It’s common wisdom to arrive at your cruise port a day or two early.  Our Japan cruise starts Sept 1, so we had planned to arrive Aug. 31 but after some fog in Southeast Alaska and what looked like a cyber attack at SeaTac airport, we moved our departure back a day to August 30.  It also allowed us to get updated COVID and flu shots not yet available in Sitka.  We almost outsmarted ourselves.

On August 29 a cable broke offshore Sitka and all our Internet and cell service went down.  No ATM machines, and merchants could not process credit cards.  My order for prescription drugs had been delayed and just came in on the 29th but since there was no internet service I had to pay in cash from the stash I had planned to take on the cruise.  Well, ATM machines work in Seattle.

With the outage we could call locally and when I called Alaska’s local station I was routed, somehow, to their call center.  I called Alaska Airlines because Alaska Airlines called the radio station to tell everyone flying to print out their boarding passes at home because the internet was down.  Duh? 

I wanted to know what would happen tomorrow if I did not have a boarding pass printed.  The agent’s reaction:  “duh?”

She did say that Alaska Airlines depends on the internet and, looking at her functioning computer screen in call center land, there was a good chance our flight could be cancelled.  Would we like to book a later flight?  This time of year, flights out of Sitka now are full.  The only seats were AFTER the ship would have sailed.  We decided to chance our flight making it.  Our plan B, Passenger Vessel Services Act (an act passed by Seattle interests to screw Alaskans and enrich Seattle, but more on that in the next post) permitting was to wait a week and pick up the ship when it calls at Sitka.

In the event, it was not necessary.  The folks at Alaska Airlines Sitka Station grabbed their sharpies, wrote out bag tags and we all got the paper boarding passes that Alaska Airlines had sworn they were abandoning.  Hats off the crew at Sitka Station!  We got on the plane and are now in Seattle

Sitka, in the meantime, is now partially in contact with the outside world.  A cable repair ship is being dispatched to arrive sometime around September 6 to repair the undersea cable.  Sitka has been told that it should be fixed by September 10.  In the meantime, the City has a Star Link back up for city business. I understand that it is available to the public at some locations. I will not disclose those locations because the last thing most Sitkans want is for cruise passengers to swamp the limited pipeline and stop us from using the internet.  In Sitka it will be better to use internet on the ship.

This morning, we learned that some cell service is available, re-routed by satellite.  Sitka takes this type of thing pretty well.  It isn’t the first time.

But we are out, having had a beautiful flight down our coast, a flight I always enjoy despite my fear of flying, and arrived at SeaTac.  A friendly cabbie pointed out the sights and gave me advance advice on good photo ops through the windshield as he drove us into the Emerald City of Seattle, with which we Alaskans have a love/hate relationship.