Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
sengers cluster on balconies with awestruck faces as the glacier calves boomingly and
spectacularly into the fjord. They're getting their money's worth this morning.
Ward relieves Wright for the departure. Captain Romano points out a larger, darker
piece of ice off the port bow. “After the big black one—”
Ward nods. “Put the hammer down.”
“These ships are tender,” Ward says, “which means they heel hard if your turn hard,”
and then breaks off to consult the radar. He examines the horizon thorough binoculars,
makes a securite announcement over the radio on channels 16, 13 and 10, agrees to pass
portside to portside with the fast ferry
Chenega
, notes the position of a fleet of drift fisher-
men off Esther Rock with their nets out, instructs the bridge officers on salmon sharks
(“They only eat salmon. And cadets”), and makes and acknowledges a course change, be-
fore completing his comment about the
Coral Princess
' “tender” characteristic, which
means, he says, that wherever possible he keeps any turns to 6 to 7 degrees per minute. It
keeps the passengers, the ship's captain and the cruise line happy when all the breakfast
dishes don't slide off the table.
At Bull Head Wright and Ward depart the
Coral Princess
for the
SWAPA
pilot boat out
of Valdez, which takes them to a float plane in Chamberlain Bay, which flies them back to
Anchorage.
It is a scene repeated over two thousand times a year from Icy Bay to Kodiak, from
summer, when the sun never sets and the volume of ship traffic in
SWAPA
's service area
triples, to winter when Knik Arm and Valdez Arm fill with ice.
SWAPA
pilots are respons-
ible for the safe delivery to the Port of Anchorage of almost half of all the consumer
goods sold in the railbelt communities of Alaska, at a rough annual value of $725 million.
That includes the cereal you eat for breakfast, the bowl it's in and the table it sits on.
A
SWAPA
pilot is at the helm of every cruise ship that makes port in Seward, Whittier,
Valdez, Homer, Geographic Harbor and a hundred other little scenic bays and bights,
helping to fuel the tourist bonanza that earns Alaska an annual $1.6 billion (in 2004) in
tourist spending and $1.15 billion (in 2004) in labor income.
A
SWAPA
pilot starts the $129 million (in 2002) worth of timber the state exports annu-
ally on its journey Outside and to Japan, China and Korea.
SWAPA
pilots are responsible
