Tue Jul 05 2022
Isabel hates long drives in the car. I once drove her from San Diego, California all the way to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We went via Asheville, North Carolina to attend my dad’s funeral. I think we drove about 3000 miles all told, and one day was about 650 miles. Just a normal drive for a lot of Americans, but for a woman who grew up in England it was an epic journey, and she was almost traumatized by the experience. I thought it was just because we had to sit all day in the car, then eat crappy food at whatever blasted restaurant that Yelp or TripAdvisor claimed was awesome. We stayed with several friends along the way, but also used Priceline to book a couple of hotels. That was quite the learning experience as well.
Anyway, today was our longest chug yet, 104 nautical miles and about 13 1/4 hours from start to finish. Conditions couldn’t have been any better, with sunny skies, lovely air temperature, glassy water, and generally no current to speak of. Occasionally we had a little on the stern or a little on the bow, but it pretty well evened out to 8 knots, our average boat speed at 1400 rpm and a little under 5 gallons of diesel per hour. Diesel costs about $7.00 US/gallon right now, so that traumatizes me when we taxi up to a fuel dock. Sunset is basically a houseboat with a home gym, so there’s no excuse to sit still while we’re underway. Yes, one of us has to remain at the helm and dodge the occasional tree limb or whale, but the other can have a nap, make a meal, use the head, or work out. We even have a stair stepper in the flybridge. The enclosed sundeck is big enough to have comfortable seating for 4 folks and still have room to roll out a yoga mat and get a good stretch on. The saloon has a couple of IKEA Poang chairs that are super comfy, a sofa that can seat 3 close friends, a fold out dining table, lots of cabinetry and a big TV for those Netflix downloads. Isabel is really happy with her galley and the master stateroom aft, and the guest V-berth stateroom forward is plenty comfy. Both staterooms have ensuite vacuum flush heads and enclosed showers. We’re essentially driving a house around so a bit of diesel here and there is the cost of living.
We arrived at the Haines marina about 1915 and on the way in saw the AIS signal for our pals Harborlark. AIS is a transponder system used by mariners to assist in collision avoidance and such. Isabel started texting Nancy and when we pulled into the marina both Nancy and Joe were at the float ready to catch our lines. The marina is really well protected by a tall breakwater and the town recently added a long seawall extension to that so it’s flat calm in here. With flat water, no noticeable tidal current and very light winds docking was a snap and soon we were all tied up and celebrating the end of our long day with a cold frosty beverage.
Turns out road noise, engine noise, diesel noise, and just being in motion for many hours may be what Isabel finds disagreeable. Up on the flybridge or sundeck the engine noise isn’t a big deal at all, but down in the saloon where you’re standing just above the engines it does eventually get fatiguing. In any case, the bonus of a long day is a few days with no motion whatsoever, so now that we’re safely moored we can enjoy the lovely weather to explore Haines. Turns out there’s a couple of interesting museums here, a craft brewery, and boutique distillery, an injured raptor center and more that we’re still figuring out. If we want to visit Skagway there’s a fast ferry to get us there or we can chug on up there too. Skagway is an historic old gold rush town which gets several cruise ships per day so we may or may not find our way there. Wandering around during the day with the mobs from the ships isn’t something we look forward too, and we got our dose of that in Sitka. If we take Sunset up there we can enjoy the town in the evenings after the ships have left, so that might be more interesting.
Saturday evening we strolled the pontoons and visited with Canadians on their weekend getaway from Yukon, which is a fairly short drive away. They keep their boat here and drive over to fish, and since this weekend has Canada day on one end and July 4th on the other, there are a lot of folks in town. They told us about having to cross into British Columbia where the Canadian customs folks were rather difficult, then into Yukon where the customs folks were really easy to deal with. Weird. The RV park adjacent to the marina apparently just opened and it’s about full of visitors from the lower 48, Canada and even a few Alaskan license plates.
Anyway, on Sunday we took a long walk to explore the town a bit then after lunch headed up to check out the public library which always includes free WIFI. With the exception of Hoonah, all these Alaska towns have had really impressive public libraries, and Haines is no exception. It was good to see that the facility is well used, as there were children and older adults spread around reading and using the computers. We generally go for the WIFI, but it’s always fun to peruse the books, magazines, DVD and CD collections, and even the $1 book sales tables where lots of bargains are available. Public libraries are one of the best uses of tax money out there.
We thought it would be fun to visit the local craft brewery or the boutique distillery, but as luck would have it both were closed on Sunday and of course pretty much everything was to be closed on Monday for the holiday. We satisfied our curiosity by wandering into the various food shops that were open, noting what provisions were available and the cost relative to other places we’ve visited recently. Isabel was hunting eggs but the shop had run out, and an employee explained that the last supply barge that had come failed to bring many of the restocking items ordered. Sounded a lot like French Polynesia to us. Isabel did find a smokin’ deal on celery and green onions so she brought those home to make fish cakes and such. The store employee did note that he was also out of eggs at home and hoped that the next supply barge (due Tuesday) would have some.
Part of cruising is figuring out how to do without or improvise when food items or spare parts simply aren’t available. The more we mix with them, the more we figure these Alaskans are a lot like the cruisers we know. Independent, self sufficient, improvising when necessary and looking after each other. We like these folks.
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