Ferry to Sitka

Robert. Monday, June 16

What a day! When we got up, it was another overcast day although it wasn’t raining. We got packed up and got to the ferry dock a little after 10:00 a.m. The ferry arrived right on time at 11:00 a.m. and the few vehicles were loaded. One of the guys loading vehicles came over to me and asked how I felt about backing down the ramp. I told him it wasn’t my first choice but I could with a lot of spotters. He said, “Well, one of you is going to back on.” I thought he meant either us or the other fifth wheel in line. Now I think he meant either Leslie or I was going to back onto the ferry. Of all of the ferry ramps we have seen, the one in Petersburg is the most difficult. It runs almost level for about 80 feet and then it turns to the left (when you are getting on the ferry) about 45 degrees. Then it continues for about 100feet, still almost level and then it goes down about 10-12 degrees to the door in the starboard side of the ferry. Before it starts the steep descent, it’s about 16 feet wide. We’re a little more than 8 feet wide so that means there is about 4 feet clearance on either side. When it starts the steep descent it is only about 12 feet wide. We had two spotters who watched as we backed on. The good news is that the spotters have done this hundreds of times. The bad news is that they all seem to think that the other spotters don’t know anything. They sometimes give conflicting directions. Backing around the turn on the ramp, the spotter on the driver’s side was telling me to keep backing according to his instructions. The spotter on the passenger’s side wasn’t saying anything and I could see in the right mirror that the wheels would hit the curb on the passenger’s side. When I pointed this out to the spotter, he decided that I should pull forward a few feet and straight out. Duh! We missed the curb. The real potential problem was the steep part of the ramp didn’t have enough room to get straightened out if you ever got a little crooked. Fortunately we made it without a problem but we were both holding our breath. When we got on the ferry, then we had to turn and back to the passenger side to park in one of the lanes that run from the back to the front of the ferry. Backing a trailer in a turn to the passenger’s side is called a blind turn. Simply stated, you can’t see where you are going. Both the turn on the ramp and the turn to park in one of the lanes were blind turns. We had to pull forward and back several times as there just isn’t very much room in the front of the ferry. Again we had a spotter telling us which way to turn. When we got almost lined up in the lane, I asked the spotter if he wanted us in the center lane on the port side. He said yes and I told him I could put it there as what he was telling us to do (things like turn the wheel a little left and back, now straighten out and continue backing, etc.) was not always correct. I pulled forward and backed into the lane. In a word, “Whew!” We picked up our things and went up to the next deck. Once the ferry gets underway, you are not allowed to return to the car deck so you need to have anything you might need when you park. We got our cabin from the Purser and were surprised how nice it was–head with shower, toilet and sink; a bunk bed that was very comfortable; a place to hang clothes and place luggage; and still enough floor space to be comfortable. We dropped our stuff and went to watch as we left the dock. As we were watching our departure, we noticed the overcast was breaking up. Maybe it was breaking up as we backed on but backing a fifth wheel on a ferry has a way of engaging 100% of your attention with little left over to watch the weather. Within an hour of leaving the dock, the sun was shining! Here we had just spent days in the overcast and rain and the sun decides to come out as we are leaving. Not a good performance by the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce! We took our lunch to the cafeteria to eat. We had a bag of salad mix, some cooked pasta, cut up carrots and celery, salad dressing, and our left over salmon. Lunch was wonderful. All day the weather was beautiful and we rode for quite a while on the top deck in the solarium. We could get out of the wind and sit in the sun. The wind is all from the 20 knots of boat speed. The ceiling of the solarium also has heaters so it is quite comfortable. Around 4:00 p.m., we arrived in Hake (pronounced to rhyme with rake). The guide book said Hake has few if anything to see and the view from the boat seemed to confirm that. We watched about 20 young people unload kayaks and gear. We guess that they were something like Outward Bound. They were moving Kayaks and bags of gear. They moved everything to dry land and then proceeded to move everything along the beach. They would pick up either one end of a kayak or a bag of gear and move to the next location and then walk back for more. They looked like ants as they kept returning to the last location to get more kayaks and gear to move. Soon we were underway leaving the ants behind. One of the reasons we got a cabin was that in the trailer, we take “navy showers.” That means you turn the water on and get wet. Then you turn the water off and wash, Then it’s turn the water on and rinse. If you don’t follow this procedure, you can easily run out of hot water. On the boat, there is limitless hot water. We got cleaned up and went to dinner in the cafeteria. After dinner we went to the observation deck just to sit and watch. Leslie decided to go to the gift shop and I stayed behind watching. While she was gone, a humpback whale surfaced and blew a couple of times several hundred yards in front of the boat. Then it flipped its tail and was gone. About then Leslie returned and asked why everyone was standing and looking. Normally when they show their tail, they are sounding and they stay down for 30 minutes or more. This one never reappeared. This just demonstrates the dangers of shopping! ;-) We finally decided to go take a nap in our cabin. I woke up about 10:30 p.m. and decided to go outside to take a look. It was twilight and there was a full moon. We were passing through a channel that was narrower than the Wrangell narrows. I returned to the cabin to wake Leslie as the scene was beautiful. We watched the boat thread its way through the lighted buoys. As we were in such protected waters, the water was glassy smooth. Pretty soon we saw the lights of Sitka up ahead. We got here about 15 minutes after midnight and it was still twilight. The campground is right next to the ferry dock. We were first off the ferry and we got here in under a minute. We backed in our site and did a couple of things to get setup. As I was outside, another fifth wheel was setting up next to us. I said to the guy that is could be worse; we could be setting up when it was pitch-black. He agreed and added that they could have made up back off the ferry as well. Glad we didn’t have to do that. After doing a minimal setup, we were off to bed. It was a pretty neat day.