Holland America Blog
Safety Officer
Holland America Blog Has Just Posted the Following:
Docking in Anchorage is not for the faint hearted. Cook Inlet is not the end of the fjord, it continues past Anchorage, where it turns into Knik Arm. *And thus the tidal influence continues unabated as nothing slows it down. The only thing that happens is as soon as the water has passed Homer, the fjord / inlet slowly but steadily becomes narrower and that pushes the water height up. It gives Anchorage a tidal difference of about 20 feet but also a continuous flow along the dock. A water flow which can reach a velocity of 5 to 6 knots. Not unlike what happens on the St; Lawrence River at Quebec.* To alleviate any problems with docking as much as possible, the docks are built along the river bank and in line with the river. That gives the option to dock with the nose in the current and keep the ship in position with the main engines until the mooring lines are safely secured ashore.* Pushing against 4 knots of tide or being pushed by 4 knots of tide and then trying to control this sideways movement, even with strong tugboats, is not so easy. Better said it is nearly impossible. Based on that situation the Statendam arrived this morning around 07.00 hrs. near the dock, swung around and docked with the nose into the current alongside the cargo terminal. Anchorage does not have a cruise terminal as there are simply not enough cruise ships calling here as I explained yesterday. The cargo dock is about 2 miles outside the city and the city laid on a free shuttle for everybody who wanted to get into the city. I took the bus in the afternoon and I was really impressed by the organization. Dispatchers at the ship and in the city all nicely in uniform; two gophers at the city stop to help with putting wheelchairs and scooters away; and I could even do it in Dutch as one of the Ladies in the dispatch team was from Flemish Belgium. What more can you ask for?? Anchorage is […]
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Docking in Anchorage is not for the faint hearted. Cook Inlet is not the end of the fjord, it continues past Anchorage, where it turns into Knik Arm. *And thus the tidal influence continues unabated as nothing slows it down. The only thing that happens is as soon as the water has passed Homer, the fjord / inlet slowly but steadily becomes narrower and that pushes the water height up. It gives Anchorage a tidal difference of about 20 feet but also a continuous flow along the dock. A water flow which can reach a velocity of 5 to 6 knots. Not unlike what happens on the St; Lawrence River at Quebec.* To alleviate any problems with docking as much as possible, the docks are built along the river bank and in line with the river. That gives the option to dock with the nose in the current and keep the ship in position with the main engines until the mooring lines are safely secured ashore.* Pushing against 4 knots of tide or being pushed by 4 knots of tide and then trying to control this sideways movement, even with strong tugboats, is not so easy. Better said it is nearly impossible. Based on that situation the Statendam arrived this morning around 07.00 hrs. near the dock, swung around and docked with the nose into the current alongside the cargo terminal. Anchorage does not have a cruise terminal as there are simply not enough cruise ships calling here as I explained yesterday. The cargo dock is about 2 miles outside the city and the city laid on a free shuttle for everybody who wanted to get into the city. I took the bus in the afternoon and I was really impressed by the organization. Dispatchers at the ship and in the city all nicely in uniform; two gophers at the city stop to help with putting wheelchairs and scooters away; and I could even do it in Dutch as one of the Ladies in the dispatch team was from Flemish Belgium. What more can you ask for?? Anchorage is […]
Click here to view the article.
