Day 416 & 417 Into Juneau, AK!!

We made it. We're in Juneau, Alaska!! It took 1400 miles and 10 weeks, but we're here!!

We left Tracy Arm yesterday a little after 0600 in the rain(what a surprise) and headed up Stephen Passage trying to avoid all the ice bergs that had escaped from Tracy Arm. They vanished quickly as we headed North. We were followed the entire way by a tug(Pacific Patriot) pulling a barge full of supplies for Juneau. There are no roads that come to Juneau. The only way in is by plane or boat. You can get close but not all the way. Stephens Passage was "lumpy" with 3-4 foot swells tossing us back and forth. We hoisted the Genoa sail at the bow to give us a bit more speed and stability. With winds of 8 to 12 knots, it helped a bit, but not much. We did gain some speed so that helped.

As we looked up the channel toward Juneau, there were five cruise ships sitting at the wharfs. Amazingly, none of then disembarked while we were heading up the channel. We had expected at least one to start heading South, but we got lucky. I called the Harbormaster to get a slip assignment for a couple of nights. The bridge in the middle of Juneau has a vertical clearance of only 50 feet and since our mast is 64 feet tall, we had to be assigned to a marina in Douglas, across the channel from Juneau. There is no office to pay for our slip(you have to go into town or call their office), nor any kind of facilities(showers, restrooms, laundry)at this "marina". It's just a place for people to keep their boats but don't expect anything other than that for your money.

Before we went to the "marina", we went to the fuel dock and filled our tanks. The first time since Shearwater, BC. We took 116 gallons and had run the engine for just over 111 hours or about a gallon per hour. For a boat this size, that's pretty good milage. Normally, you don't get that good a milage.

We were helped into the dock in Dougles by a nice couple in the next slip. They are working on aluminum boat they had for a few years. It look like it's built for just about anything that could get thrown at it. They're in the process of making new cabinets for the stern section. He's a state trooper and she is from Aurora, our home town. A nice couple. They gave us a lift to Costco later in the afternoon.

As we got settled in, a nice young woman stopped by to give us information about the city, but she couldn't take any kind of payment. I don't quite understand that but that is the way they do it here. We walked up the street and found a nice cafe for lunch(now 1400 hours) and passed the Post Office. They had a pay phone so I went back later to call in our payment information for our slip. The pay phone couldn't complete the call. It kept saying the number was not a good number. The nice people in the Post Office used their phone and got right through to the Harbormasters office so I could pay.

Once I got back to Zephyr, we took off for Costco. We scored big time there. A case of oil for future oil changes on Zephyr. I'd used my last two gallons at Tracy Arm. Now we will be good for several more changes. We also found the new season of "24". We'd seen about half if it. Now we will find out what happened after we lost TV weeks ago. We took a taxi back and got settled in for the night.

We arose this morning and did the "tourist" thing in Juneau. We took the city bus over to Juneau and wandered through stores and shops. There were only two cruise ships in town. Not the 8,000 people that descend on the town on a normal day. In the afternoon, we took a "tour" bus to Mendenhall Glacier. Man, what a chunk of snow and ice. It's receding every year and has lost a good bit of it's length since Tracy was here 10 years ago. We bought some more provisions at the local grocery store and took the bus back to Zephyr. Now, all we have to do is fill our water tanks and we will be set to leave here tomorrow for the long trip South. We'll be up and out by 0500 at the latest to make the tides work for us. We expect to be at Snug Harbor by tomorrow night.

We will be out doing long distance trips for the for seeable future to get us back to Port Townsend, we are plotting a course averaging 60 miles a day instead of the 30 to 35 we did on the way up here. I'm not sure when I will be able to post again until we get back near Vancouver Island so I can use their internet system through Verizon's network. Stay tuned, I'll get out posts as often as I can.