A Holland America ship at anchor in Sitka. (John Bromley/Flickr)
The Holland America ships Westerdam and Oosterdam will bypass Sitka on Wednesday and Thursday September 25 & 26.
Fred Reeder, port director for the Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska, says continued inclement weather off the coast forced the ships to cancel.
The weather forecast for those days calls for south winds gusting to 30 knots, and seas of 5 to 6 feet. Reeder says these conditions don’t present a problem for the ships or passengers, but it does make it difficult to get the ships’ pilots on and off. He says the ships have to divert to Ketchikan to transfer pilots when the weather is bad, throwing off their itineraries.
The Westerdam and Oosterdam each carry nearly 2,000 passengers. The ships cancelled their visits to Sitka last week as well, for the same reasons.
Reeder says Sitka’s next cruise ship call will be the Westerdam on Wednesday, May 7, 2014.
