Ferry to Wrangell

Robert, Wednesday, June 4
We got up this morning and finished getting packed up. We made it to the ferry docks on time but the signs there were very confusing when we drove in. One to the left said "Inter-Island Ferry" with an arrow pointing left and another said "All RVs Must Turn Right." And there were two possible ways to turn right–a hard right and a not so hard right. When you are pulling a 35 foot trailer, you get real cautious about driving somewhere as it may be the wrong way with no way to turn around. Leslie went inside the terminal building to find out where we were suppose to be while I tried to get where I wasn’t blocking traffic. We finally got it figured out; we were suppose to turn right but not the hard right. The place to get in one of the lines was very small so the guy telling everyone which line to get into told us to park where we blocked most of the lines. I went inside to get checked in and get our window sticker. They have little colored tags with your destination that you tape in your window. When they load the boat they try to do it so that those getting off at the earlier stops are closer to the exit. This boat had a door in the stern which they were not using and two doors in the bow; one on each side. They were loading into the starboard (right) side. They had one RV also going to Wrangell back down the ramp. All things being equal I would prefer not to back on the boat. We were the very last to board. We drove straight on and parked between the two forward doors. They told us that in Wrangell the off-load on the port (left) side so we would be the first off and we would drive straight ahead to get off. Yay! There was a large crowd of people on the boat–mostly Eskimo teenagers. (In this politically correct world I’m not sure it is proper to use the term "Eskimo" but I certainly cannot distinguish among the various native groups such as the Aleuts, Koniags, Tlingits, Haidas, etc.) They were all going to some big event in Juneau. The ferries have various areas for passengers. The typical arrangement is something like this. The lowest deck is the car deck. Above that is the cabin deck which is filled with passenger cabins. The next deck, called the observation deck, has seats so that you can see forward and to the sides. Aft of this is a bar and all the way aft is a cafeteria. The next deck up, called the bridge deck, has the bridge, which is off limits to passengers. Aft of the bridge is passenger seating and aft of that is the solarium. The solarium is enclosed on the front and both sides but open to the rear. It has a roof with overhead heaters. There are deck chairs that can be used like a cot. People grab these and put a sleeping bag on them. As the ferries run day and night this is a cheap alternative to paying for a cabin. The ferry we were on arrived in Wrangell at 3:15 pm and was to arrive in Anchorage at 4:00 am the next morning. Aft of the solarium is an open space. Here people pitch their tents. As the deck is metal, they use duct tape in lieu of tent poles to hold them in place. Someone brought one of those queen sized inflatable mattresses and had it on the floor in the seating area of the bridge deck. We were content to sit in the reclining chairs and catch up on the sleep we missed from getting up so early. Getting off the ferry was a breeze in Wrangell. The deck crew are very good at giving directions to maneuver without hitting anything. Three or four of them are all around you watching that you don’t hit anything and they give very clear directions as to where to drive to get off. The campground was a little over a mile from the ferry dock. Wrangell is much smaller that Ketchikan and that was obvious as we drove that mile. Just as we arrive at the campground it started raining. By the time we got parked and set up, I was pretty wet even wearing my Gore-tex jacket. We are here for 7 nights. Before we got here we were wondering what we were going to do for that long of a time. We do have to do some work on the trailer so this might be the place. And doing nothing but reading a book is fine with me.