Captain Albert’s Weblog

Good morning,

It was not my intention to write blog pages during my leave; the idea was to only add maybe a few more Avid Cruiser articles and some more photos to the photo gallery.

However I have just received my schedule for 2009 and as a few of you were inquiring about whether I would be on the Veendam in 2009 or not, here is the schedule and it has a twist to it.

Veendam:
14 October 2008 to 4 Jan 2009

Prinsendam:
30 April 2009 - 23 Aug. 2009
18 Oct. 2009 - 10 Jan. 2010

That means that after 4 years on the Veendam I will be transferring to the Prinsendam in April 2009. This is a smaller ship and not a single cruise will the same as the last one. I loved sailing on the Veendam and I will happily return to her for one more contract but the Prinsendam is going to be a challenge that I welcome very much. The Prinsendam does do a lot of longer cruises and goes to places where the larger ships can not go to. She would be the one to go to Timboektoe, if there was a Canal that could take her there.

It will certainly make my daily blogging different from day to day, so I hope you will enjoy reading about ports that are normally not featured on the regular cruise calenders.

I will upload her history in the coming period and it is quite an extensive one. She came to Holland America through the Carnival Family from Seabourn as she used to sail as the Seabourn Sun. Before that she was the Royal Viking Sun being built in 1986. Holland America has been investing heavily in her in the last few years, to bring her up to date and now she sails for us as the “Elegant Explorer”. She is the smallest ship in the Holland America Line fleet and can thus go to places where the bigger ones would have an issue getting into.

Nice weather in the Inside Passage often means fog but as the temperatures were not that high yesterday, we were lucky. I woke up this morning to a sunny Queen Charlotte Sound with nearly wind still weather and whales playing all over the place. I hope that at least some guests saw them. The last sea morning is normally very quiet as most guests recuperate from their shopping and sightseeing expeditions in Ketchikan. Continue Reading »

Ketchikan was indeed a dry day and had even sunny periods. Thus I saw, what I seldom see when arriving at Ketchikan lots of people on the forward deck enjoying the scenery while we sailed through the Tongass Narrows. With just a little bit of following wind it was indeed very pleasant on the outside decks and there was enough to be seen as well to keep everybody happily occupied. Continue Reading »

Arrival Juneau was wind still and wisps’ of mist where floating over the water. Very scenic. I was on the bridge by 03.30 for the early morning arrival of the ship. As we docked at the Alaska steamship dock we were the first ship coming in and that meant an early morning. We are already halfway through the season and so the days are getting shorter again. No more bright day light a 4 am. Although it still is daylight by the time we dock, this was the first morning that we could see the street lights shining brightly in the distance as dawn was just starting. Continue Reading »

As explained before, Skagway is a blow hole, where the wind funnels up the Lynn Canal and gathers momentum when coming North of Haines and going through the most narrow part of the Canal. So every captain approaches Skagway with a certain trepidation as you never know what you will find on arrival. We docked with about 20 knots of wind on the stern and that is not bad at all for Skagway. In the course of the day, it started to blow harder and harder and by late afternoon wind gusts of up to 45 knots were measured. The great advantage was that the wind blew the rain clouds away and it was a sunny and dry afternoon. Continue Reading »

With almost no wind at all we entered Sitka Sound heading for the anchorage. There was still a low swell running and that caused the fishing vessels around us to bob up and down on the waves. Most of the vessels were smaller boats mainly used for charter fishing and had 6 to 8 people on board. Although these boats are very small and highly maneuverable they can create a headache for us, as a lot of the skippers really do not know what is going on outside their little world. We had a few of those this morning. Continue Reading »

With a lightly moving ship we sailed to the Yakutat Bay again. The weather system that had caused all these waves was rapidly disappearing into the main land only leaving some swell and rain in its wake. Luckily in the course of the day the drizzle diminished and the visibility improved. Exactly what was needed to get through the ice with a minimum of fuss. Continue Reading »

A wobbly night turned into a windy arrival, with 25 knots of wind gusting from the North East when we entered Resurrection Bay. A wind not very common for this time of the year and also not expected at all. It did die off during the day and by the time we left it was wind still. That will also help to reduce the waves outside in the open sea by the time we get back into the Gulf of Alaska, during the coming night and tomorrow morning. Continue Reading »

Today was ice navigation with a capital I. We arrived timely at Ocean Cape and received the Rangers on board. The Indian Interpreters where there as well, Ted had not forgotten his ID this time (see Yakutat blog of 10 days ago) so all was well in the world. As the weather forecast had foreseen it was indeed rainy and it remained the so when we moved up the bay where we even had fog banks. Continue Reading »

There was even less swell in the Ocean than the weather maps promised us so we had a very quiet ride to Sitka. It looked very miserable when we came in but during the day the sun poked through the clouds and it remained a good day to visit the place. The area around Sitka remained covered in low hanging clouds but somehow that goes well with Sitka. It gives a very atmospheric presence. Same for the ship. When you come back on the tender and you see the Veendam in a frame work of dark mountains and white whips of clouds, it somehow looks special. Continue Reading »