A NIGHT OF MISERY

by Dr. Robert E. Plucker

We had not lived aboard the boat at LaConner very long before I got the notion to try going up the Inside Passage.  I had thought about it before, but now with the new boat and quite a lot more experience sailing behind us, I thought that I could persuade Margaret that we should at least try to spend a summer, or part of a summer in Southeast Alaska.  That was all I wanted, I thought, just one trip up the Passage; and then we could come back and live happily ever afterward at the dock in LaConner.  I never expected that Alaska would get such a strong grip on us.

We got under way one May morning, Margaret, John and I, in near-perfect weather, motoring up narrow Swinomish Channel to Anacortes and beyond.  Far beyond.  John, at nine years of age, was totally "into" sailboat travel.  The trip was eventful, and fun, but we decided to stop at Petersburg.  This is well inside the Southeast panhandle, and gave us the experience of navigating Wrangell Narrows.  Somehow, before reaching Petersburg, we found that the Alaska Marine Highway system was offering a very generous special rate to seniors that year, only five dollars going northerly as far as Skagway and another five to return.  John was still young enough for half-fare, so Margaret was the only "adult" among us.  She would have to pay the full fare. But what a bargain, and how could we not take advantage of it!  To Skagway and back!



[www.ci.petersburg.ak.us/]

Margaret was full of enthusiasm for the project; she made a number of phone calls, finding out that the ferry had already left from Petersburg, but that we could catch it at the village of Kake. There was a special flight of a LAB plane leaving for there in about three hours, so we would have to hurry to catch it.  I did not think there would be much frenzy about catching the plane, but it turned out that we needed food (Margaret always has food on hand when she goes nearly anywhere), extra clothes, books, toys, toothbrushes, "stuff", all sorts of things.  But we got it all done and caught the plane, a single-engine DeHavilland Beaver.  Our boat, "Greta", was locked up, and safely tied up at the visitor's dock in Petersburg.

The Alaska Marine Highway ferry "LeConte" was to be at the ferry dock in Kake early in the morning, and so we would have to spend the night there.  Of course we thought there surely would be at least one motel or B&B that could put us up for the night on short notice.  The LAB people were incredibly kind to us, driving us to a few places they thought might have a room for us.  But no, Kake is a very small Native village, and they were not set up to take in very many people; it turned out there were a few lumber-people there already, and had already taken the few rooms available in private homes.  The only choice then, was to stay at the ferry terminal, sleeping on the floor, no real problem.

So, off to the dock, where reality set in.  The "ferry terminal building" was a kind of picnic shelter, completely open to the mosquitoes, "no-see-ums," and the cold.  We huddled there for a short while, perhaps thirty minutes, until a local man took pity on us.  He had a Pepsi van that was to be taken back to Sitka on the same ferry we were waiting for, and we could sleep in the van. Sleeping in that van was one of the horrifyingly bad experiences of my sixty-five years of life.  No seats, except for the driver's perch; the rest was corrugated steel floor.  There were some flattened paper cartons spread on the floor which was supposed to keep out some of the cold and straighten out the corrugations of the floor, but there seemed to be no effect.  No comfort to my frozen old bones, but at least we were out of the range of the mosquitoes and other bugs.  But yes, it can get COLD in early June in Southeast Alaska.

Kids somehow seem to have the ability to withstand cold.  Think of the number of mothers the world over, who have to compel their youngsters to put on a coat when going out into the cold.  John was not bothered by the cold, and for some reason; Margaret didn't seem to be badly chilled either.  That rascally John spent a good part of the early evening laughing and chortling over how funny his father was, grumbling, shivering, scratching, and complaining.  All this discomfort was magnified by us having overheard a conversation earlier that expressed some doubt as to whether the ferry would be very late, or if it would stop at all.

When morning came, at about 5:30, LeConte came into view, tied up at the dock, and allowed us to come aboard perhaps by 6 o’clock.  LeConte is one of the smallest and least luxurious of the ferry fleet, but to me it looked like the Queen Mary.  And after all, who needs luxury, when you can get warmth.  The two luxuries aboard were the hot showers and the 24-hour hot coffee, free during the night hours.  There were probably fewer than two dozen passengers on the northward leg of the trip, and not many more on the return. 

LeConte could just as well have been our private yacht.  There are no cabins on that ship, so one sleeps on the floor, or in a chair, or on a sort of plastic cot in the solarium on the upper after-deck.  To me it was all super deluxe accommodation.  If you have spent a cold, cold night on the corrugated steel floor of a Pepsi van, you appreciate sleeping on a warm carpeted floor, as we did.

The rest of the trip was good, Sitka was great, there's a fine bookstore/coffee shop near the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, the villages of Angoon, Hoonah and Tenakee were all quick stops, the ferry terminals at Juneau and Haines were so far from downtown that we never left the ship.  The big turnaround is at Skagway, the end of the Inside Passage.  All the huge Cruise Ships stop there, making Skagway a candidate for America's largest retail center for T-shirts and cheap jewelry.   John and I had an ice cream cone, but were glad to escape the crowds of tourists and re-board the ship.

So returning to our beloved "Greta" in Petersburg and finally back to LaConner, our "summer in Alaska" came to an end.  I still had no idea that we would make three more trips up the Passage in Greta, and finally on the fourth trip, back to stay.



The LeConte 
[www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs]