Day 48 -- Leaving Juneau by ferry for a long ride down the inland waterway towards BC

Travel   From: Juneau, AK   To: Wrangell, AK (approx)   Distance: 0 mi (0 km) by truck   Travel time w/brks: 14 hr   Distance since start: 9,616 mi (15,463 km)

Monday 8/7/2006

The staging time for our ferry to Prince Rupert changed a few times. But we were in the end requested to show up down there by 3:30AM. Groggy I woke up around 3AM. Isabella was still up. The kids helped out to get our cooler ready for the trip. I went outside to ensure that the trailer was ready to go (stabilizers up, etc). Several motor homes from a group of 20 units had already started to depart when I got outside. The campground had put a big orange blinking light on our hood to reduce the risk of someone hitting us in the campground as they drove by in the darkness. The campground had arranged it such that we could leave last, potentially allowing us to get out from the ferry first (if we had to back out). We pulled out of the campground at around 3:10AM. It was wet and foggy outside. The drive down to the ferry was only about 15 minutes. We already had a staging lane (#6) so all we had to do was to park last in it. Karl wanted to sleep in the truck while Isabella and Erik wanted to get back into the trailer and nap. It looked like it would take a while before the ship would dock. Another ship was docked when we were there. The information I was able to collect suggested that our ferry would dock around 5:15AM.

A foggy morning with lots of RVs in the staging lanes for southbound ferry

I walked around a bit and then went into our trailer to take a shower. Isabella and Erik had already gone to sleep. As I walked around the staging lanes I bumped into the family from New York that we ran into on our way to Dawson City and up in Prudhoe Bay at the Arctic Caribou Inn. They were going on the same ferry as us, but they were getting off at Wrangell. One of the keys the staging staff uses to decide who goes on when, besides what lane you are in, is an indication on your windshield about your combination length. I was probably the longest they had with 57ft. Next to me was a pickup truck towing a big boat. On its window sticker it said 36. I walked between our two lanes and noticed that he was either much longer than 36 or I was much shorter than 57. I brought this to the attention of the staging staff who, eventually, dug up a measuring device. They determined that I was actually 54 and that the truck next to me was 42. They took notes on my ticket and ensured me that I would get reimbursed for this, when I got on-board.

As with our ferry to Juneau, this was a side loader too. The difference this time was that the tide was even lower than before. This meant that the trailer scraped really good both in the front (chains and hitch) and in the rear (skids). I looked at how we got parked and I crossed my fingers for getting out through the front. The staging staff ensured me that this would be the case. Once we had gotten out gear out from the truck and trailer we quickly walked up to the bridge deck where they had a bunch of recliners. We grabbed a few seats and sat down right there. By the time the boat was ready to leave daylight had already arrived. But it was rather dark from the overcast. All of us went to sleep for a few hours in the early morning hours and then got back up around 8AM. I felt tired. The kids used the shower on the boat, which was quite good.

Eating breakfast on the boat

There was not a whole lot to see, since the weather was quite bad. During the day they showed the same movie the kids had already watched during our trip from Haines to Juneau. I spent a good bit of time to work on the diary, since I had fallen behind quite a bit. The kids read. Karl took part in a Junior Park Ranger program for Toungass National Forest, which meant he had a booklet he needed to fill in. We brought our food with us, to save some money. During the trip the car deck was locked most of the time. They basically opened it up each time we got into port. But that was not very often. Throughout the journey I tried to get the situation with the extra 3ft sorted out but each time I got there to get it reimbursed the boat "had left port" and they could, hence, not do anything. Erik took the opportunity to call some of his friends when we were in port. During most of the journey we had no cell phone coverage since we were in the middle of nowhere. We saw another movie in the evening which was quite nice. I wanted to save a bit of money on this trip (since going from Haines to Prince Rupert already set us back about $2,500) so I did not get a cabin. Instead, we slept on the floor. When bedtime arrived, most passengers on bridge deck pulled the velcro:d seat covers from the seats and made improvised beds on the floor. That is what we did, too, including me.

Erik is sleeping "hard" on the floor of bridge deck

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All Pictures (c) 2006 Hamnqvist, Background features the Yukon Sky.