We departed Sitka in the afternoon and had about 9 hour sail to Juneau. It was an absolutely gorgeous day so we decided to find our outside spot, out of the wind and in full sun, and spend a few hours snacking and enjoying the scenery.
We arrived in Juneau before 10pm. The Alaska Ferry terminal is about 12 miles north of downtown Juneau in Auke Bay and with it being a bit dark out we decided not to try and get into town especially since we only had about 90 minutes. But we did have a nice view of Mendenhall Glacier as we were arriving into port.
AND our next stop would be our final departure point in Haines, Alaska. AND the arrival time was scheduled for 3:30am which means that we needed to be up and packed and ready to get in our vehicle and off the ship ASAP. AND they other issue is that the time can vary drastically. They could arrive a few hours early or a few hours late. It made for a lovely night’s sleep (wink, wink…). The purser tells you that if you haven’t returned your cabin key then they will come around and pound on your door to wake you up!! Good.
So off we went to bed early and had a bit of a restless sleep. It felt like we didn’t leave Juneau on time with lack of rocking motion or engine noises. With a 3:30am disembarkation it usually means that they are in port about 30 minutes ahead of time to dock and tie up. By 2am I work up and the boat was still moving full speed ahead. We can’t get any phone signal/GPS location in our cabin so I quickly dressed and went out to see what was happening. I went to the purser’s office and saw a sign showing a few hour delay in arrival which meant I could go back to sleep. I decided to go up on deck and confirm our location with GPS. AND am I glad I did. It was still quite light out and the snow covered mountains where on each side of us and we had a few cruise ships behind us and a few in front of us. No one else was out. It was breath taking.
I confirmed our GPS location and were still quite a distance from Haines so I went back to bed for awhile. Norm stirred a bit when I came back in the cabin and I told him to go back to sleep for a few hours…we were going to arrive late. I couldn’t really sleep well so after an hour or so I got dressed and went back up on deck. WOW! Beautiful…at 3am.
There are strict rules about sleeping in the lounges, in the dining booths, on the floors, etc. but when I peaked into the forward observation lounge there were bodies everywhere. Obviously, all the people getting off in Haines had gotten up and packed up and then discovered there was a few hour delay so they just crashed wherever. Obviously, the ship personnel didn’t mind cause at least the people were dressed and packed and ready to disembark!
I went back up on deck as we were passing by Haines. As usual, the Alaska Ferry dock is about 6 miles north of Haines and we would pass Haines on our way to dock. I thought it would be nice to see town from the water.
It was time as we were getting into port and tying up. We had taken a load of luggage and coolers down to the RV the night before so it would be a quick and easy disembarkation.
We went down to the RV and prepared to depart. We only had to wait maybe 20 minutes before they guided us off the boat. It was quick and easy and we received good instruction from the workers and they were very careful to ensure our trailer hitch didn’t hit the ramp on disembarkation.
We loved the ferry ride and thought it was so worthwhile. We are so glad we did it!!
OK, we are exhausted! Off to get some sleep.
Leave a Reply