Day 4 Ak to Ohio
Awoke
6:30AM, part sun, high clouds, 60’s. car miles 5, nautical miles same as trip north
Finish
packing to ready for the ferry. Yogurt, etc.
in room. Last night kept the window open
facing main street. Looked out at
midnight, not a creature was stirring in the tiny downtown, everything locked
up tight, could hear a pin drop. Reminds
us of a Twilight Zone setting. We are
getting some darkness now as we move south.
We are back
on the Columbia. It was off line a few
weeks ago for repairs and needs some TLC.
Ak Ferry system has timed out its ferries with replacement and updates
and now problems getting qualified people who take care of operations. Even
under pressure the staff remains helpful and friendly. Once again, we are raised on the car
elevator, this time they have sandwiched us into a tight space. At least no one will open their doors into
us.
Haines is
located it the far end of Lynn Canal and the water is opalescent light green
from the glaciers. There are many
fishing boats with nets, the silver salmon, Cohos, are in. As we sail south, we are treated with
beautiful mountain views, glaciers, patches of high snow and many waterfalls.
The salmon are jumping out of the water because they are still feeding in the
salt water and will stop once they reach the fresh water streams. Everywhere a picture. We open our camp chairs on the open lower
back deck and sit for 6 hours, with snacks.
There are a few tents pitched at this level. We see humpbacks spouting and some porpoises
and occasional seal.
North of
Juneau the canal widens and water has turned dark emerald green. There are many commercial fishing vessels all
around. As we near Juneau we are treated
with a view of three large and very beautiful glaciers, one is the
Mendenhall. We dock at Auke Bay, 12
miles out of Juneau. Only cruise ships
can dock in town. We have a three-hour
layover but it’s not enough time to do or see anything so we stay aboard and
play Scrabble. The skies have turned
threatening and a few sprinkles; it’s cooler when the sun is in. We learn we will be held over in Ketchikan
for 8 hours, due to repairs needed; it will get us in to Bellingham 2 hours
later and we will be back on PT so three hours difference. It’s an unexpected opportunity to sightsee
since it has been several years, we were last there. But a concern that this ferry continues to
need repairs.
We went with
cheap room, bunkbeds, full bath, sink and closet but no window this time. We only really dress and sleep in the room so
it’s okay. Although attention to detail
is less than our previous trip. Our room
is level with the elevated car deck so we can just walk out a door to access
the car. The dining room is still very
nice and food is reasonable. Steak
dinner, $24.00, Halibut dinner same. We
have a window seat and watch the scenery pass us by. We go out to the lower deck with our chairs
to finish off the day; starts to rain so in we come. We are trying to appreciate the coolness
since we anticipate high heat on the way across the US and hope to avoid the
tornadoes and golf ball hail.
There is no
Internet access on the ferry so blog will be delayed with a backlog.
Nighty Night
