One of the last cruise ships of the season scheduled to be in port in Haines, instead left early Wednesday morning after trying and failing to tie up to the cruise ship dock around 7 a.m.
There was a gale warning in effect for the northern Lynn Canal through about 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Those conditions caused crew on the 1,250-passenger Riviera to also decide that it was too windy and there were too many waves for it to instead anchor away from the borough’s cruise ship dock and tender passengers back and forth.
“It was a really smart move on their part,” said harbormaster Henry Pollan.
In conditions Pollan called Haines’ usual “gales of September,” Pollan said the ship made multiple attempts to tie up while passengers – some still in their bathrobes – watched the spectacle unfold.
“Generally they’re not going to quit before they try a little bit,” he said.
But the nearly 800-foot-long cruise ship kept getting pushed out of position and toward the Small Boat Harbor. That meant the ship couldn’t get close or stay in position long enough to safely tie up to the dock.
Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska port manager Leslie Ross said they talked about bringing the ship in from its starboard side instead of the usual port side. The company also offered to send a tug from Skagway, about an hour-long trip, to help with the docking process. A tug would push the ship into the dock and keep it steady until the lines can be tied on.
Ross said the wind gusts felt like they were blowing at about 40 miles per hour, though NOAA forecast gusts of 25.
When a ship can’t tie up to the dock, one other option is to anchor out and tender passengers back and forth.
But that comes with its own set of problems, Pollan said.
“When the wind blows really hard, with the soft muddy substrate we have down there, they can drag anchor,” he said.
It’s not uncommon for a ship to have to pull and reset its anchor in Haines. But that can be complicated by the location of the town’s wastewater outfall and nearby undersea electrical cable.
“That’s some pretty valuable infrastructure that we have,” Pollan said.
Even if the ship did manage to stay in place, Pollan said it would be a rough ride for passengers in the tendering vessels, and getting them on and off the borough’s uncovered float is tricky as well.
Pollan said he’s grateful the ship’s crew made the decision not to keep trying to tie up in dangerous conditions, particularly because it could have damaged borough infrastructure.
“They are colossal machines,” said Pollan. “You know, there’s a thousand different ways to break something.”
While the weather conditions are common for this time of year, Pollan said it’s relatively unusual for a ship to find itself unable to tie up in Haines. Generally Haines gets overflow from Skagway when ships can’t tie up there due to weather conditions. Though today, Ross said all of the ships scheduled to arrive in Skagway made it in just fine.
Just about one year ago, on Sept. 17, about 250 passengers on a Holland America cruise ship were stranded for hours under similar conditions. The weather conditions in the morning were relatively calm when the Nieuw Amsterdam dropped them off, but with wind gusts recorded at 49 miles per hour in town, the ship sailed to take shelter in Lutak Inlet by the afternoon, retrieving passengers several hours later.