Perfectly in time we stood in line for the BC-Ferry, which carries us through the first part of the famous inside passage. The boarding went quickly and we could explore our home for the next 22 hours.
After setting off, spotting wales, dolphins and orcas, we found some sleeping people in the lounge on the floor between all the seats and so we joined them. We saved some money and didn’t reserve a cabin…
After a few hours of rest we could enjoy the beautiful scenery, played some games and had some good conversations with canadians, americans, french and swiss people. Totally tired but happy we reached Prince Rupert, were we waited another day for the next ferry.
There isn’t a lot to see in Prince Rupert and the rainy weather wasn’t inviting for a walk. The only attraction in town, the North Pacific Cannery, was closed on Monday. So we did a scenic drive along the Yellowhead-Highway and spent the afternoon in a cosy coffee house in cow bay.
At midnight we had to be at the ferry terminal. The Alaska-Ferry was supposed to leave at 3 a.m. Of corse we were way to early and tried to pass the time by playing with the Frisbee and reading. Because we would cross the border with the boat we had to go through customs before entering. Luckily this was easy – far easier than boarding afterwards. The ferry crew had a hard time sorting all the cars by size and destination and we were able to enter the ferry at 3 a.m.
After a short trip around we decided to sleep on the upper deck in the outside solarium, which – after american environmental techniques – was heated by the electricity of the diesel motors. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the switch 😉
Unexpectedly we had a 3 hour layover in Ketchikan. So we could stroll through town which was full of cruse ship tourists. Soon we remarked, that every second gift shop had the same name on the wall and we escaped back to our ferry.
After another stopp in Wrangell the sun was setting slowly and we came to the most exiting part of our ferry cruse: In front of the ferry were 100 blinking buoys but the crew steered us safely through the really narrow maze. We were amazed how agile this 124m long ferry is!
In Juneau, the main city of Alaska, we had again a 3 hour layover. Spontaneously we shared a taxi to the Mendenhall Glacier Park. We could enjoy the scenery and a short walking tour on our own, before all the tourists of the cruse ships arrive (up to 6 cruse ships stay in Juneau with 20000 visitors!).
The rest of the day was calm (besides an emergency drill of the crew) and the sun was shining. Perfectly in time we arrived in Haines, Alaska at 3 p.m.
Written by Nick