In Search of...

This summer we had a lot of anchorages to ourselves. In part this was because we were cruising earlier than most of the seasonal crowd, but lagged behind the speedier 'Glacier Bay or bust' cruisers. We enjoyed the solitude but sometimes the atmosphere at night could be a little eerie. I remember one evening as dusk settled and we could no longer see the shore. Something started splashing very loudly on the beach. It was probably just a deer or bear, but since we couldn't see it our imaginations had us believing it was something big and toothy which planned on swimming out to the boat to get us while we slept. We were also surrounded by the sound of breathing. We hoped it was just seals.

I think part of my tendency to seek out the spookiness of my environment can be blamed on the fact that as a young child I loved to watch the t.v. show "In Search of..." narrated by Leonard Nimoy. The show explored unexplained mysteries and phenomenon; UFOs, Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, disappearances of people like Amelia Earhart. The show would scare me silly and I enjoyed it immensely.

Fast forward to just a few weeks ago. I was in a bookstore in Haines, AK and overheard a conversation about a book titled "The Strangest Story Ever Told". After she sold the last copy in stock to another customer, I chatted with the store clerk and found out a little about the tale, which took place in Thomas Bay. I later tracked down my own copy to buy. It is a historical narrative about the encounters several different miners had with 'devil creatures', and other mysterious happenings in the vicinity of Thomas Bay. As I mentioned in my previous post, we had anchored in Thomas Bay. Reading this book and remembering our evening spent there was a little like being a kid again listening to Leonard Nimoy telling of strange and disturbing events. Most enjoyable. You can read an excerpt here. Hallucinations caused by "loneliness and morbid thought", or something else? http://www.bigfootencounters.com/stories/harrycolp.htm

No running on the beach!

One thing Matt and I missed this summer was lots of aerobic, weight bearing exercise. We rowed the dinghy around, we manually weighed anchor, we did what we called cockpit calisthenics, I tried to do yoga (some of those poses require mastery of yogic levitation when you're on a rocking boat), but what we really missed were long hikes up big hills.

The main problem was that in many of our anchorages much of the shoreline was like that in the photo. Steep, and even if you did get into the forest what you found was impenetrable without the aid of a machete. Very few areas were developed with trails. Sometimes there would be logging roads, but often those were overgrown. There were always the bears to worry about. And worse yet, the possibility of being chased by 'devil creatures'. (Read the wikipedia entry on Thomas Bay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bay.) They make Bigfoot, and bears, seem benign in comparison. We anchored one night in Scenery Cove in Thomas Bay, and now I am glad we didn't go venturing ashore!

In the future we'll have to find some sort of balance so that we get our exercise while we cruise. We did find that towns offered great land access; we discovered great hikes within walking distance or a bus ride from the marinas in Prince Rupert, Ketchikan, Wrangell, and Petersburg. Now that we're in Juneau we are surrounded by more trails than roads. Our bodies are finally starting to feel normal again!

The Seal from Sequim

This particular seal is not a Southeast Alaskan, but was one who liked to haul out at our old marina in Sequim Bay in Washington. We called her Specs because of her distinct eye markings. (Now that I think about it, she looks like a sea mammal super hero...) If this was a Juneau seal, she'd be getting rained on. I hope Specs is enjoying some sunshine right now back in Sequim. We've seen seals in the marina here, but none seem to haul out like they did on the John Wayne marina docks.


I'm currently sitting in our office in Juneau listening to the rain and wind beat against the windows. When I left the boat this morning Wecantu was doing a bit of a jiggity dance along with her neighbors.


We've been enjoying exploring Juneau. We've taken a few hikes, and are always tickled that getting to a trail head doesn't involve hours of driving. We can often just walk to the start of a hike.


Bears are a common site, especially now as they are frantically cramming their bellies with food before they go hibernate. It's a state called hyperphagia, and I think it impairs a bear's judgement. A few have been seen foraging downtown, and early one morning Matt walked past a dumpster that had obviously been dived by a bear. Whenever we hike we are always on alert for them.


Matt and I have loosely established a routine. We do some laps together at the swimming pool in the morning, and then I join him later in the morning at the office. He works while I search job listings and write cover letters. I also work on other projects. We brought the sewing machine to the office so I've done a bit of canvas work for the boat. I also did a major organization of all our paper nautical charts, which temporarily satisfied the librarian in me.

Rear Window

I doubt Matt and I will witness anything like what James Stewart and Grace Kelly suspected a courtyard neighbor of in the plot of one of my favorite movies, but it is nice to have a window from which to watch a small part of the world in Juneau go by. The photo was taken on a rare occasion of blue sky, but so far much of the world we look out on consists of rain, ravens, cruise ship tourists, and a sometimes entertaining parking lot with one resident red squirrel (at least he loiters here a lot, if not actually resides). I'd better keep my eye on the squirrel, you never know what he might try to dig up...

Matt is doing remote IT work for his former employer and we have scored this nice office space from which to work. It provides a drier place to hang out than the boat and is within walking distance from the marina. Temptations include several coffee shops within just a few blocks, and the public library is just down the street. While Matt works I search for jobs, compose cover letters and tweak my resume, read books and look out the window. I am reading lots of books but that may be a post for next time.

North by northwest

Seattle to Juneau by sailboat: 3 months
Juneau to Seattle by plane: 3 hours
Seattle to Juneau by car (plus one ferry ride): 13 days

After spending a few days in Banff and Jasper National Parks, we continued our road trip. We headed west to Prince George, then onward past Smithers and up the Cassiar Highway. There were oodles of black bears along this stretch of road. So instead of doing a log watch to avoid hitting logs with our sailboat, this time we had a bear watch to avoid hitting large critters with our car. Luckily we were in no hurry. We developed the habit of honking at the bears we saw in an attempt to condition them to associate cars with a negative stimulus. Some ran, others just ignored us, so I think our Psychology 101 experiment wasn't very successful.

This is the Haines Junction 'muffin' sculpture. It features various northern mammals emerging from a muffin-esque mountain. Speaking of muffins, there is a very good bakery in Haines Junction, so if your travels ever take you here make sure you check it out.

Once we got to Yukon territory the terrain started to get very spectacular. It was hard to capture the landscape in photos. It is very different than the Canadian Rockies where we had just been. The foothills are more rounded here and things almost look pastoral, except you realize just how immense the land is. You could easily wander and become a disappearing speck very quickly.