Holland America Blog
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Holland America Blog Has Just Posted the Following:
After a bit of a wobbly night the Statendam arrived in Sitka. Being the only larger ship in port it could anchor on the nearest deep water anchorage, reducing the tender distance considerably. I have been there with 3 ships at anchor in the past and the furthest one out was looking at a tender distance of nearly 25 minutes. Not fun, but nothing you could really do about it. * When we arrived the weather was as I predicted misty mountain weather, low clouds between the mountains and looking quite gloomy. However it turned out that it was the last end of the weather system and in the course of the morning the sun came out and it turned into a real summer’s day. The guests were very lucky here and it showed as most of them came back to the ship quite late in the afternoon.* In the late afternoon even Mount Edgecombe came out of the clouds. Mount Edgecombe is a dormant volcano which dominates the area and is located at the entrance to Sitka. On the way in and on the way out you have to sail by it. About 30 years ago, a group of what was assumed locals, dropped a lot of car tires in the cone of the mountain and on April 1st. set it on fire as it was April Fool’s day. Well it was a good joke as a lot of people took it seriously and thought that the mountain had come to life again.* As far as I know, the pranksters were never found. They say the tires were brought to the mountain cone by helicopter which flew up and down on the sea side so nobody in the town had any suspicion. Must have been costly to do but the prank made quite an impact. Today I did not see any smoke and thus Mount Edgecombe was still in deep sleep. Although not everybody realizes it, Alaska is full of active volcanoes but as most of them are located in very remote areas they do not threaten the […]
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After a bit of a wobbly night the Statendam arrived in Sitka. Being the only larger ship in port it could anchor on the nearest deep water anchorage, reducing the tender distance considerably. I have been there with 3 ships at anchor in the past and the furthest one out was looking at a tender distance of nearly 25 minutes. Not fun, but nothing you could really do about it. * When we arrived the weather was as I predicted misty mountain weather, low clouds between the mountains and looking quite gloomy. However it turned out that it was the last end of the weather system and in the course of the morning the sun came out and it turned into a real summer’s day. The guests were very lucky here and it showed as most of them came back to the ship quite late in the afternoon.* In the late afternoon even Mount Edgecombe came out of the clouds. Mount Edgecombe is a dormant volcano which dominates the area and is located at the entrance to Sitka. On the way in and on the way out you have to sail by it. About 30 years ago, a group of what was assumed locals, dropped a lot of car tires in the cone of the mountain and on April 1st. set it on fire as it was April Fool’s day. Well it was a good joke as a lot of people took it seriously and thought that the mountain had come to life again.* As far as I know, the pranksters were never found. They say the tires were brought to the mountain cone by helicopter which flew up and down on the sea side so nobody in the town had any suspicion. Must have been costly to do but the prank made quite an impact. Today I did not see any smoke and thus Mount Edgecombe was still in deep sleep. Although not everybody realizes it, Alaska is full of active volcanoes but as most of them are located in very remote areas they do not threaten the […]
Click here to view the article.
