Pier pillings. The round windows are on deck two. At high tide they were above the top of the pier

Shocking is all I can say.  My stateroom was on deck 2, so it was relatively close to the water line.  When we docked in Skagway at about 7:00 AM I looked out the window and was looking down at the top of the dock, almost eye level with it.

I left the room to go have breakfast and afterwards walked around the ship.  There was no need to be in a rush since I was not going on any excursions while in Skagway, so I just wandered around the ship taking in the stunning views of the surrounding snow capped mountains, the other ships docked at several other locations in the harbor, and watched as helicopter excursions to the glaciers and beyond left from the helipad next to the dock.

My mission in Skagway was to go have fish and chips at the Skagway Fish Co. so around 11:00 I decided to go to my room to get my cameras and head to town.  Upon entering the room and looking out through the large round window, all I could see was pier pillings.  WOW!  The tide had receeded and the water level was probably 20 or 22 feet lower than four hours earlier.

I have never experienced such a large tide drop and especially in such a short time.  The only other location that I know that has very large tidal swings is in the Bay of Fundy which is in the Canadian maritime provinces, between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  There the tide difference is as much as 56 feet. That is another story that I will probably blog about in the future.

Almost as fast as the tide had dropped in such a short time, the tide came back in.  When I returned from lunch and touring Skagway, I again looked out the room window and now the tide had come back in and again I was looking down at the top of the pier.  The ship had risen even higher than it was in the early morning, probably by about another 6 to 10 feet.  The whole tide thing that day was really interesting but definitely weird since we don’t have that large a tide swing here in the Bay Area.
Until next time,
Bon voyage

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