#4: [05-Sep-09]

#3: [16-Sep-05]

#2: [18-Jun-04]

19-Jul-2002 -- After having several confluences nabbed in my part of the world recently I was left with few alternatives. However, my upcoming cruise to Alaska was going to take me right near a confluence in the waters of Alaska just outside of Juneau. This was the only one that I had a chance at that the Norwegian Wind would come close to during the entire trip.

This cruise was also to be my honeymoon and my wife to be knew I was disappointed when the nearest confluence to Vancouver got snatched away before I could plan a trip.

The cruise ship was going to go by the confluence both on the way north and on the way back south but since it was on the east side of the channel I thought the best chance would be while going north and therefore on the right side of the channel.

After writing a letter to the captain earlier in the day, all I could do was wait. But we would be passing quite late at night and no response came that night and I fell asleep without knowing how close we had come.

The good news was that a letter was by our door the next day asking me to contact the Concierge about my letter. After meeting with the Concierge I was informed that the captain (Holm) wanted to know more about what I was asking to do. I explained myself to the concierge and finagled 2 tickets to the VIP Cocktail Party with the Captain the next night.

The return meant that we would be passing the confluence once again but still I had not talked to the captain and we would be passing the point just hours before the Cocktail Party. After leaving Juneau I checked my GPS and we were heading right for the confluence and only about 15 minutes away.

I ran down to the cabin to get my wife and she hurried back up to the top deck with me. After seeing that we were only 2 miles (3 km) away I could see that our path was slowly diverging from the desired one. Seeing that the confluence would be on the port side we went over to that side of the ship and waited.

One of the crew came out on deck and my wife (April) ran over to him to see if he could alter course but of course he couldn't but took up an interest in what we were doing. As we reached the nearest approach we took pictures of the GPS and myself with the crew member and the spot on the water. My estimation was that we missed the confluence by 800 meters.

Later that night we met Captain Holm who had taken great interest in what we were doing but was too busy to contact us prior to the event. He informed me that they were watching from the bridge as to how close we had come to the confluence. He said that we were just over 2 cables away from it. In layman speak that is about a quarter of a mile or 400 meters.

We enjoyed the cocktail party that night and were fortunate enough to get a bridge tour the next day.

In the Stephens Passage, near the Alaska Marine Highway, about 1.4 mi from the eastern shore.