Petersburg to Sitka Backing On to the Ship

Leslie Monday, June 16, 2008

The sun does shine in Petersburg -- but alas we're leaving.

Today began with some serious excitement. After we checked in at the ferry terminal, the dock worker asked Robert how he would feel about backing down the ramp. The ramp in Petersburg is long (maybe 200 ft), with a sharp blind curve near the top, and steep. I said, "You’ve got to be kidding." Unfortunately they were not kidding. All the towing vehicles were required to back onto the ship.

The combined length of our truck and 5th wheel is 52 ft. That’s a very long rig to back up. A blind curve for backing means a curve where you cannot see your right side (the passenger’s side is inside the curve). Notice the 45 degree curve at the top of the ramp. The blue building on the right of the picture is at the start of the ramp.

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Dock workers act as spotters. Generally there were two spotters walking along side our rig and giving instructions. Once we got onto the ship, Robert then had to back across the bow and into a parking lane next to a large rig that had boarded just before we did. Notice that our rig is slightly narrorer than the lane. The process took about 30 minutes and was achieved without hitting anything! Thankfully!

Here’s a picture of the rig in place.

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After we went up on the decks, many people came up to congratulate Robert. Good Job!
We were pleased with a beautiful day to motor to Sitka. We spent much of the day on the sundeck.

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The voyage was about 12 hours. Because the trip was so long we had decided to book a cabin. The cabin was clean and fully adequate. It had a private bath with shower.

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I captured many pretty sights.

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The most impressive sight occurred around 11:00 pm. Sunset happened around 10:00 pm. At 10:30 I saw a full moon rising from our cabin window and I could feel that the boat was making a lot of turns. A little after 11:00 Robert went up to the observation lounge to see the moon. He came back and reported that we were going through a narrow channel, only slightly wider than the ferry), and it was illuminated by the full moon. We both went back up to the observation lounge and remained for the rest of the voyage – watching this ferry captain, with two forward lookouts, weave our way through a most impressive channel. We both think that the Sitka Narrows are far more impressive than the Wrangell Narrows, especially when illuminated by the moon light. – Of course, no pictures....

We arrived in Sitka shortly after midnight. We didn't have to back off the ferry in the dark (although that would have been easier than this morning because the Sitka ramp is straight and shorter). The moon had dipped behind a cloud, but the night was still fairly well lite. By the time we were in our campsite, the sky looked like twilight. It wasn’t really dark. We’re in the Sitka Sportsmen’s RV Park, overlooking the Sitka Narrows. Although they don’t have sewer hookups, it is a very large site and they do have free showers.