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6/29/17 We were skirting a number of islands I did not think this boat could get through. Scale here is different, I keep having to readjust, like crossing the prairie for days seeing mountains ahead that don’t seem to come closer. Out of the kindness of the captain we slipped into an inlet so the evening meal could be had without spillage. This was very wise and kind as we later went out into the Gulf of Alaska for the leg to Yakutat. This is where I would love to spend some time…being the Steel Head (trout) capital of the world… 20 pounds …can you imagine that on your line and you not smiling? I have fished pretty much everywhere I have traveled to. Chile still stands out as best but I think it will get its run for the money. 

I am happy to report that I was not too disappointed in last nights travel prediction. As soon as we entered the gulf we were in swells. Big ones. Luann and I had thought ahead when I saw the GPS map of our route. I learn up pretty good …no need to show me twice. Even with the ‘little helpers’ I was struggling to stop trying to anticipate where the ship was going to be on the next step. It is not too unlike walking where one’s foot finds air on the first step and the second lands with the gravity of Jupiter. At least that is the first part. Lucky to have swells which were perpendicular to our route. After a bit though that had to change as we had to follow the coast. What I refer to is the “cork screw” ….up to the right forward …down to the left aft….is added to the elevator effect. Yee-Haw. Not the best time to try to get dressed…or make a hot cup of coffee or any number of things that would be better done bolted down. 

Sitting in the galley with the boat firmly tied up at the pier, coffee in hand and glad to be in Yakutat. Just a couple hour stop and off for the last leg to Whittier where we will once again get in the truck camper. Whittier is a port where the only way out is by sea or rail. A tunnel passes through the mountain and trains and vehicles alternate passing through. Our first step out into the wide open wonderland that we have been dreaming of and planning for for a long time. Even though it feels like I have been moving and covering a lot of ground for a long time it is really just beginning. As a member of the site Wander the West (WTW) who has helped me immensely in the planning stages said “ you ain’t seen nothing yet”. 

I will report a small (I hope) glitch which I hope to correct in Seward. I suspect that the sway bar attachment is loose or perhaps the rear leaf spring. We are carrying a heavy load that the truck is handing fine….except a growing ‘clunk’ when moving slowly and a sudden turn is done. This is why I think it in either the front or rear sway bar. Going over significant bumps makes no sound nor a high speed cornering.  We will see… I would love to have that corrected before heading to the  Arctic Circle or “Top of the World Highway”. 

In this town of Yakutat, there is a geological anomaly (as we are on a vey active volcanic ring) that magnetically interferes with cell and electronic time pieces… funny to watch folks checking their now dumb smart phones…. mechanical time pieces work fine. It is a wet town… either mist, rain ice or snow… again so similar in clime to Chile. There are two sides of the coin when one sees the the license plate state logo: “The Last Frontier”. What have we done to all the others? Having crossed the continent and seen the natural beauty that remains I can only imagine how beautiful this land was before we organized it to suit our survival and in truth mostly greed. The coin has a side that is the struggle to eek out a living in a hard place to be. Doing so is not for the weak of spirit. It can cause real poverty and all it’s ugly offshoots. The other side is that of excess. Those that see it as all theirs to exploit and of the mind that it is their right to do so if they have the means. It is the false definition of ‘freedom’ they use… the one without the thought of their responsibility to the whole. 

It is a place I want to see and know others do too… as the saying goes “This was a great place until people like me came here”. We like to think we are the exception and no matter how hard we try we will eventually alter even a place as big and as rugged as this last frontier.  

It was truly different traveling to far off places before the communication revolution. Remote was remote in all senses of the word. Even though we are in the wild we are now tied with an invisible string. It is good to know I will go to places left still off the electronic map but sad to think it will not be long until there will not be places left like these. I know I know, I made it all maudlin but sometimes I think this world too good for humans. 

Back to the “sunny side of life”!…. we have just left the last port bound for Whittier and have entered a fog bank; looking out the window like staring at a white sheet. That also means (oh joy), it is back to the Bay of Alaska with the pitch and yaw to play with. I was talking to a stewart on the boat who says he has to readjust after a long shore leave to the tiredness caused by how muscles need to be always working on a moving ship. A real isometric workout. 

Our plan when we disembark is to repack/organize the truck/camper just enough for comfort for a day’s travel and one night camp on the Glacial Road which runs from Whittier tunnel northeast; a 3 mile tunnel under the mountain and glacier. We will have time to ‘gear up’ after R&R in Seward! We are looking forward to the reunion with my nephew Mike who calls Alaska home. He lives in both Homer (a log homestead up on the plate) as well in Seward where he and his honey have a coffee shop called the Resurrection Cafe. A mixture of coffee, food, art gallery and community hangout. I can’t wait to see the massive soapstone fireplace/stove he has installed in the once church now cafe to warm the place and the hearts of those by it. We heat our home with a Woodstock soapstone wood-stove and the heat from it is special. The mass of the soapstone delivers the heat in a gentle curve. It radiates long after the coals have died; it just looks good standing there too. 

Dang, very time I look up I see something else. Like saying the word “squirrel” to my dog! Slam up to the window to see an Orca arc up from the water….my their dorsal is huge. Then… there are the tug towed barges…. insanely packed eight or 10 shipping containers high… twenty long and to top the impossibility of what you are seeing is the fact that there are two mobil homes 3 vans and a bulldozer on the top (!) of the stack of containers. Did I mention the swells? How does this work? A cable is maybe 300 feet long attached to the barge and away we go. Somehow physics is ignored here. That not only should not float, it should not do so without tipping over or just plain falling apart losing bits and pieces along the way. I can only imagine a newcomer’s face as their Mercedes Benz perched on top sails away to the assumed depths of oblivion. To my regret I have not photographed one yet as I am too dumbstruck every time I see it (“squirrel!”) I will try if I see another before landing. 

Nope 'only' a pod of Orca.