line (Trans Oceaan) she started out for.

What was confusing for the passengers was; that when any of those ships made a trip to New York or Canada, the name of Holland America was on the first page of the Passenger List. Then later on they would find out that they had not been on a Holland America Line ship but on something else. Reason was that Holland America ran the management and were the port agents for all these voyages to North America while Rotterdam Lloyd and the Netherland Line did so for the rest of the world.  So this Constellation Class of ships caused and still causes a lot of confusion among those who started their new lives by going across on any of them.

We will be sailing South of Vancouver Island for the remainder of the day and night and then enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca around 07.00 hrs. By noon time we should be at the Victoria pilot station and be docked by 13.00 hrs.

I expect that we will continue to have very low clouds until late tomorrow morning, unless the sun burns it all way. The weather forecast calls for a partly cloudy day 12oC / 54oF and that should just be nice for visiting the most English of all the Canadian ports.

Sitka today turned out to be a very rainy day. Although the forecast said that it would dry up in the afternoon, it seems that somebody forgot to advise the Weather Gods as it just kept raining in an advanced sort of drizzly way.

The good ship Amsterdam docked at Sitka this time, as a dock was built a few years ago at the cargo area of the town. Basically the area where the tug and tows come in with all the containers with supplies from the lower 48.

Until 2013 every cruise ship, unless it was very small, had to anchor on the south side of Sitka where there are four designated anchorages and at times these were all occupied. The advantage, as long as you were on the inner anchorage or at the 7 Fathom anchorage, was that it was a short tender distance and you landed straight in down town.  The other two anchorages were further out and caused a long tender ride.  The inner anchorage and the 7 Fathom were not suitable for the larger cruise ships and thus they had to go further out. Their length made it impossible to swing around on the tide and then, either they had to keep their engines on and work against the current which tried to swing the ship around or go to one of the two anchorages further out.

The dock as seen from the bridge of the ms Amsterdam. The white tent is a sort of Visitors Meet and Greet. Note the containers on the dock which are brought in by tug and tow.

Thus the decision was made to create one big dock in the cargo port which could handle one big cruise ship. Who was going there? We have the regular Alaskan pecking order again. Those who have been here the longest go first, if the ships are the same size. If that does not apply then the biggest ship will dock that makes the largest number of calls during the season.  If there is only one ship then of course it is easy although that ship could opt to go to anchor.

With tendering the tenders sailed straight into town. First exclusively into the Marina, which is on the East side but that upset the shopkeepers whose shops were on the west side of the town. So a second tender landing was created and the tenders would call one week at the East –Marina –Side and the next week and the West – down town- Side. If there were more ships in on the same day, those ships were equally divided over the two landing areas. We had to do a lot of work in those days to keep the shopkeepers happy in Sitka.

Shop keeper navigation. One week we steered 298o to the Marina and the next week 281o to the bridge dock. The blue patch of shallows is called the 7 fathom bank where we preferred to anchor.

For the guests who go to town from the cruise dock, there is a free shuttle bus system which takes them in 8 – 10 minutes to Sitka itself. For myself I still have to figure out what the best option is for the guests. Dock at the North Dock and need to use the 8 minute shuttle into town or be at the inner anchorage and have a 5 minute tender service to the shore. For us who have to run the tender service it is much better to dock. It takes a lot less labor and we do not get wet and cold while standing there conducting the tender service. If we would have had to tender today, it would have been quite miserable and very chilly.

The route to the dock. When going to the anchorage you sail straight on instead of changing course to the North.

We stayed in Sitka from 08.00 – 16.00 hrs. and about half the guests ventured ashore. Those who stayed behind had either been there before or decided to wait to a next trip when it would be dry and sunny. Sitka does have it attractions though. It used to be the capital of Alaska when it was still Russian owned and remnants of the Russian culture are still very much visible. The heritage center keeps the old traditions alive and several buildings from the old days are still there. I like the place as it feels that it is the least commercialized of all the other ports, compared to Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan.  Russian souvenirs are very much in vogue although I must admit that I saw a shop in Juneau which had much better quality.  So there is a challenge for Sitka not to lose its edge.

We sailed at 16.00 hrs. and went from the drizzle into the Fog. A large area of “very low hanging clouds” is lying along the South side of Vancouver Island and we have to sail straight through it. So the captain will be busy with honking the horn every two minutes to let the whole world know that the ms Amsterdam is in the vicinity and on its merry way to Victoria, Canada.

The Gulf of Alaska must have thought it was summer time as the sea was as smooth as could be. Just a low swell was still running from the South West but it was a really low swell and did not affect us at all. Main focus of the day was the visit at Hubbard Glacier. We normally call there between 2 and 8 in the afternoon but with days getting shorter, the captain decided to arrive at noon time at the entrance so would still have day light for the whole period. That meant cranking up the speed a lot not good for the fuel consumption but some of it will be regained again when sailing down to Sitka at a lower speed.

NOAA chart US 16761 showing the whole of Yakutat and disenchantment Bay. Latouche is the bump where the Bay bends to the North East.

Hubbard Glacier is located at the top of Disenchantment Bay, which is a 2^nd bay behind the Yakutat Bay. The border is roughly at point Latouche about ¾ up.  The name disenchantment was given to the bay by the Spanish Explorer Malespina who thought that he had found the entrance to the North West Passage. He had not as he was stopped by an ice barrier called a Glacier and thus was very “disenchanted”. Looking from Disenchant Bay down to the Yakutat, the bays are separated by a promontory on the Eastern side called Point Latouche or Latouche. It is surmised that George Vancouver named it after the French Naval Commander Latouche.

We enter the bay sailing through a gap in the shallows and then make a lee for the pilot boat. (See the black course line deviating from the red/planned route)

Yakutat is a native name or at least the English version of the Tlingit name: Yaakwdáat. And the bay is accordingly named after this town located at the entrance. When we enter the Yakutat, we are coming back into US territorial waters and that means we need to get a pilot on board. He/she boards from a boat coming out of Yakutat after having flown in from the South. The town itself is very small but it has an airport which services the whole area. Long time ago I sailed in there once with the old ss Rotterdam to facilitate a Medivac. It was quite funny as they had never had a ship that size come into the bay which forms the inner harbor and the man in charge, the local harbor master, had decided to take an extended lunch on that day and at that time. So he missed the event of the century. He gave the pilots considerable stick over it but it shows that long lunches are detrimental to work. (Although very good fun)

Once the pilot is on board, the pattern is normally to race as fast as possible up Yakutat Bay to save and create extra time for when the ship comes to the ice. You never know how much ice there will be as Hubbard normally caves a lot but can be quite erratic. I have sailed in the past all the way up to the face of the glacier but have also been stuck at an ice barrier just North of Latouche.

We try to sail mid channel courses but it all depends on the ice. Icebergs do not always give way to a cruise coming in and thus today the ms Amsterdam was hugging the Eastern side of the bay close to Point Latouche.

Today we had the best of both worlds, there was a lot of caving but there was also a lot of space between the ice bergs. Thus the ship could get to a nice spot south of the Glaciers face. Close enough to see the caving going on and far enough out to keep perspective of the whole area. Hubbard Glacier is immense with a face extending close to 3 miles and then there is an inlet to the East which extends the face even further. A number of years ago, Hubbard advanced suddenly and that inlet was closed off for most of the year. That caused the waters to rise inside and keep everything trapped until the water pressure became too strong and the ice burst. (Or the Glacier retreated again. I cannot remember, it was nearly 20 years ago) The environmental world was quite concerned about the dolphins trapped inside and about the danger of a deluge coming down the bay.

A number of years ago this side arm, called Russell Fjord, was completely closed off by the Glacier. Water inside rose 45 feet from Glacier melt water and rain until the opening burst open again.

We had a rainy day in the Yakutat but it proved my point once again: with overcast skies, the natural blue colors of the ice are much better visible than with a lot of sun light.

The true blue colors of a Tide Water Glacier.

Tonight we will sail down to Sitka where we will be docked by 08.00 hrs. in the morning. Sitka has had a dock now for some years but it will be a first for me, as I always was assigned an anchorage in the past.

Weather: Overcast with a chance of showers, no wind predicted and temperatures around 55oF. or 12oC.