Day 14
Got up early and tried catching some more salmon in the Chilkoot River right in front of the lodge. Didn’t have any luck, headed back to load up the bike then head to the ferry. Had an hour to kill so I headed back down to fish for a bit, and caught a small pink salmon. About 10 AM we headed down the ferry. We’re departing about 12:30. We have stops along the way in Juneau, Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan.
We just left the docks at Juneau, we didn’t go into town as it is twelve miles away and a taxi is $40 each way. Walked around the ferry for awhile, then had some clam chowder for dinner. The food on the ferry is pretty good for cafeteria style, though the chowder needed some Tabasco. Thought I saw the Casino Royale coming into dock in the area, couldn’t tell for sure. Found out later it wasn’t the Casino Royale, it was the Serene, and it was longer than the ferry we were taking to Prince Rupert. The Serene which had a helicopter on the bow of the ship, is supposedly owned by a Russian in the vodka business
We were stopped by fog just after leaving Petersburg. We dropped anchor just before the Wrangell Narrows and waited for the fog to clear. Once the fog had cleared we then had to wait for the tide to come back in so there would be enough water to clear the boats draft. While at anchor the crew rang a bell every minute to let other boats know we were anchored.
Once underway it was a short distance to the entrance of the narrows, which seemed very narrow for a ship this size. I would guess it’s kind of like the pilots that bring the ships through the delta into Stockton.
Spent most of the day wandering the ship and talking to people, met a guy from Tennessee that has a Yamaha RD 400 and a Kawasaki 750 triple. I’d love to have them in my garage. Did some jigsaw puzzles with a couple from South Dakota and talked with a young couple from Germany who are taking a break from their studies to tour Canada and Alaska. They arrived Canada in February and drove east across Canada turned around and came back west, toured Alaska and are now heading to Vancouver, they will return to get their masters for teaching in Germany in September. Also photographed a couple from New York who were playing the piano in the bar and practicing a song for an upcoming friends wedding. He’s a Broadway musician/conductor and will be conducting the Broadway opening of Aladdin next spring, she’s a singer songwriter for pop rock musicals.
We stopped at the town of Wrangell, but only for a short time s they could make up some time lost caused by the fog and tides. I had walked down the street with another couple to see if I could find something for Judi, I did find something, but while I was talking to the guys at the shop the horn blew on the boat, I didn’t notice but one of the guys said that’s your horn, so I said goodbye and ran the two blocks back to the ferry. I wasn’t last, the couple that I walked towards town with showed up just after the crew had closed the gate and walked down the ramp to the ferry, they had to run three blocks.
We departed and headed on down towards Ketchikan, our stop was supposed to be nearly four hours but was about an hour to make up the time. We didn’t have time to wander into town so we walked to the post office to drop some mail in the box. Made it back in plenty of time this time.
We departed Ketchikan for Prince Rupert with an expected arrival of 3:15 AM.
