Fog and a tender mishap cancel town trip for 200 Noordam passengers

Nome was all set to welcome a large influx of cruise ship passengers from the Noordam on Thursday, June 18, but when fog rolled in and one of the tender boats deviated from the course, the ship ceased sending visitors and cut short the festivities on shore.
Robin Johnson with Nome Discovery Tours, said that of the approximately 400 guests booked for land tours, only about half made it to shore. “My understanding is that the captain suspended tender service due to fog and poor visibility after one of the tenders struck something in the water,” she said via email on June 22.
At around 8:30 a.m., a tender ferrying passengers strayed from the traffic channel. “For some reason the tender did not stay in the channel. He drove east of the channel into the shallows, the mud flats, and beached himself on the beach, and may have hit the pipeline that was over in the shallows,” Harbormaster Lucas Stotts recounted.
There was minimal damage to the tender. There were other tenders running guests ashore after the incident, but the call was made to send no more passengers.
Lisa Shlansky was aboard the tender that got stuck. “We were on the range markers and the entrance, and all of a sudden we just hit and it skidded to a stop,” she recounted.
The strike was gentle. “We were fully loaded, but we felt it scrape, and then we stopped,” she said. “The crew was great. They immediately started checking to see if there was any holes in the boat. They made people stand up and lift the doors that lead onto the bottom of the boat, and they did everything they could.”
“I wasn’t scared at all. I think that there were some people that were a little nervous,” she said. “There was not panic, but there was mild uncomfortableness.”
Shlansky said she was glad she was one of the visitors that made it off the ship. “It’s just heartwarming to see how good people are. I feel like this is a real family community,” she said.
The incident didn’t seem to bother the guests. Visitor Mike Nall said the highlight of his visit to Nome was getting stranded.
Local businesses had a different take. When the tenders were cut off, so was a source of income that local vendors expected. The Mini Convention Center hosted a Midnight Sun Music and Craft Fair and local nonprofits, and school sports teams were selling baked goods and merch to fundraise. But artisans cleared out of the Midnight Sun Music and Craft Fair early, and Maruskiya’s of Nome reported a drop in expected sales.
Dawny James of Gambell had traveled to Nome for the craft fair this year again after attending last year. Last year, she paid for lodging and didn’t break even. This year she stayed with a relative and made a couple hundred bucks in profit.
The downturn in visitors didn’t set her back too much. “I do think it was very profitable,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of opportunities in the village.”
James’ bigger worry is that outside tourists don’t want to buy fur because people where they’re from view fur clothing differently. She said the craft fair was an opportunity to check out what does sell, talk to fellow artists and price check her goods.
She said she’s going to have to start selling more after getting laid off. “Opportunities like seeing cruise ships are good ones,” she said. In addition to in person, she sells on Facebook.
Andrew James of Maruskiya’s said that based on what the store experienced last year, he expected the store to be packed wall-to-wall with customers for eight hours straight. Instead, James said that the store lost out on “numerous 1000s of dollars” in sales.
James said that losing out on a banner day is the difference between a little more comfort and potentially spending a little less the next time someone comes in with art to sell.
“It just trickles down into every decision. Do I want to paint the front of the store and maybe redo the sign? The probability of doing those things are less,” he said. “The decisions are more fraught. We have to be more careful, because the money might not be there to pay for it.”
“When a carver comes in to see me, my goal is to buy, and that’s what we have come to establish with the artists we work with, is you can count on us,” said James. “It makes me think I need to be more careful with how I spend money.”
Maruskiya’s has been buying ivory and art all winter, planning and counting on selling a lot during mid-May through mid-September. “We have other ways of selling, but this is the main show,” he said. “It’s just a big hit.”
The unexpected dip in sales isn’t the end of the world. “If you look at the bigger picture, we’re having more,” he said. “It’s not like an existential threat or anything like that, it just is going to make things harder going forward.”
 Still, the financial loss has ripples. “Those ships can drop a lot of money in the community, and those dollars are the most important thing that they can leave,” he said. “Let’s be frank, we want them to have a good time, but we need financial stimulus. We need them to spend money.”
The next cruise ship scheduled to arrive on August 11 is the Roald Amundsen. Two days later, on August 13 the cruise ship Hanseatic Inspiration is scheduled to call on Nome. On August 20, it’s the National Geographic Resolution, on August 25, the Seabourne Venture. On Sept. 2, the Seabourne Venture will return to Nome, on Sept. 7, the Nansen is scheduled to arrive and the last ship is the Greg Mortimer, scheduled for Sept. 16.